Skip to navigationSkip to main contentSkip to right columnADVERTISEMENTChristy BieberWed, July 1, 2026 at 1:01 AM GMT+2 6 min readHow much do you need invested before you can comfortably stop working? It is one of the most common questions among older Americans, and a 54-year-old Redditor in the fatFIRE community is grappling with it right now. His 49-year-old wife called it quits 2.5 years ago, and he is wondering whether he can follow her. According to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, the average retirement age is 65 for men and 63 for women, which means retiring at 54 would put this Redditor roughly a decade ahead of the typical male timeline.To answer the question, he needs to weigh what he has saved and invested against what his family actually spends, and then decide whether those assets can carry them both for what could be a very long retirement.Running the numbers to see if retirement is in the cardsThe Redditor's financial picture is detailed and, by most measures, impressive:Net worth of $11.8 millionAsset breakdown: $1.18 million in stocks, $10.4 million in property equity (including $6.1 million in rental properties, $0.95 million in land, and a primary home worth $3.3 million), plus $300K in cashRoughly $230K in annual cash flow from rental properties after all costsActive income fluctuating between $300K and $500K per yearAnnual household expenses of approximately $200,000, not including taxesThat rental cash flow figure is the key number here. At $230K per year after expenses, the passive income from his properties alone already exceeds his stated $200K spending baseline. That matters because it means he does not necessarily need to sell assets or draw down a portfolio to cover day-to-day costs. He also mentioned the possibility of selling his $3.3 million primary home once the kids leave for college, in roughly seven more years, which would free up a substantial additional pool of investable capital.Are you ahead, or behind on retirement?