I’m in my late 30’s and I have $15 million in cryptocurrency – can I confidently quit my job and be ok?

A Reddit user in his late 30s is tired of his job after the tech company he loved was acquired by a larger one. He is considering retiring because he has a substantial amount of money invested in cryptocurrency, but he’s not sure what the best path forward is. 

So, can he confidently quit working and begin enjoying his riches?

Retiring with a lot of money in a volatile asset class can be a risky proposition

The Reddit user started out by saying he has around a $20 million net worth, but when you dig into the details, things become a little more complicated. Specifically, he said he has:

• A house worth around $800K that he owes $400K on
• $3 million in a checking and savings account
• Around $15 million in cryptocurrency 

When he was detailing his financial standing, he also said that his crypto investments were, at one point, worth around $50 million. And herein lies the problem. As he admitted, this asset is an extremely volatile one. It’s one thing to have $15 million invested in an S&P 500 fund and a completely different thing to have it invested in digital currencies that could see their value collapse sharply and even go to $0 in a matter of hours or days. 

Those who want to retire — and especially at a young age — need to have a pretty conservative investment portfolio. In fact, the common advice is to start moving some of your money out of the stock market as you near retirement age, and the market is a whole lot less volatile than crypto is. 

Make sure you have the right asset allocation before leaving your job

Now, the reality is that the OP does have a lot of options because, at least for now, he has a lot of money on paper. If he is unhappy just at his current job but doesn’t really want to retire entirely, he could simply explore other places to work and leave — even if he has to take a pay cut. 

If he’s actually ready to give up work for good, he should work with a financial advisor to get his asset allocation right. Having $3 million in checking and savings seems like too much since he’s missing out on higher returns that he could earn if he put some of this money into the stock market. He may also want to diversify out of cryptocurrency and move at least some of his $15 million into a safe asset that’s not likely to experience such wild swings in value. 

If he was able to end up with around $6 or $7 million in reliable assets, like an S&P 500 fund after moving his money around, then he could generate between $222k and $259K per year in income from his investments at a safe 3.7% withdrawal rate. If this was enough for him to live comfortably on, then he could choose to retire now if he wants to do so — especially since he said he has no debt except for the mortgage. 

He’d still have a good amount invested in crypto that would hopefully grow, make him richer, and allow him a more lavish lifestyle in retirement. But, he’d also be able to preserve his nest egg to keep the money safer while giving himself the ability to leave a job he dislikes and start building a life he loves. 

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