Is it worth it to push off retirement to triple my net worth by the time I’m 90?

Retiring can be quite difficult, even for those with more than enough savings, investments, and cash flow streams (think a pension or other passive income-producing assets), to fund a lavish lifestyle without having to put in a day’s work for the rest of one’s life.

Undoubtedly, it’s not just the drastic change of lifestyle that may cause some people to consider delaying their retirement date as they finally approach it; the opportunity costs can make retiring seem like a less-than-savvy financial move, especially if one enjoys their job and is at or around a peak in their career earnings. So, if you’re like Warren Buffett and you enjoy your work so much that you “tap dance to work” every day, don’t let age be the factor that causes you to hit the retirement button.

Warren Buffett tap dances to work. If you’re doing the same, you don’t have to retire!

If your work gives you meaning, happiness, and a fatter nest egg, there’s little sense in retiring just because you’ve hit a certain age, whether it be 65, 70, 80, or even 95, when in the case of Warren Buffett, who to this day continues to put in the hours over at Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-B).

At the end of the day, retirement is an option available to those with enough capital. But it’s not an endgame for everyone, especially for those who can’t envision a life of leisure, lacking in productivity. Some of us just aren’t wired that way!

Sure, vacationing and traveling the world may make sense for some as one transitions from a lifelong saver to a spender. But, at the end of the day, a full year of travel can be exhausting, let alone a few decade’s worth of it!

This Redditor is thinking about working to take their nest egg to unfathomable heights—is it a good move?

In this piece, we’ll check in on the case of a Reddit poster in their 50s with two teenagers who recently took to the r/fatFIRE subreddit asking if it’d make sense to work into their senior years to leave a legacy in the form of a massive sum of generational wealth. They’re already quite rich, to say the least, with a $14.5 million net worth, $10 million of worth is stashed away in index funds with the remainder tied into their home.

Indeed, they have more than enough to retire and live a “fat” (or opulent) lifestyle for the rest of their decades. That said, it appears they’ve had the opportunity to crunch the numbers on a compound interest calculator, and they’re quite shocked at how massive their nest egg could be if they stayed in the labor market until their 90s. Indeed, the power of compounding is both profound and difficult to fathom.

If they stayed invested and continued putting their nose to the grindstone in their older years, they could be worth more than $100 million. Indeed, that’d put them in the ultra-high-net-worth category. Still, not everybody can live into their 90s. And even those who do, they may not be able or willing to continue working like the great Oracle of Omaha.

In any case, I think it’s far too early in the person’s career to commit to something many decades out. Either way, I’d play it by ear. If the person truly enjoys working for a living and envisions themselves doing it forever (or as long as they can), I see no problem with continuing to build their fortune. Just because you can retire doesn’t mean you ought to.

The bottom line

As always, contact a financial advisor and have the right discussions with your family if you’re thinking about ditching retirement for a shot at hitting nine figures. As long as one has no intentions to ramp up their spending in the present, I have no problem with aiming to never retire for a shot at building a colossal net worth.

While money can’t buy time, I do think that for those who view work as time well spent (or even enjoyed), working into one’s latter years can be a solid decision. It’s not only an admirable choice but one that’s sure to be appreciated by heirs of such a massive fortune.

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