My financial advisor says I’m ready to retire from my high-stress job but I’m not sure – is $7 million enough to stop working?

The decision to retire is hardly ever an easy one — no matter your age or net worth. But the more money you have, the more comfortable you’re apt to feel moving forward with it.

In this Reddit post, we have a 60-year physician in a stressful job who’s feeling pretty burned out. The poster says that some days on the job are okay, but most are not — though they like their coworkers.

With a net worth just shy of $7 million and their primary expense being a $400,000 mortgage on a home with $1.1 million of equity, they’re wondering if they have enough money to retire. Their financial advisor says yes, but they’re clearly having doubts.

Even though $7 million is a lot of money, I can see why the poster is struggling. But I think they need to figure out what their goals are before deciding if they’ve saved enough.

A financial advisor can offer guidance, but they can’t tell you what to do

Any time I come across a person who’s wondering if they have enough money to meet any given goal, whether it’s retire, buy a house, or buy a second house, I like to say “talk to a financial advisor.” And the reason is that financial advisors were made to offer guidance in situations like these.

Here, my advice sort of doesn’t apply in that the poster clearly has consulted an advisor but isn’t sure whether to believe them when they say retirement could be a go. So at this point, the poster will need to do some soul-searching to see what’s holding them back.

Dig deeply into those goals

Since the poster here has the go-ahead to retire from someone who’s crunched all the numbers, I have to wonder if the issue is their mindset, or if they have lofty goals. It may be that the poster has always pictured a certain lifestyle in retirement, and $7 million may actually be a bit shy.

Also, the poster is only 60 years old, which means they’ll have to pay for health insurance for five years before Medicare kicks in. That’s a huge expense. And if they expect to live a long life, their nest egg may need to last longer than 30 years.

It’s also unclear as to whether the poster has the goal of leaving an inheritance. It may be that $7 million is more than enough for them. But if they’re trying to leave a large amount of wealth behind that’s shared by multiple family members, then I could them wanting to aim higher.

Once the poster figures out what they want most, they can go back to their financial advisor, run those numbers again, and see where they land. And if they decide to keep working for a couple more years — perhaps to get closer to Medicare eligibility — they could see about cutting their hours.

Granted, depending on the nature of their job, that may be easier said than done. But part-time work can be a great transition into retirement regardless of financial need.

Cutting back on hours helps people adjust to the idea of not working. So I’d strongly encourage the poster to do that if they decide they can’t pull the trigger on retirement just yet.

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