If you’re in your early 60s with a couple million dollars saved, you’ve probably asked yourself this question.
Is this enough to retire?
Or should I wait until I have more — maybe three million?
It’s one of the most common questions I hear, and it deserves a real answer, not a rule of thumb.
So let’s walk through it with a hypothetical example.
Meet Andrew and Ellen
Andrew and Ellen are both 62. They’ve saved $2 million across 401(k)s, Roth IRAs, and joint investment accounts. Combined, they’re earning north of $300,000 a year, and they’re each saving 10% into their 401(k)s with an employer match on top.
They’re at a crossroads.
Retire now, or keep working a few more years and let the portfolio grow toward $3 million?
On paper, that sounds simple. More years of work equals more money equals a better outcome.
But that’s not the whole story.
1. What Retiring at 62 Actually Looks Like
If Andrew and Ellen retire today, they plan to spend $11,000 a month — about $132,000 a year after taxes.
Based on hypothetical projections (assuming a 7% average annual return — not a guarantee, just an illustration), that spending is supported with roughly a 90% confidence level once you factor in their portfolio and future Social Security benefits.
In the early years, before Social Security kicks in at 67, their portfolio does most of the heavy lifting.
That’s a real trade-off worth naming.
There’s more pressure on their investments early on, and less room for a rough sequence of market returns right out of the gate.
2. What Waiting Until $3 Million Buys Them
Now let’s run the same couple forward five years, retiring at 67 instead of 62, with a portfolio that’s grown to roughly $3 million.
Here’s the real question we care about: not how much bigger the number gets, but what that bigger number actually changes.
So instead of asking “how much more will they have,” we asked a better question.
What monthly spending level, at age 67, uses up the portfolio at roughly the same rate as retiring at 62 with $11,000 a month?
The answer, in this hypothetical: about $15,500 a month.
That’s a difference of roughly $54,000 a year in sustainable spending.
That number is real, and it’s meaningful.
But it’s not the whole answer either.
3. The Part Most People Skip: What’s the Trade-Off Actually Worth?
Here’s where most retirement conversations go wrong.
People fixate on the dollar amount because it’s easy to measure. More always feels like better.
But $54,000 a year of extra spending costs something specific: five more years of work.
Not just any five years — probably your healthiest five, and certainly your youngest five.
So the real questions aren’t about the spreadsheet at all.
How much do you actually enjoy your work today? If it energizes you, gives you purpose, and doesn’t box out the life you want to live, there’s no rush to leave it.
What would that extra money actually change? If $11,000 a month already funds everything that matters to you — travel, family, the day-to-day rhythm you want — then more money isn’t buying more life. It’s just a bigger number on a screen.
What are you giving up to get there? Time and freedom don’t come back. If work is standing between you and the life you want to be living, that’s the cost side of this equation, and it deserves equal weight.
Why This Isn’t Really About $2 Million vs. $3 Million
Take the logic to its extreme.
If more money always means a better outcome, why would anyone ever stop working? Why not retire at 80? At 85?
Obviously, that sounds absurd.
Which tells you the real goal was never the number itself.
At some point, the money has to translate into something — more time with the people you love, more freedom to spend your days the way you want, more room to breathe.
If it’s not doing that, it’s just sitting there.
What This Means for You
This isn’t a case for retiring earlier or working longer. It’s a case for asking a different question.
Instead of “how much more could I have,” ask: what would that extra money actually buy me?
If you can answer that clearly, the decision about when to retire gets a lot easier. If you can’t, that’s usually a sign the plan needs more clarity, not more money.
That’s the work we do with clients every day at Root — helping you connect the financial plan to the life you actually want to live, so the numbers serve a purpose instead of just growing for their own sake.
If you want to see what this trade-off looks like with your own numbers, we’d love to help you map it out.