Author Urges Parents With $10 Million to Retire Before Kids Leave Home

2 articles · Updated · Financial Samurai · Jun 2

$10 million in net worth should be enough for parents to stop working while their children are still at home, the author argues, saying family time matters more than earning another $500,000 a year.
90% or more of parent-child in-person time is typically gone by age 18, he says, making the final school years the most valuable window for early retirement.
The piece contrasts a conventional path—working until children finish college—with a FIRE path of saving 50%+ of income for 10 to 25 years, then retiring early and possibly returning to work later.
A hybrid model may work best, the author says, with one parent staying home or both shifting to part-time or remote work to gain time without fully giving up income.
The argument grew out of a reader comment from a South San Francisco Bay Area family in their early 50s with middle- and high-school children, more than $10 million in assets and plans to drop life insurance after leaving work.