“The very first thing I'd do is watch this video”
Movie scene on building a position of financial independence
Full comment
First of all, congrats. You are in a great situation, now you just have to manage it to allow you to live your life the way you want from here on out. The very first thing I'd do is watch this video (it's a famous scene from the movie The Gambler ). this video The basic idea is to establish your "position of 'Fuck You'". You basically have that already... house paid for, cars paid for, etc. Put enough of your money aside in conservative, safe, long-term investments that you'll never be hurting for money. Include things like your kids college tuition or whatever things are important to you. Once you have that, even if you blow the rest of the money on toys, sex, drugs, rock 'n roll, whatever, you always have the ability to say "fuck you" to anybody who hassles you. Beyond that, you can decide if you want to try and grow your wealth by investing and actively managing your money. Maybe you would want to do some angel investing, who knows? Or maybe you want to engage in some philanthropy. You probably don't have enough money to get a hospital named after you, but you could buy uniforms for the local high-school band group, or donate to a local volunteer fire department, or any number of things. Should you continue to work? It's up to you... my guess is that if you flat-out retire at your age you'll find yourself bored pretty quickly, but it depends on what kinds of things you choose to engage in. Maybe there are some hobbies that have been latent in the back of your mind, that you w