Why Suze Orman loves the FIRE movement...outside the US

A recent "afford anything" podcast episode created a lot of buzz. Suze Orman hates the FIRE movement and thinks it is stupid to retire with anything less than $10,000,000. Here is why I am not bothered by her remarks.

Who is she anyway?

Suze Orman is a very successful personal finance guru in the US. Successful in the sense that she got rich out of doing it, I did not bother to check whether her clients feel the same. She has authored books and had a long-running TV show. She made a fortune out of her business.

Why does she hate the FI community?

She thinks we are stupid because we underestimate how much costs go up in life as we age. "When you get older things happen" she said. "You're hit by a car, you fall down the ice, you get sick, you get cancer. Things happen."

The rage goes on to even include full-time care of a disabled family member ($250,000/year). If you would spend another $100,000 yourself you would need $500,000 pre-tax income, hence the $10,000,000 as she seems to use a 5% withdrawal rate.

This is excellent news if you are not American! 

This is very good news for anyone from a country with a decent social system! Look at the rage above, it is all health care related! We don't need $250,000/year to take care of loved ones here in the Netherlands. Also I feel Suze could have a critical look at the $100,000 personal spending in this example, flying private jets and owning private islands are not exactly frugal. 

What is the alternative anyway?

You could say Suze has lost touch with reality. For the majority of us ever gathering ten million is so far out of reach we would give up trying and just spend all our money. Not really a viable alternative. Much better to safe what you can, anything is better than nothing. 

I get comforted by the table below. I used data on Dutch male life expectancy combined with the Trinity study data. Just use the 4% rule for withdrawal from your ridiculously small stash of money and the chance of dying is bigger than the chance you run out of money. Eat your heart out Suze if you can afford the surgery to have it put back in like us Europeans!