Do I Have Enough to Retire With $2 Million?

For most Massachusetts households, $2 million is enough to retire comfortably — but only at the right spending level. A $2 million portfolio reliably supports about $80,000 a year in inflation-adjusted withdrawals using a 4% rate, and once you add two Social Security checks, total income often lands between $110,000 and $140,000 a year. Whether that’s “enough” depends on three things: how much you actually spend, what age you retire, and your fixed Massachusetts costs — property taxes, healthcare, and the 5% state income tax. The number on your statement matters far less than the gap between your income and your real annual spending.

“Do I have enough?” is the question I hear most often, and $2 million is the number that comes up most. It’s a real milestone — it puts you in roughly the top 10% of U.S. households by net worth — but it’s also where the math gets genuinely interesting, because $2 million is enough for some retirements and not nearly enough for others. I’m Nick Stevens, CFP®, and I run Evergreen Wealth Management, a flat-fee financial planning firm in Boston. Here’s how I actually run the numbers when a couple sits down and asks me this.

How much annual income does $2 million actually produce?

The starting point is the safe withdrawal rate — how much you can pull from the portfolio each year without running out over a 30-year retirement. The classic “4% rule” suggests $80,000 in year one, adjusted upward for inflation each year after. More conservative planning (a 3.5% rate) gives $70,000; a more aggressive 5% gives $100,000 but carries real risk if markets drop early.

Withdrawal rate	Year-1 income from $2M	Risk profile
3.5%	$70,000	Conservative — high confidence of lasting 30+ years
4.0%	$80,000	Balanced — the long-standing default
4.5%	$90,000	Moderate — needs flexibility in down years
5.0%	$100,000	Aggressive — vulnerable to early market losses

Now add Social Security. A married couple who both worked and claim at full retirement age (67 for anyone born in 1960 or later) commonly receive a combined $50,000 to $65,000 a year. Stack that on top of a 4% portfolio withdrawal and you’re looking at roughly $130,000 to $145,000 in gross annual income — before taxes. For a household that spends $100,000 to $120,000 a year, $2 million isn’t just enough; it’s comfortable, with room to spare.

What does $2 million look like at different spending levels?

The honest answer to “is it enough” comes from your spending, not your portfolio. Here’s the same $2 million measured against three real households.

Household	Annual spending	Portfolio withdrawal needed*	Verdict
Modest spenders, home paid off	$85,000	~$30,000 (1.5%)	Very comfortable — likely leaves a large estate
Typical MA retirees	$120,000	~$65,000 (3.25%)	Comfortable and sustainable
High spenders, large home	$180,000	~$125,000 (6.25%)	Strained — overspending the portfolio

*Assumes ~$55,000 of combined Social Security covering the rest. The third household isn’t broke — but pulling 6.25% a year means the portfolio likely won’t keep pace with inflation, and a bad market stretch early on could force painful cuts. That’s the household where $2 million is genuinely tight, and where the conversation shifts from “can I retire?” to “what would I trim to make this safe?”

Does retiring at 55 versus 67 change the answer?

Enormously. Age is the single biggest variable after spending. Retire at 67 and your portfolio needs to last maybe 25–30 years, Social Security is available immediately, and Medicare covers your health insurance. Retire at 55 and you’re asking $2 million to fund a 35–40 year retirement, bridge a decade with no Social Security, and cover private health insurance until Medicare kicks in at 65.

That health insurance gap is the part people underestimate. A 55-year-old MA couple buying a plan on the Massachusetts Health Connector can easily pay $1,500 to $2,500 a month — $18,000 to $30,000 a year — until Medicare eligibility. Over a ten-year early-retirement bridge, that’s $180,000 to $300,000 in premiums alone. For an early retiree, I’d want to see spending closer to $70,000–$80,000 against that $2 million, not $120,000.

How do Massachusetts costs change the math?

Massachusetts is not a cheap place to retire, and two costs in particular can quietly reshape a $2 million plan: property taxes and the state income tax.

Property taxes. Rates are set town by town, per $1,000 of assessed value, and the bills on the kind of homes my clients own are not small. At Needham’s FY2026 rate of $10.83, a $1.2 million home runs about $13,000 a year; a $2 million home runs about $21,660. In Concord ($13.05), a $2.5 million home generates roughly $32,600 a year — every year, inflation-adjusted, for as long as you own it. That single line item can consume a third of a comfortable retirement budget.

State income tax. Massachusetts taxes most retirement income — IRA and 401(k) withdrawals, pensions — at a flat 5%. (Social Security benefits are exempt from MA tax, which helps.) On $80,000 of taxable portfolio withdrawals, that’s about $4,000 a year to the state. There’s also the 4% “millionaires surtax” on income above $1,083,150 — usually irrelevant year to year, but it can ambush you in a year you sell a home or do a large Roth conversion.

I dig into the location-specific numbers in How Much Do I Need to Retire in Massachusetts?, which is worth reading alongside this one if you’re staying in-state.

What’s the biggest threat to a $2 million retirement?

It isn’t running out of money slowly — it’s a bad market in the first few years, combined with withdrawals that don’t flex. This is “sequence of returns risk,” and it’s why two retirees with identical average returns can end up in completely different places. Pulling $90,000 from a portfolio that just dropped 25% locks in losses you never recover from.

The defenses are straightforward: keep one to two years of spending in cash so you’re never forced to sell stocks in a downturn, build in the flexibility to trim withdrawals 10–15% in bad years, and sequence which accounts you draw from to manage taxes. Getting the withdrawal order right is its own discipline — I walk through it in Tax-Efficient Withdrawals: Keeping More of Your Retirement Income.

How a flat fee changes the picture at $2 million

Here’s something most people never run the numbers on: what they pay their advisor. The industry standard is roughly 1% of assets under management per year. On a $2 million portfolio, that’s $20,000 a year — and it rises automatically as your portfolio grows, without the work growing with it. Over a 25-year retirement, a 1% fee on $2 million can quietly cost $500,000 or more.

At Evergreen Wealth Management, I charge a flat monthly fee — a flat monthly fee a month, or a flat annual fee — regardless of whether you have $2 million or $5 million. The planning work is the same; the price shouldn’t triple because your portfolio did. For a $2 million household, the flat fee versus 1% AUM is a difference of roughly $11,000 every year, money that stays invested and working for you. You can see exactly how the flat-fee structure works and why I built the firm this way.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is $2 million enough to retire at 60?

For most households, yes — if annual spending is in the $90,000–$110,000 range. Retiring at 60 means bridging five years before Medicare and seven before full Social Security, so you’ll lean more heavily on the portfolio early. Keeping first-year withdrawals near 4% ($80,000) and holding spending modest through the bridge years gives a $2 million portfolio a strong chance of lasting 30-plus years.

How much monthly income will $2 million generate?

At a 4% withdrawal rate, $2 million produces about $6,667 a month from the portfolio. Add a typical combined Social Security benefit of $4,000–$5,400 a month for a couple, and total monthly income lands around $10,500–$12,000 before taxes.

Should I work with a flat-fee advisor if I have $2 million?

It’s worth comparing. A typical 1%-of-assets advisor would charge about $20,000 a year on a $2 million portfolio. Evergreen Wealth Management’s flat fee/month (a flat annual fee) covers the same planning and investment management for less than half that — and it doesn’t climb as your portfolio grows. At $2 million and above, the flat-fee model is usually the cheaper and more transparent choice.

The bottom line

$2 million is enough to retire for the large majority of Massachusetts households — comfortably, if your spending sits in the $90,000–$130,000 range and you retire at or near full retirement age. It gets tight if you’re spending $160,000-plus, retiring very early, or carrying a large home with a five-figure property tax bill. The way to know which retirement is yours isn’t a rule of thumb — it’s running your actual numbers. For the framework behind that, see How Much Do I Need to Retire? The Real Numbers, Not Rules of Thumb.

If you’d like to see your own version of these numbers — your spending, your Social Security, your Massachusetts costs — that’s exactly the conversation I have with people. You can learn more about becoming a client whenever you’re ready, with no pressure to decide on the spot.

Nick Stevens, CFP® is the founder of Evergreen Wealth Management in Boston, a flat-fee financial planning and investment management firm. Evergreen charges a fixed monthly fee regardless of portfolio size. Learn more about how we work at our fee structure or get in touch at contact us.