"Take a look at my cousin: he's broke, don't do shit." - Office Space
It's not necessary to have a thousand thousand bucks to gain financial freedom. You only need more money than you spend. If you invest your money wisely, then it can work for you and you don't need as much money overall. So instead of having 80 years of savings for your remaining 80 years of life, you could have 25 to 33 years of savings in investments to provide the same amount of money.
If you want, you could figure out what your number is by taking your annual expenses and then multiplying that number by something between 25 and 33. Depending on your situation that may be a large number. However, since you're probably doing these calculations before you actually stopped working, you project out how much you would like to spend each year in post-work years. The trap with this method (which is so easy to fall into, myself included) is it depends on wants to determine the answer. The problem is needs are finite, but wants are unlimited. It's so easy to think "I could make it with this much money," but when you get to that mark you think "Well, I'd like it if I had this extra bit more." It just keeps going.
Here's another way. I looked at how much money I already had and then I divided that number by something between 25 and 33 to get how much I could spend each year. That's an interesting difference. All of a sudden I was free and I just needed to figure out how to work with the numbers I have. I didn't have to think about how much I wanted, I just needed to figure out how to thrive with what I have. To win, you can just change the question from "how much" to "how to."
You don't have to suffer to live within your means. Once your needs are met everything else is cake. Everyone needs to live within their means. Millionaires can't have everything they want. At some point they will come up to a limit where they can no longer afford something. One can have a fancy car, but not a yacht. Another can have a yacht, but not an island. Eventually, there is just not going to be enough money. There will always be something I might want, but can't have. So if there is no way to escape desire through having more money, then I should not let my wants guide my decisions since they will always keep me running around in circles. I'll focus on being happy with what I do have.
