7 Steps To Find Your Net Worth Peak (And Finally Enjoy What You’ve Earned)

What if the smartest financial move you can make isn’t saving more…

But knowing when to stop?

Most people spend their lives trying to grow their net worth as high as possible. But at some point, chasing “more” starts costing you the very experiences you were saving for in the first place.

Here’s how to find the point when you should stop building wealth and start using it to live fully.

Your true objective isn’t to die with the biggest bank account. It’s to convert your life energy into as many meaningful experiences as possible.

That means finding the right balance between saving for tomorrow and spending for today. Delay gratification too long, and you risk waking up one morning realizing you delayed your life away.

Before you can start spending freely, you need to know what it actually costs to survive comfortably without new income.

Here’s the simple formula:

Survival Threshold = 0.7 × (Annual Cost Of Living) × (Years Left To Live)

Example:

If you spend $12,000 a year and expect to live 25 more years:

12,000 × 25 = 300,000.

Then multiply by 0.7 (because money grows with interest).

You’d need roughly $210,000 invested to cover that timeframe at modest growth (3%-ish).

This is the bare minimum. 

Aim higher if you want a better lifestyle, but once you’ve hit it, you’ve earned the right to rethink what “saving” even means.

Before dipping into savings, confirm that your survival threshold covers you for the rest of your life. 

If uncertainty bothers you, you can always use part of your savings to buy an annuity: guaranteed income that removes guesswork.

Once this baseline is met, you no longer need to work for money. You can start working for fulfillment.

After you hit your survival threshold, stop thinking of your “net worth peak” as a dollar amount. Think of it as a date.

That’s the moment your net worth will likely hit its lifetime high. From that point on, you should start spending more than you earn.

Your health, time, and relationships all have their own expiration dates. A peak date helps you spend when you can still enjoy what money can buy.

For most people, the optimal net worth peak falls between ages 45 and 60.

Wait too long, and you’ll probably end up working longer than necessary. And by the time you feel “ready” to spend, your health may not cooperate.

This isn’t about retiring early. It’s about living deliberately. 

If you want to keep working, great. Just make sure you’re also enjoying the wealth you’ve already built.

Once you hit your peak, begin to spend down.

That doesn’t mean reckless spending. It means purposefully using your resources while your health and mobility still allow for the experiences that make life rich.

Take the trips. Fund the memories. Support the causes and people that matter.

And if you love your work, try a phased retirement or shorter workweeks.

This is how you turn money into meaning.

Most of the experiences that define a lifetime happen between ages 20 and 60.

But your interests change. So do your relationships. Every five to ten years, revisit your “time buckets” and adjust your plans.

As you near your peak, think hard about how you want to spend your time once work no longer fills most of your days. The better you plan, the richer those years will feel.

Read the next chapter here.