You're going to be taxed on that $56k a year, too - that's capital gains. So you're going to lose 15% of that - you're at $47,6. 8% is also kicking ass in this investment climate. Unless you're throwing it all at an index fund, and never move it, you're averaging 3% over the past 15 years. But let's say instead of 8% a year you have a 7% year. You're at $49k. This year you make $41k. Ohh, shit - we have a down year and we're down 10% (2008 was down 37%). That one...million dollars you've been keeping flat, which is actually 700,000, has just become $630k. Let's presume you're going to live lean that year - you can get buy on $20k (which sucks for a "millionaire" but there it is). You used to have a million dollars; now you've got $610k. And suppose it goes up 20% next year - you're back up to $732k. But you only get to pull $32k of that because you're trying to rebuild your nugget. This is the life of a pension fund. Of an endowment. Of every municipal worker's retirement, of every teacher's retirement, of every school's operating fund. And remember - they were planning on 8%, too. And they've been running 3.
You roll up to the gas'n'sip with a million dollars and you will become a target. But you roll up to Doral with a million dollars and no one will give a FUCK. Take your million dollars to Columbia or Venezuela and things are awesome... so long as nobody knows you have it. I know a girl whose first husband was kidnapped twice in Mexico City. For like $10k ransom. I know a guy who spent $10k on a muffler. - “A man's satisfaction with his salary depends on whether he makes more than his wife's sister's husband.” - H. L. Mencken
People discount the fact that we tend to roll in cohorts. It's unlikely that you'll be vastly more successful than your friends; what tends to happen is we self-select for our level of achievement as we age. Robert Caro said "power doesn't corrupt, it reveals." I think the same could be said about money. It's certainly a lot easier to be magnanimous and generous when you have enough; I think that's one of the reasons Trump won. All the people who used to be generous can't be anymore.