When could you stop working for money?

A few of my friends in the office were talking about changing jobs, gunning for more money. So I asked, “How much do you need before you stop?”

“Well, what do you mean by that?” they said.

“I mean, you’re just working here for the money, right?”

They looked at each other. “Pretty much.”

“So if you were just given like $1,000,000, would you stop working for money?”

“Oh, it would be much lower than that,” one guy said. “I could buy a place in the Bay Area and make about 10% annually off the property.”

I was getting somewhere. “Yeah, so how low could that go, that initial capital?”

“Probably $500,000. That would give me 50k a year.” He smiled. “You thinking of lowering your number now?”

I smiled back. “Mine’s already lower than that.”