1) $250K is only 1,33 times his last gross salary of $188K so that would make him a dramatic undersaver at this age. 2) Assuming he owned his apartment you can

1) $250K is only 1,33 times his last gross salary of $188K so that would make him a dramatic undersaver at this age. 2) Assuming he owned his apartment you can go Mr. Money Mustache on $20K dividends a year. If he owned a house he could downgrade as well. 3) There are people sailing around the world on a budget of $2000 per month. Just dividends from his severance and renting out his house (assuming he owned only that) would get him there. I can totally understand the shock of seeing reality turn out drastically different than his expectations but once you get near the ~500K net worth figure, it becomes possible to cover necessities indefinitely.