Let's say after taxes, you bring home $3.5 million. Lets say you then invest that money in the stock market and earn an average annual interest of 6%(not unheard of by any means) Considering here in the US the average annual inflation rate is 3%, you would bring home a profit of about $210,000 from your investments at the end of the year. This places you in the $147,050 to $288,350 tax bracket, which is a base tax of $36,673 plus 35% of the amount over $147,050 ...which is $22,032
So out of the $210,000 you earned off of interest from your investments you only get to keep $210,000 - ($36,673 + $22,032)
So you actually take home about $151,300 annually.
I don't know about ya'll but I could definitely budget a life off of that...
ps. This is all based on my limited knowlege of teh stock market and how it gets taxed...so I may be a little off.