$500,000, properly sheltered, is enough to fully fund a standard IRA for an entire working career. In the back of my mind, at $500,000, I'm thinking, "I don't have to worry when I get old", and "not having to contribute to my retirement from my work income will boost my current standard of living tremendously because all that freed-up money takes care of the mortgage almost by itself". I don't think much past that. And if I do think much past that, it probably goes something like, "Holy Farking Shite!"
Statements like your last one just reiterate that you have no grasp on the meaningfulness of a $500,000 windfall in the average American's life, and this is all so incredibly theoretical as to be more than a tad insulting.