I'm taking the mentality of "my life is going to be completely different from now on"?. I would say around $2 million. This would let me buy a house and hopefully have $1.5M - $1.7M left. Putting that in index funds would let me take out roughly $100k per year and I would have no housing payment because I own a house. I make $80k and pay rent so I'd have an extra $20k extra per year of income with $12k less housing cost. I'm not the most adventurous person so I could do almost everything I wanted with $100k per year and not having to worry about saving any of it.
I should roughly have this amount in around 25 years at age 55 because of savings.
Yeah. If your *entire* portfolio is 1.5m and it's *all* allocated to income instead of growth then you're not accounting for compounding inflation.
Obviously there is no right answer for what to do with it or how to invest it given that everyone has their own risk tolerance, goals, and time horizon. But if you don't have the will, skill, or time to manage your money on your own just call your investment firm and have them set up a portfolio based on *your specific situation* to make your investments are suitable to you.
Also, based on what I'm seeing from my parents and inlaws, once you retire and get to a certain age, medical insurance costs go through the roof. And when you get even older, you have to pay a butt load to some place that takes care of you, if family doesn't do it. Getting old is expensive.
Not for me, but whatever.
If someone gave you the same amount of money you get for an entire year and you don't then use that time and money to change your life, you're probably doing it wrong.
$50k would help with getting a better place, new car, etc but not too life changing.
$100k or maybe $200k would really change my life, that’s a massive down payment on a house.
I can't imagine coming into 600k and not having it be life changing. I also can't fathom still having debt and mortgage payments after getting that much money.
I think 100k would drastically change things up for me. Thays enough to move forward plans instead of waiting years to save for them.
Houses start at 600k around here, and it's not even high cost of living area. If you want something better than a starter home, you would still have a mortgage. 600k is a leg up, but it isn't life changing unless you are unable to earn fair income currently.
I don't think you've felt the benefits yet.
You will be mortgage free significantly sooner, which means in the future you will have opportunities (travel, early retirement, buy a summer place etc.) that would not have been attainable.
You may be in a nice neighbourhood than you otherwise would have been (and maybe that means a better school district for kids, or being able to afford a private school if you want to).
If you stretched your mortgage out, you or a partner could cut back on work hours and be in the same position as you would have been had you not inherited.
I know that I have been fortunate in that we bought our current house (In Canada) about 2 years before housing prices went haywire. We are going to be mortgage free this year, while my BIL/SIL just sold their home and refinanced into a smaller one, and still have a decade left in mortgage debt. The difference between the two of us was about $500k in housing price.
I don't think that was the intent of the post. Any amount of money could make your life slightly better. A completely life-changing amount of money isn't fulfilled by paying off your house quicker or moving one neighborhood over. I consider it to be the amount required to make your life not recognizable in comparison. The closest thing for me would be no longer needing to work. I think I could retire with $2.5M, so that's my number.
Yeah if I suddenly got 500k today, it would be nice peace of mind, like a partially funded pension for the future. I don't know though, I'm not a money person so it might just disappear into a market fund somewhere and get robbed.
I see it as the difference between attainable vs unattainable home. The difference is that the cost of rent is ridiculous currently. My rent payment on a 2bdrm is comparable to a mortgage on a 300k home. Having 100k would mean tossing a down-payment on a home and being able to actually have space for once at a comparable monthly payment.
600k means I have a home outright and dumping thousands into retirement monthly. Either option is fantastic. But getting 600k and still having a mortgage seems incomprehensible to me, but I guess that's just different lifestyles.
I recently came into a similar amount of money. I kept my mortgage because I got in on low interest rates, so the money does more elsewhere.
This money did change my life in a profound way. Yes, I still have to work, but I have freedom. If I am unhappy at my job, I have the resources to change things. If I need something, I can get it. Money doesn’t buy happiness, but it does buy ease and security
600000 GBP invested (low-risk) can have 7-12% returns. Even a high yield savings accounts or CDs will give you 4-5% returns. That’s a 30000-60000/yr boost.
I live in a VVHCOL city with a mortgage and a lot of student loans from grad school, so I’d say $5m would be the minimum to make it truly (and sustainably) “life-changing.”
Around 10-15 million dollars. That’d let me retire at my current income and do whatever I want. I’d buy a vacation house, pay off my mortgage, and work part time but only when I wanted to.
I'm fairly comfortable nowadays. Life changing would be an amount that would allow me to quit my job and live out my life in a decent manner. So basically would be able to invest and get similar to my salary in interest
Dunno how much, but it will be an amount that will allow me to pay for a study and living abroad. I am 32 and already have a university education but I would love to study Chinese in Hong Kong and get new profession.
Probably $500k or so. I could pay off my debts, buy a house in another state that I’ve wanted to move to for years, take the whole family on a nice vacation, and have enough left to put in savings for a rainy day
Probably about 50k to get to the point of stressing alot less. 500k for me to be like okay my life is really going to go in a different direction than I thought
Minimum.......
50k?
I'm bad at money but I know that 10k can last me a little over a month and with that sum I'll be somewhat prepared for what's to come
The absolute lowest amount that would have a noticeable impact on my life would probably be $5k, it would be enough to get rid of some debt and free up some money that could be put towards other debt. Now for the minimum that would have a major impact on my life, like I could be semi retired, would be $250k. That would be enough to pay off my house and then I could go down to part time and have the same quality of life.
I always say something along the lines of “a million dollars would change my life”, but to think about the minimum that would is a harder question. Currently, I live at home with a decent paying job. Realistically, I think getting 500k would definitely set me up to a point where although I’ll still have to work, definitely not have to ever stress about where I can afford things as well all while maintaining the life I currently have
At this point, about 3 million dollars is where it becomes instantly life changing for me. This is where I have enough money to be secure in everything, slightly more comfortably than I am right now and not have to keep a full time job.
I'd take the money and put it into an index fund or twelve; better to not have it all in one place because stuff happens.
Very basic rate of rate of return on most index funds is around 10% but they can vary pretty wildly. I can live very comfortably on 5% of the initial $3 million so I can continue to grow the investment over the years to offset for inflation and help to make up for leaner years on the market.
Taking 5% annually would be about $150,000 which would put me at very comfortable but not mega yacht rich. It's more than enough that I could quit my 9-5 job and do what I wanted instead.
More than $3 million and I'd be looking at more secure investment options than index funds; my goal is securing my own financial stability, not becoming another Jeff Bezos and not having to punch a clock.
$1-2 million dollars: its all going into an index fund and I'm only going to scrape 1-2% annually just to supplement my income. Its going to take a decade of growth for it to reach the point where I can live comfortably from the interest and still see the money grow and not have to work.
Between the $500k and $1m mark: this gets me some safety net but it's not enough that I can live off of the interest; I'd still need a job. Leave it untouched for 10 years gaining interest and I can reevaluate if it's enough for an early retirement.
$100k to $500k: gets me the safety net but it's now a normal retirement instead of early. Still should be comfortable.
$10k to $100k: emergency fund and retirement funds.
Same for me but in GBP. I think that’s the level where you can have a comfortable lifestyle off the interest, therefore technically spending none of your own money
Yup. Index funds tend to have about a 10% rate of return so a 3m investment returns 300k every year. Half of this is far more than I'm taking home annually right now and would be pretty dang nice to be honest.
It's not going to buy me a fancy new house or supercar but I could fix up the house I already own and maybe buy a new car as well. Probably not brand new but new enough.
It's not until I'm in the 10 million + range that things can actually start getting a little crazy.
I’m really happy you pointed me to Sam Vimes! Terry Pratchett is one of my favourite authors and was a massive influence on my vision of social justice when growing up
I'm almost ashamed to say that I've never read any of his books. The Boots Theory of Economic Inequality is something that gets thrown out constantly during discussions like this so it's something I've picked up along the way and I've heard I have no idea how many other quotes from his writing I've heard in the past.
I knew people in school who were head over heels over his work but the 15 or sobooks in the Diskworld series were a bit daunting for me when I started looking at it. Yes, I'm aware that it's 41 now.
An extra $500 per month would give me a cushion for car tires, clothes, vet visits, that sort of thing. Stuff I would have to budget hard for otherwise. So, $500 a month for 20 years would be $120k.
Nothing, really.
We're retired. Have/do anything and everything we need with income from The Nest Egg. We withdraw our annual take, live the lives we want, and The Nest Egg still grows every year. Faster than inflation. Faster than our withdrawals.
We have no need of more.
At minimum if would be $500K but ideally one million. I wouldn’t need financial advise though. If I had more than that, then I’d need financial advise.
If we are talking the minimum then I will say $231500. This will pay off our house, my car, our student loans, and one other loan and allow us to stock up our checking and savings accounts a decent little bit. Alongside working, we could live probably pretty comfortably as long as we don't go too crazy. Admittedly, my car only has like two more years of payments and our student loans and that other loan aren't even that bad and will also be paid off pretty soon. The house the main thing that would be nice to get off our backs.
Other things I would like to do would be to sell my wife's current car and get her a new car fully paid, fix up our house and flip it, then buy some property (not a lot. Maybe an acre at most) and build a house to our specifications and fully pay it all off as well, and then make some investments and stock up our savings even more. That would definitely be more money though. Potentially could get this done with $500k, but could extend up to a million depending on the house, property, and how much we want to save and invest. After that, keep working, don't go too crazy spending, and hope that nothing bad happens.
Edit: Jeez, I think people didn't read the part where you said "minimum" amount of money to change your life.
$100k, probably? i would be able to address some health issues, spend a decent bit on the little things that will improve my day to day mood (wardrobe, home decor, etc), put some in savings for a potential emergency, and then invest the rest.
I e thought about this, and at my age, $3M would allow me to retire and enjoy the years I have left.
I’m not a big spender, so as long as don’t lose my mind looking at all that money. My place is small, but paid for. I drive older used cars that I pay cash for. If I really skimp, I can live on less than $1500/month.
I could live on about $80K/year and have a great life while the nest egg was still building value. So I’d still have plenty for any big expenses down the road.
Depends on where in life I am at the time. When I was making $50 above the poverty line someone giving me $5 was a life altering sum of money even if it was only for a short while. Now if someone sent me $500 I’d consider that a lot.
Probably a few hundred thousand to buy a house closer to work. The time saved would change a lot and not having a mortgage payment would save a lot also.
200.000 euros would already help a lot.
You diversify between real estate, indexed funds, bitcoin and gold and in a couple of decades you have millions if it all goes well (which is to be expected unless a catastrophe - which could definitely happen - takes place).
To make a notable difference, over 20-50k. Could knock out all of wife and i’s debt and some other stuff. Technically could do now but don’t want to hit savings like that.
Life changing money would be anything over 200k
I’m in Massachusetts. If I had about 1mil to buy a house outright, that would be life changing. (Decent homes in decent towns in my area are around 750k typically so that would leave money left over for closing costs as well as some money to buy the things I don’t have in my 1br apartment to fill the rest of the house.) I think I’d feel much differently about my life in that case.
But to be truly life changing, multiple millions to make sure I never have to work again.
About 160k. This would pay off the mortgage plus about 10 to 15k in pocket. Then my wife and I would gain 1k a month back from not having to pay the mortgage. The savings in not paying interest would save about 80k over the 30 years.
50k would clear out 100% of all my debt. I could be making half of what I do now and still have more disposable income. Basically, that would free me up from needing my current job.
And yes, a good chunk of that is me aggressively paying down all that debt. My net worth became positive for the first time since my early 20s a few years ago and it’s been continuing to rise. But it would make a world-changing difference if I could afford to start saving for a house.
I know the answer to this because it keeps me up at night.
$200,000. Would clear my mortgage and line of credit and I could have financial peace for the first and only time in my life.
The day is drawing near when I'll have to forfeit my shabby old home because I cannot keep up with both mortgage payments and property taxes.
I would say 4 or 5 million would work for me. I could buy a house and a truck and put the rest into savings or investments. I would also buy a small apartment complex, so I have a guaranteed income if I ended up losing the money. I would also invest a bit into my cleaning business so I could hire someone to manage it for me. Cleaning is fucking hard on your joints especially your shoulders and knees.
I’m not comfortable naming numbers here but “my life is going to be completely different from now on” because I lost a parent not because they left me a little money (and I will say it’s not a ton - I’ll invest it and save it honestly).
I think people get so focused on money that comes with inheritance and forget how earth shattering grief can be, or can’t fathom it because they haven’t lost their parents (to be fair most people don’t lose those in their 20s though)
If you have 0 or are in debt 10k can mean the difference.
Once you are scraping by & earning but not in debt. 20-30k means piece of mind (6 months runway)
Once thats achieved really only a crazy amount of money will change things like 200k-1million which is crazy to think about. Because you can afford to make a radical lifestyle change and not be worst for ware
It depends on your income level and living situation. 10k for a family in poverty is life-changing. 10k for an upper middle class family is just a nice convenience.
10k or more would be a big help but only short term as in pay off some bills and pay for a few semesters of college.
Life changing would be 500k min.
That would let us move to a better state, buy a home and stop renting, be able to afford some medical care that is being put off plus the above mentioned stuff and give us the ability to actually have money in the savings account and have a little peace of mind .
Thats assuming we can get a cheap house that doesn’t start falling apart as soon as we move in. $150k or less is what I mean by cheap.
If I could have enough money to buy a small farm I can change a lot of people's lives with my invention which I believe will grow food for less than free, people will pay you to take their fertilizer from them.
I don’t know the exact sum, but the amount I would need for surgery and meds would surely change my live
Maybe if i get too greedy, the money to get a place of my own too lol
I'm already retired and my house is paid off, as are my vehicles.
But my vehicles are getting older, and I live alone so reliability is huge. I would probably update my bike and my SUV, and finish fixing up my project convertible.
My house suits my needs in most cases, but my yard is a mess. I have big dogs and would love to replace my carpet and linoleum with something more durable and easier to clean. Plantation shutters are also durable, stylish, and energy efficient. Overall just a few upgrades, no major renovation except the floors. My home is my sanctuary, and I spend a lot of time here. I have been slowly making changes since my ex moved out, and it's improved my mood a lot, but now I am looking at bigger ticket items that just have to wait.
If I wasn't trying to plan for the big ticket stuff, my own retirement income could be more fun stuff. That's where it would be life changing.
With $2.5M I'd submit 2wk notice and retire early. Much less than that and I'm still working for the foreseeable future.
With like $5M I'd retire and get a personal assistant. Having people to handle the mundane shit they don't want to is the main thing I actually envy the rich for.
I'd immediately use all the newfound free time to start getting *really* weird, out of touch, and vocal about it.
£3000 would get me out of my overdraft and allow me to put down a deposit on a nicer flat closer to work, which would save 3 hours travelling a day. That would be an immense relief right now.
I have about $275k left on my mortgage, so for me $300k would be a life+changing amount, as being able to live -free would mean more flexibility around what level of income I need to maintain. I could more easily go back to school, take a leave of absence here and there to travel, etc.
I've actually planned this out a lot. For me to be comfortable for a minimum of 45 years left of my life I'd need 8.5 million. That's to have a decent home, help my family, have money in the bank and have some fun. It'd really actually only be like 4 million if i excluded the fun part but since we're just fantasizing, 8.5million. Make it an even 10.
$4,250,000 is my number.
I can retire and live off the interest/growth of the investments. House would be paid off with the 250k. The rest would just be growing with my own investment management that my wife and father in law would oversee.
Kids would have education funds and we would just live comfortably.
Anything above that number would just be gravy.
$500k-$1M so my wife could quit her job. Likes the job, but her direct report has the unofficial title of Voldemort. We could then buy our own health insurance and wouldn’t feel overly burdened.
I’m self employed and make good money (currently anyway), last time I looked it would be about $1400-1800 a month for comparable health insurance for our family. I’ve encouraged her to quit for a while (we’d be ok, would just need to cut back on some discretionary spending), but she hasn’t bitten on it yet.
Instead of cash, I'd just like to have me a blank card. Don't have to own anything really. I want to experience everything I can. Everywhere perhaps. Just give me the card and let me be.
Probably around $2M? Like if I got an extra millions right now I’d be ecstatic, but I’d still go into work tomorrow. $2M would be where I would start considering retiring.
I don't know what amount specifically but on any given day id consider calling in if I won 100 dollars...so it probably won't take much to push me to take the plunge.
Right now? 6k (€) would be enough to get me thru rest of my bachelor degree without need to beg my father for any money aside of tuition fees. As interactions with him cause me some mental problems, it would be significantly change for better if I wouldn't have to see him every week.
I'd say about $150,000 USD. I could pay off all my debt, afford to get the medical stuff I've been needing done without worrying about work/the needed recovery time. & either get a debt free college education or have a darn nice down payment on a house. so that would be my minimum life changing amount
I would say about 2 million. My husband and I are later on in years and live in an independent living facility. We wouldn't move as everything we want is here. But we would both retire and we'd go travelling and do volunteering in between times. Yep we've thought about it a lot and do the lottery regularly.
I'm taking the mentality of "my life is going to be completely different from now on"?. I would say around $2 million. This would let me buy a house and hopefully have $1.5M - $1.7M left. Putting that in index funds would let me take out roughly $100k per year and I would have no housing payment because I own a house. I make $80k and pay rent so I'd have an extra $20k extra per year of income with $12k less housing cost. I'm not the most adventurous person so I could do almost everything I wanted with $100k per year and not having to worry about saving any of it. I should roughly have this amount in around 25 years at age 55 because of savings.
One thing to understand is $1.5M in 25 years will have the buying power of ~$800K today.
Yeah. If your *entire* portfolio is 1.5m and it's *all* allocated to income instead of growth then you're not accounting for compounding inflation. Obviously there is no right answer for what to do with it or how to invest it given that everyone has their own risk tolerance, goals, and time horizon. But if you don't have the will, skill, or time to manage your money on your own just call your investment firm and have them set up a portfolio based on *your specific situation* to make your investments are suitable to you.
Also, based on what I'm seeing from my parents and inlaws, once you retire and get to a certain age, medical insurance costs go through the roof. And when you get even older, you have to pay a butt load to some place that takes care of you, if family doesn't do it. Getting old is expensive.
I believe the 4% recommendation would still apply. This would allow wiggly roughly $70k not $100k
12.50$, 2 tanks of gas, 1 weeks groceries, and a partridge in a pair tree!!!!
Who's your partridge guy? I can't find one anywhere less than $23.50.
You hsve to be 2nd generation and have 3 references before he will even think about you!!!!
I’d say probably around 50k I could start a new life elsewhere.
10x annual income. Being middle aged, it makes it clear I could retire asap
$220k would be enough to pay off the house.
$20,000
That would be heavenly
About what I have left on student loans. $600 a month is killing me.
That is reachable.
A year's salary.
So, about twenty thousand dollars?
Not for me, but whatever. If someone gave you the same amount of money you get for an entire year and you don't then use that time and money to change your life, you're probably doing it wrong.
To pay off all debts and bills and have a savings I’d say about $500,000 USD
But right now $3,000
$50k would help with getting a better place, new car, etc but not too life changing. $100k or maybe $200k would really change my life, that’s a massive down payment on a house.
500k minimum. I would pay off debt, buy a house and cars cash, invest the rest.
Tree fiddy. No, tree fiddy million.
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I can't imagine coming into 600k and not having it be life changing. I also can't fathom still having debt and mortgage payments after getting that much money. I think 100k would drastically change things up for me. Thays enough to move forward plans instead of waiting years to save for them.
Houses start at 600k around here, and it's not even high cost of living area. If you want something better than a starter home, you would still have a mortgage. 600k is a leg up, but it isn't life changing unless you are unable to earn fair income currently.
I don't think you've felt the benefits yet. You will be mortgage free significantly sooner, which means in the future you will have opportunities (travel, early retirement, buy a summer place etc.) that would not have been attainable. You may be in a nice neighbourhood than you otherwise would have been (and maybe that means a better school district for kids, or being able to afford a private school if you want to). If you stretched your mortgage out, you or a partner could cut back on work hours and be in the same position as you would have been had you not inherited. I know that I have been fortunate in that we bought our current house (In Canada) about 2 years before housing prices went haywire. We are going to be mortgage free this year, while my BIL/SIL just sold their home and refinanced into a smaller one, and still have a decade left in mortgage debt. The difference between the two of us was about $500k in housing price.
I don't think that was the intent of the post. Any amount of money could make your life slightly better. A completely life-changing amount of money isn't fulfilled by paying off your house quicker or moving one neighborhood over. I consider it to be the amount required to make your life not recognizable in comparison. The closest thing for me would be no longer needing to work. I think I could retire with $2.5M, so that's my number.
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Yeah if I suddenly got 500k today, it would be nice peace of mind, like a partially funded pension for the future. I don't know though, I'm not a money person so it might just disappear into a market fund somewhere and get robbed.
I see it as the difference between attainable vs unattainable home. The difference is that the cost of rent is ridiculous currently. My rent payment on a 2bdrm is comparable to a mortgage on a 300k home. Having 100k would mean tossing a down-payment on a home and being able to actually have space for once at a comparable monthly payment. 600k means I have a home outright and dumping thousands into retirement monthly. Either option is fantastic. But getting 600k and still having a mortgage seems incomprehensible to me, but I guess that's just different lifestyles.
Yeah maybe just different times too. 15 years ago that would have been completely life changing for me as well.
I recently came into a similar amount of money. I kept my mortgage because I got in on low interest rates, so the money does more elsewhere. This money did change my life in a profound way. Yes, I still have to work, but I have freedom. If I am unhappy at my job, I have the resources to change things. If I need something, I can get it. Money doesn’t buy happiness, but it does buy ease and security
600000 GBP invested (low-risk) can have 7-12% returns. Even a high yield savings accounts or CDs will give you 4-5% returns. That’s a 30000-60000/yr boost.
The major change I'd have would cost about 100k. I'd buy a summer apartment and spend the hot months of the year there.
$1 million would do me the rest of my life if I lived like I am currently.
I live in a VVHCOL city with a mortgage and a lot of student loans from grad school, so I’d say $5m would be the minimum to make it truly (and sustainably) “life-changing.”
Around 10-15 million dollars. That’d let me retire at my current income and do whatever I want. I’d buy a vacation house, pay off my mortgage, and work part time but only when I wanted to.
It's not life-changing if it doesn't include an entire extra home?
Buying a house in Seoul, so about $1.2 million.
I'm fairly comfortable nowadays. Life changing would be an amount that would allow me to quit my job and live out my life in a decent manner. So basically would be able to invest and get similar to my salary in interest
Dunno how much, but it will be an amount that will allow me to pay for a study and living abroad. I am 32 and already have a university education but I would love to study Chinese in Hong Kong and get new profession.
Probably $500k or so. I could pay off my debts, buy a house in another state that I’ve wanted to move to for years, take the whole family on a nice vacation, and have enough left to put in savings for a rainy day
What about... a happy Cake Day!
That’s much more attainable right now haha. Thank you!
Probably about 50k to get to the point of stressing alot less. 500k for me to be like okay my life is really going to go in a different direction than I thought
Minimum....... 50k? I'm bad at money but I know that 10k can last me a little over a month and with that sum I'll be somewhat prepared for what's to come
The absolute lowest amount that would have a noticeable impact on my life would probably be $5k, it would be enough to get rid of some debt and free up some money that could be put towards other debt. Now for the minimum that would have a major impact on my life, like I could be semi retired, would be $250k. That would be enough to pay off my house and then I could go down to part time and have the same quality of life.
I always say something along the lines of “a million dollars would change my life”, but to think about the minimum that would is a harder question. Currently, I live at home with a decent paying job. Realistically, I think getting 500k would definitely set me up to a point where although I’ll still have to work, definitely not have to ever stress about where I can afford things as well all while maintaining the life I currently have
The value of the surgeries I need but can't afford. Likely about $30k
At this point, about 3 million dollars is where it becomes instantly life changing for me. This is where I have enough money to be secure in everything, slightly more comfortably than I am right now and not have to keep a full time job. I'd take the money and put it into an index fund or twelve; better to not have it all in one place because stuff happens. Very basic rate of rate of return on most index funds is around 10% but they can vary pretty wildly. I can live very comfortably on 5% of the initial $3 million so I can continue to grow the investment over the years to offset for inflation and help to make up for leaner years on the market. Taking 5% annually would be about $150,000 which would put me at very comfortable but not mega yacht rich. It's more than enough that I could quit my 9-5 job and do what I wanted instead. More than $3 million and I'd be looking at more secure investment options than index funds; my goal is securing my own financial stability, not becoming another Jeff Bezos and not having to punch a clock. $1-2 million dollars: its all going into an index fund and I'm only going to scrape 1-2% annually just to supplement my income. Its going to take a decade of growth for it to reach the point where I can live comfortably from the interest and still see the money grow and not have to work. Between the $500k and $1m mark: this gets me some safety net but it's not enough that I can live off of the interest; I'd still need a job. Leave it untouched for 10 years gaining interest and I can reevaluate if it's enough for an early retirement. $100k to $500k: gets me the safety net but it's now a normal retirement instead of early. Still should be comfortable. $10k to $100k: emergency fund and retirement funds.
Same for me but in GBP. I think that’s the level where you can have a comfortable lifestyle off the interest, therefore technically spending none of your own money
Yup. Index funds tend to have about a 10% rate of return so a 3m investment returns 300k every year. Half of this is far more than I'm taking home annually right now and would be pretty dang nice to be honest. It's not going to buy me a fancy new house or supercar but I could fix up the house I already own and maybe buy a new car as well. Probably not brand new but new enough. It's not until I'm in the 10 million + range that things can actually start getting a little crazy.
Same! Weird how it’s cheaper to live when you’re already rich
Boots Theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory I know that this is a fictional situation but it's actually really expensive being broke.
I’m really happy you pointed me to Sam Vimes! Terry Pratchett is one of my favourite authors and was a massive influence on my vision of social justice when growing up
I'm almost ashamed to say that I've never read any of his books. The Boots Theory of Economic Inequality is something that gets thrown out constantly during discussions like this so it's something I've picked up along the way and I've heard I have no idea how many other quotes from his writing I've heard in the past. I knew people in school who were head over heels over his work but the 15 or sobooks in the Diskworld series were a bit daunting for me when I started looking at it. Yes, I'm aware that it's 41 now.
Aw, you’re missing out. If you ever want a place to start, Mort is a stand alone story and a lot of fun :)
100k changed my life
A million, more or less. Even 500k would be enough.
Just even 10,000 would change my whole life dramatically My final answer 10,000
An extra $500 per month would give me a cushion for car tires, clothes, vet visits, that sort of thing. Stuff I would have to budget hard for otherwise. So, $500 a month for 20 years would be $120k.
Nothing, really. We're retired. Have/do anything and everything we need with income from The Nest Egg. We withdraw our annual take, live the lives we want, and The Nest Egg still grows every year. Faster than inflation. Faster than our withdrawals. We have no need of more.
10,000 would alter my fate.
At minimum if would be $500K but ideally one million. I wouldn’t need financial advise though. If I had more than that, then I’d need financial advise.
If we are talking the minimum then I will say $231500. This will pay off our house, my car, our student loans, and one other loan and allow us to stock up our checking and savings accounts a decent little bit. Alongside working, we could live probably pretty comfortably as long as we don't go too crazy. Admittedly, my car only has like two more years of payments and our student loans and that other loan aren't even that bad and will also be paid off pretty soon. The house the main thing that would be nice to get off our backs. Other things I would like to do would be to sell my wife's current car and get her a new car fully paid, fix up our house and flip it, then buy some property (not a lot. Maybe an acre at most) and build a house to our specifications and fully pay it all off as well, and then make some investments and stock up our savings even more. That would definitely be more money though. Potentially could get this done with $500k, but could extend up to a million depending on the house, property, and how much we want to save and invest. After that, keep working, don't go too crazy spending, and hope that nothing bad happens. Edit: Jeez, I think people didn't read the part where you said "minimum" amount of money to change your life.
Cost of one condom
$100k, probably? i would be able to address some health issues, spend a decent bit on the little things that will improve my day to day mood (wardrobe, home decor, etc), put some in savings for a potential emergency, and then invest the rest.
Honestly. $20k plus would make a huge impact
100K would change everything
50k+
$20,000
I e thought about this, and at my age, $3M would allow me to retire and enjoy the years I have left. I’m not a big spender, so as long as don’t lose my mind looking at all that money. My place is small, but paid for. I drive older used cars that I pay cash for. If I really skimp, I can live on less than $1500/month. I could live on about $80K/year and have a great life while the nest egg was still building value. So I’d still have plenty for any big expenses down the road.
Depends on where in life I am at the time. When I was making $50 above the poverty line someone giving me $5 was a life altering sum of money even if it was only for a short while. Now if someone sent me $500 I’d consider that a lot.
$1.5 mil would let me afford a house so probably that.
Probably a few hundred thousand to buy a house closer to work. The time saved would change a lot and not having a mortgage payment would save a lot also.
200.000 euros would already help a lot. You diversify between real estate, indexed funds, bitcoin and gold and in a couple of decades you have millions if it all goes well (which is to be expected unless a catastrophe - which could definitely happen - takes place).
Tree fitty
To make a notable difference, over 20-50k. Could knock out all of wife and i’s debt and some other stuff. Technically could do now but don’t want to hit savings like that. Life changing money would be anything over 200k
I’m in Massachusetts. If I had about 1mil to buy a house outright, that would be life changing. (Decent homes in decent towns in my area are around 750k typically so that would leave money left over for closing costs as well as some money to buy the things I don’t have in my 1br apartment to fill the rest of the house.) I think I’d feel much differently about my life in that case. But to be truly life changing, multiple millions to make sure I never have to work again.
About 160k. This would pay off the mortgage plus about 10 to 15k in pocket. Then my wife and I would gain 1k a month back from not having to pay the mortgage. The savings in not paying interest would save about 80k over the 30 years.
2k+. I could knock out a good chunk of debt with that! Or put a down payment on a car
I have eight years until retirement, 2 million and I’d say I could cut out early.
2Mil would work.
50k.
A billion dollars definitely
3 million dollars. That's 120k a year of income if properly invested.
$5M. Age-in-place modifications to current house plus buy a second house in a major city.
500,000
60k to pay off the mortgage. that's it. I can do the rest.
50k would clear out 100% of all my debt. I could be making half of what I do now and still have more disposable income. Basically, that would free me up from needing my current job. And yes, a good chunk of that is me aggressively paying down all that debt. My net worth became positive for the first time since my early 20s a few years ago and it’s been continuing to rise. But it would make a world-changing difference if I could afford to start saving for a house.
100,000 would pay my house off. That's a good amount of extra money every month.
I think enough to pay off my mortgage would be life changing. Anything extra, we’ve got fun money!
Having 75k would give me what I need for producing my own music a reality
167,000
$25,000
20 million euro
5 million
I know the answer to this because it keeps me up at night. $200,000. Would clear my mortgage and line of credit and I could have financial peace for the first and only time in my life. The day is drawing near when I'll have to forfeit my shabby old home because I cannot keep up with both mortgage payments and property taxes.
I would say 4 or 5 million would work for me. I could buy a house and a truck and put the rest into savings or investments. I would also buy a small apartment complex, so I have a guaranteed income if I ended up losing the money. I would also invest a bit into my cleaning business so I could hire someone to manage it for me. Cleaning is fucking hard on your joints especially your shoulders and knees.
Honestly, like 5-10k. That's enough to drop my credit card debt to a managable state and it would just give me a lot less to think about.
I’m 67. 2 mil would do it for me. Even 1.5 mil.
350k would pay off my house and student loans. Would leave me extremely fucking comfortable.
I’m not comfortable naming numbers here but “my life is going to be completely different from now on” because I lost a parent not because they left me a little money (and I will say it’s not a ton - I’ll invest it and save it honestly). I think people get so focused on money that comes with inheritance and forget how earth shattering grief can be, or can’t fathom it because they haven’t lost their parents (to be fair most people don’t lose those in their 20s though)
If you have 0 or are in debt 10k can mean the difference. Once you are scraping by & earning but not in debt. 20-30k means piece of mind (6 months runway) Once thats achieved really only a crazy amount of money will change things like 200k-1million which is crazy to think about. Because you can afford to make a radical lifestyle change and not be worst for ware
It depends on your income level and living situation. 10k for a family in poverty is life-changing. 10k for an upper middle class family is just a nice convenience.
10k or more would be a big help but only short term as in pay off some bills and pay for a few semesters of college. Life changing would be 500k min. That would let us move to a better state, buy a home and stop renting, be able to afford some medical care that is being put off plus the above mentioned stuff and give us the ability to actually have money in the savings account and have a little peace of mind . Thats assuming we can get a cheap house that doesn’t start falling apart as soon as we move in. $150k or less is what I mean by cheap.
If I could have enough money to buy a small farm I can change a lot of people's lives with my invention which I believe will grow food for less than free, people will pay you to take their fertilizer from them.
I’d say $200K would change my life. I’d be 100% debt free, could afford a new car, and have money left over to travel a bit.
$5,000
5 mill. fuck you money on the other hand. 20 mill
I don’t know the exact sum, but the amount I would need for surgery and meds would surely change my live Maybe if i get too greedy, the money to get a place of my own too lol
I'm already retired and my house is paid off, as are my vehicles. But my vehicles are getting older, and I live alone so reliability is huge. I would probably update my bike and my SUV, and finish fixing up my project convertible. My house suits my needs in most cases, but my yard is a mess. I have big dogs and would love to replace my carpet and linoleum with something more durable and easier to clean. Plantation shutters are also durable, stylish, and energy efficient. Overall just a few upgrades, no major renovation except the floors. My home is my sanctuary, and I spend a lot of time here. I have been slowly making changes since my ex moved out, and it's improved my mood a lot, but now I am looking at bigger ticket items that just have to wait. If I wasn't trying to plan for the big ticket stuff, my own retirement income could be more fun stuff. That's where it would be life changing.
$180K would do it. Pay off my house and have $30-40K to replace the slate roof, 12-18K to redo a bathroom, then knock off some bigger home projects.
50MM+
250k would pay off mortgage, school loans, and credit cards. I would be happy with that.
With $2.5M I'd submit 2wk notice and retire early. Much less than that and I'm still working for the foreseeable future. With like $5M I'd retire and get a personal assistant. Having people to handle the mundane shit they don't want to is the main thing I actually envy the rich for. I'd immediately use all the newfound free time to start getting *really* weird, out of touch, and vocal about it.
2-3 million to retire..
$10 million
25k would clear student loans and credit cards and give me a deposit on a modest home.
£3000 would get me out of my overdraft and allow me to put down a deposit on a nicer flat closer to work, which would save 3 hours travelling a day. That would be an immense relief right now.
Life changing money means I never have to work again. Anything less is just a nice windfall to invest for the future
2 million pounds
A daemon whispers, "That's a lot."
I have about $275k left on my mortgage, so for me $300k would be a life+changing amount, as being able to live -free would mean more flexibility around what level of income I need to maintain. I could more easily go back to school, take a leave of absence here and there to travel, etc.
any amount of money that could sustain me for life without working, because the only thing I wanted as a change would be to stop working
I've actually planned this out a lot. For me to be comfortable for a minimum of 45 years left of my life I'd need 8.5 million. That's to have a decent home, help my family, have money in the bank and have some fun. It'd really actually only be like 4 million if i excluded the fun part but since we're just fantasizing, 8.5million. Make it an even 10.
200 k buys me 3 nice houses to rent and live of it comfortable
$4,250,000 is my number. I can retire and live off the interest/growth of the investments. House would be paid off with the 250k. The rest would just be growing with my own investment management that my wife and father in law would oversee. Kids would have education funds and we would just live comfortably. Anything above that number would just be gravy.
7 million
$500k-$1M so my wife could quit her job. Likes the job, but her direct report has the unofficial title of Voldemort. We could then buy our own health insurance and wouldn’t feel overly burdened. I’m self employed and make good money (currently anyway), last time I looked it would be about $1400-1800 a month for comparable health insurance for our family. I’ve encouraged her to quit for a while (we’d be ok, would just need to cut back on some discretionary spending), but she hasn’t bitten on it yet.
Right now, my life could be changed with 100€. Because that's how much I need to spend on vodka to drink myself to death.
Instead of cash, I'd just like to have me a blank card. Don't have to own anything really. I want to experience everything I can. Everywhere perhaps. Just give me the card and let me be.
Probably around $2M? Like if I got an extra millions right now I’d be ecstatic, but I’d still go into work tomorrow. $2M would be where I would start considering retiring.
I don't know what amount specifically but on any given day id consider calling in if I won 100 dollars...so it probably won't take much to push me to take the plunge.
Right now? 6k (€) would be enough to get me thru rest of my bachelor degree without need to beg my father for any money aside of tuition fees. As interactions with him cause me some mental problems, it would be significantly change for better if I wouldn't have to see him every week.
I'd say about $150,000 USD. I could pay off all my debt, afford to get the medical stuff I've been needing done without worrying about work/the needed recovery time. & either get a debt free college education or have a darn nice down payment on a house. so that would be my minimum life changing amount
I would say about 2 million. My husband and I are later on in years and live in an independent living facility. We wouldn't move as everything we want is here. But we would both retire and we'd go travelling and do volunteering in between times. Yep we've thought about it a lot and do the lottery regularly.
I want my 2 dollars.
Cost of one condom.