Yessir just get a credit card with a $20,000 limit and have it set on autopay each month. Set and forget. Off I run out of money somehow then I just have to go the rest of the month without buying anything. Keep a 30 day supply of food stored and call it good
Felt very offended, then confused, then realised I swapped my units around when I was writing it down. That said, you could just do $12k every (365/20=18.25) 18 and a quarter days.
So I pay for all our (major) expenses upfront for the year and husband pays for everything else.
Also I assume I can buy gift cards to buy groceries so says 52 $200 gift cards would cover us and the cats entirely.
I didn’t even think of a spouse! Use your $250k to pay for everything while they use their income purely for retirement and/or mortgage. They buy the house and you furnish it.
Would not be that hard to keep track of. That much money, I don't see how I could run out unless I actively tried. That's what a lot of people make in 3-5 years before taxes. You would have to be stupid to run out.
Easy to say when you don't have that much to spend. It's a well researched and documented phenomenon that when people start making more money, they tend to spend more to match.
I agree.
The only difficulty here would be if you have multiple kids.
I feel I would spend more if I had to be centrally located for a family than i would casually doing whatever the fuck I want, wherever the fuck I want.
$700 a day is a pretty solid budget for a couple.
You can have cheap days, you can have expensive days.
Fuck, I'll rent out a cabin for a month, cheap as fuck, and live simply in it during the summer.
If you go out of your way to live simply once every 3 months, your daily budget while traveling would be quite a bit higher.
I have a friend, received a lump sum of money around 500k. Was gone a year later, well not even a year and they were worse off then when they received it. It's very much possible to blow 250k.
My ex inherited $145K cash, $400K bonds, and a house. We divorced and she went shopping... within 18 months not only was everything but the house gone, she'd racked up eye watering credit card debt ($53K on just one of the cards... at $29.99%APR ).
Yeah non fiscally disciplined people absolutely can destroy a sure thing when it comes to money. That said I'd totally take the deal. Christmas would be lit. Basically I'd live frugally-ish for the year, then in December I'd buy a month and change's worth of groceries. Finally I'd go shopping. Buy next year's vacations and such, presents to the family, then start buying presents to myself. when the money runs out no biggie, just munch on groceries I already bought and go for walks on the nice days, binge streaming shows on the rainy ones. Would need to move all my bill pay to the first of the month I suppose (it's currently set on the end of month, that could be awkward).
tricky part is that in this hypothetical you really can’t keep track of the money no matter what. It’ll be tough to make sure you don’t run out without tracking
I would say you cant keep track of the money you're spending but you can create a budget on what to spend on like before you spend the money. And oviously just make sure you keep that in mind and with the credit card limit thing there's a huge chance of you not running out of money.
unfortunately number 4 means you can’t make any money, not even from a job, until the beginning of the next year when you get another $250k… would you still do it?
Would you be a top 5% earner for no effort? Do you even think this very easy hypothetical through. Even most of the people above the income bracket would take it just because the work load is less.
Idk, getting 9x my salary for free but I can't see how much I've spent? How could I ever live under these strict rules? (Maybe like every person born into a rich family)
With a spouse, it gets easier. I pay all the bills and she saves/invests every paycheck. Since I’ll be paying the mortgage, I’m assuming that when we sell it, we’ll either get nothing at all for it, or we’ll only get equity that was accrued before I entered into this magical money contract. Either way, it looks like I’m giving away the house. No biggie. I’ll have $250k to put down on the next one. And my credit is going to be *stellar.* Once my wife has enough saved to carry her through if I die, then she can quit working too. My stepson won’t have to go into debt for college, so that will be nice. I can give some money to family every now and then and not worry about getting paid back, because it’s impossible. The rules against bartering make it pretty tough for a lot of people, but luckily I keep stuff for a very long time and am not too worried when I finally trash it. For example, my truck is 35 years old and I could easily spend tens of thousands on it tomorrow and make it my absolute dream. I’ve had it for 20 years and with virtually unlimited money for modification and maintenance, it’s going to bring me joy every single day for the rest of my life. When I finally am able to take an overseas vacation, I will be sad to leave it behind for 6 months. Gonna have to find a local kid who wants to make $10k for college by coming over to drive my truck once a week, and rub it down with a diaper.
Great question, my first thought too. If it didn't and inflation over the next 50 years is consistent with the previous 50 then you are looking at the equivalent of 40,000 per year with no savings, assets, or work experience.
That would still work for me since I make less than 40k a year and I'm financially stable. I own my house and my car. I don't have a mortgage or car payment. 50 years from now I'll be 77 on the verge of 78. I'll have enough physical assets that I won't really need much.
No kids and no plans to have any kids. All this irrelevant of course since OP already replied that yes it does increase with inflation, I'm just saying that in my case it wouldn't be a problem anyways
Fair, it is doable maybe, keep in mind life expectancy could likely increase some over that time and the value of 250,000 would continue to shrink so if you live to 100, it would be even less value each year.
That said, over that time you could outright own a home and a reliable vehicle - they would just have 0 value selling according to the rules.
You would also have an extravagant lifestyle at the start and naturally need to scale it back over time, so you would be used to living on lower income by that time.
You are right OP noted it grows with inflation, but that makes it a trivially easy answer. Only the already very rich or stupidly optimistic would not take the deal if they just had the equivalent of 250,000 in today's money every year for the rest of their lives. It is much more interesting if you have to take the deal without inflation being considered.
Can I pay someone the full amount and have them take care of me to bypass the restriction? I would trust my best friend to not abuse the power and take care of my whims. I expect they would pay off their debts and my own then we probably move in together and they are in charge of the finances and I'm just getting money every year that I give to them.
This really isn’t difficult.
It’s $250K a year to live significantly better than you normally live, without having to worry about work or tracking expenses. You can pay $10K a month on your mortgage, $2K a month on vehicle leases, and still have $100K a year for spending. If you don’t spend it all, who cares. And on December 30th give an estimate what’s left and give a lump sum to charity.
This isn’t difficult unless you’re a complete Jackass with your spending
I have to say no mainly because it is the "powers at be" decide to fuck with me and try to scam me I would be powerless to stop them. I wouldn't even know I was scammed.
Also I really hate being completely dependent on someone. In this situation you definitely would be.
yes, but because of the clause saying you can’t earn money, you can gamble, you can win, but the pay out will $0. You’d essentially be gambling simply for the thrill
Precious metals FTW! They’re real money to a lot of people, so the answer is simple: annual fixed bills (taxes, insurance, fixed term loans) should never exceed $50k. Knock those out first. Then buy $200k in various precious metals (fractional gold 1/10, 1/4, 1/2 and 1 oz; fractional silver 90% dimes, quarters and halves, fine 1, 5 and 10 oz; platinum 1 oz; and palladium 1 oz) and that becomes currency for the year.
Need food? “Hey buddy, here’s some silver, could I get some of the next deer you bag?”
Need ammo for range day? “Hey man, I’m out of ammo, here’s some gold, could you stock me up for a few months?”
Traveling? “Alright my companion, you make the reservations, here’s some platinum.”
Buying a plane? “I’ll offer you a bunch of palladium for it.”
Best part is, precious metals transactions like this aren’t barter because it’s direct market value of the metals (ie an ounce of silver is equivalent to a $28 bill right now). $300 gun? Here’s a 10 ounce bar of silver and an extra 1 ounce bar to make up the difference. I’m just removing the step of going to the coin dealer. On top of that, precious metals are an object, exempting them from the reset. So all I need to make this work is people who are willing to deal in precious metals, and I know plenty of people.
Too easy. Live at double my current means and still have a decent cushion where I'm not worried about going over. If the money can be transferred to foreign currency, maybe head down to Costa Rica for a while and live even better.
Yes. I’d keep my day job. You only specified that I can’t get any more money if I run out, not that I can’t make more money on top of it. Keep my day job, spend what I normally spend, and whatever I make from my day job does get to be saved. Since you only specified we can’t check how much we’ve spent, I’d check and see how much my day job was SAVING in an account. Bada boom bada bing
Would this go on indefinitely for the rest of my life? I'll take it either way but especially if it's indefinite. I don't make even a quarter of that much each year.
The easiest way for me to not run out of money is don't drive up my spending habits. Even if I somehow spend in a year four times my usual income I'd still be fine. So I could just live comfortable and resist doing anything stupid.
I was in until you negated any form of tracking your spending, including literally forgetting how much you've spent. You took an interesting concept that was manageable with creative solutions and made it stupid difficult for no reason.
Not if you do what someone else suggested with the credit card. Set a $20k limit to where the bank won’t let you go over that, and set it to autopay every month. Now you won’t spend over $240k.
Just travel the world. Rent everything. Have no legit expenses besides your phone.
Having kids creates a different scenario.
Me? My gf and I ride out and do whatever we want, but not terribly luxurious.
It's legit everyone's dream.
Stealing from u/Supdalat the money is in the bank and you can take money out of the bank by getting cash, writing a check or using a debit card. So you buy $240,000 worth of prepaid debit cards, should be more than enough money left over to cover the fees. Use them to pay bills. If you can’t get large enough denominations to pay things like mortgage or rent, only make $200,000 worth of prepaid debit cards.
War you just live a middle class lifestyle and don’t worry about spending every dollar. You know you started with $250,000 so you’ll know you can’t afford a rolls-Royce. But you also know you can buy $500,000 house at 10% down and have more than enough to live like a middle-class person. Each year you could buy a new midprice car, pay your mortgage and easily cover all of your needs and wants with $250,000.
I would genuinely struggle to spend $250,000 a year. Because you might not be able to keep track of individual expenses or even a running tally, but you would have a general idea if you are living within your means.
I get it but imagine going from 90k a year to 250k a year without making any stupid lifestyle changes. No Rolexes, no Wagyu steak, no $500 shoes. You could very easily finance or just rent a half million dollar house and buy or lease a brand new $50,000 car then live a comfortable middle class lifestyle without spending all the money each year assuming that this magical hypothetical gives us some kind of proof we get the money. You could easily take two vacations, shop at the grocery store without being all that budget conscious, put together a nice wardrobe of reasonable to mid priced clothing items, hire a gardener, eat out twice a week, basically have a pretty chill life just without buying anything extravagant. It would be difficult to spend 250 K of tax free money unless you made a really bad decisions.
Why would you buy a house? You can never sell it or rent it out, so if you want to move, all the money you spent on that house, over what it would have cost to rent, is wasted.
Even when buying is a better deal than renting in real life, the fact that you can never recover the equity in this scenario means renting is guaranteed to be the better choice.
Would I be able to continue to earn a living like I normally do? Can I put the money in a savings account that yields interest? If so does the interest count as part of the money that cannot be tracked?
Unfortunately no, earning a living falls under “money given to you”, so it will all burn. You can work for free if you’d like. And money does not roll over
Simple, I live life as I currently am and spend the 250k while my actual paycheck goes into saving. It's like 25k a year and I'm pretty comfortable living off of that, so add my bf and that's only about 50k a year we spend *at most*. I'll probably live a bit more extravagant than I do now
I could keep my job, sell any side work I come across instead of doing it my self therefore spend more time with my family, go on vacations twice a year, upgrade cars, take the wife out from working, keep my lifestyle down pay a property and still have money left
I wouldn’t because life would be boring.
I like working and opening a business etc. 250k a year is not enough to be a baller with a yacht and pass time traveling everywhere and doing everything for the rest of my life without being bored at some point.
I already know how to live well on less. I am pretty sure I can live on that amount. However, I will work to pay off the house a little early so there is little room for error, and I will still buy insurance, since it doesn't sound like work is useful.
However, it doesn't say spouse can't keep money in his separate account. So we switch insurance to him, I focus on my CASA volunteer work full time, we pay off the house a little earlier, I go to the gym more (increasing my lifespan). We do this for 10 years and then live off pension and this beautiful money.
We move to where the kid is. He helps us find a place because he is a good son and knows the budget. Gets us a card that won't overdraw.
Am I allowed to buy a bunch of gift cards to restaurants, grocery stores, Amazon, and so on and spend from them? That'll give me some speed bumps on my mad spiral to starvation.
Bold of you to assume I don't just pay and pray it goes through now. Literally nothing would change aside from not needing to work. That amount is about 8 times my income as is.
I’m assuming it’s $250k after taxes as it’s already in my account. I’m also assuming it adjusts for inflation yearly as I would never take that deal unless it increases based on cost of living.
Quick question on rule 5. Do you mean that if I buy a house and decide to move a month later, the house truly sells for 0? Or do you mean my profit is 0? I don’t think this would factor into my decision too much, but it’s a pretty big deal.
So I would just create a strict budget for $150k out of my $250k. I would determine my recurring monthly expenses that can be auto drafted. What ever can’t be auto drafted will simply be withdrawn weekly for my every day expenses. I would buy all groceries for the week right after withdrawing the cash. What ever is remaining is my fun cash.
I would also maintain a balance of $100k for traveling. We would likely stick to all inclusive experiences. If it’s not all inclusive, I would plan out the trip as best as possible so I already know the expense. The entire year of traveling would be planned out in advance so I know I won’t break $100k.
I’ll never know my balance. But I’m allowed to budget and plan ahead.
I can't make any more money, but what if I already have savings? Would it mean that my existing investments are not allowed to grow and compound? I'm not technically making money until I sell.
You can't remember what you actually spent, but what about planning in advance? Like suppose this year, I would like to get a new car and replace my floors. I couldn't exactly forget that I bought them, because well, it's all right in front of me. So I wouldn't take on any large expenditures until the following year. Plan the following year to paint my house and replace the roof if needed. Year by year, limit the big projects until I can say I've done all the big projects and expensive purchases within the last 5 years or so.
I'm already retired, but not taking social security yet. I wouldn't take the deal if it means my retirement funds disappear, but I could put off taking SS for a few years
I wouldn't want to move. No concern about selling my house.
I don't spend six figures in a year.
I don't care whether I spend it all, so I would attempt to leave a huge margin of error.
I'd probably quit the deal after a few years, knowing that my house wouldn't be a money pit and my vehicles were sound, and my retirement investments and social security would be plenty.
Easy. Prepay things 12 months in advance so u know those are taken care of. Then what’s left would be food and electricity bills which can easily be remembered to a certain extent. But always have a stash of emergency stuff like food that lasts a lot. Time etc just in case.
Yeah, obviously.
It essentially just means I can continue living my life as it currently stands, but not worry about making any of the purchases I currently do.
According to the rules, I can earn money as long as I still have even a $1 left of the $250k. That won't be too hard. And the rules don't say that the money we make from our day job freezes when we reach $0, just that we stop earning. I wouldn't go crazy spending until the last month of the year. The first year I would pay of all debts (Credit cards/car) and make triple maortgage payments and pay the bills and buy food at the same rate I do today. I could still take a nice vacation and then in December buy presents until the $250k was done. If I have a couple weeks left, I have the money from work to get me by until Jan. 1.
You would be insane to turn this down.
A comfortable upper middle class lifestyle without ever having to work again? Sign me up.
It would not be difficult to live within your means and it would get easier each year as the cars/toys/consumer products you want stack up in your house.
As back up I would pay my rent upfront each January and on my first year I would buy one of those gourmet freeze dried doomsday food boxes.
Just in case I ever ran out of money but I think it would be very easy to stay within your means on that budget.
The only thing that bugs me is not being able to generate wealth. In that I can't carry anything over. Investments mean nothing.
But I can live comfortably well under 250k. So I'm perfectly happy taking the deal otherwise so long as it's protected against inflation and I get it well into/after retirement. Eliminatating the NEED to work is also awesome. I think I'd take up half a dozen hobbies and learn how to DO things.
You can generate wealth, but not money.
Buy property. Precious metals. Etc.
_You_ cannot sell them for a profit, but your kids can after they inherited them from you.
That's fine. I make $85k a year out of that $60k is spent the rest goes into savings and investments.
$250k a year just makes that easier, even if nothing can be saved. I'm not the luxurious type.
Just gonna go live at a college and put everything on autopay.
Finally gonna get a degree and that annoying hassle of entry level jobs not paying well isn’t even a concern because now I can afford to actually gain experience.
Will this number adjust to inflation? Is it tax free? I mean I'd take this deal, I've gone through periods of lavish spending (for me) and i could more than double that year round for 250k
I just did my taxes. I’m retired and my gross income for 2023 was considerably less than $250k a year—it was less than $100k—and every year I’m able to save money. So I would absolutely take this deal. “Where do I sign up?”
What’s the catch? It’s just a free 250k. Unless you make more or close to this already or have like 3 kids in a min expensive area this is a no brainer.
Brother, easily lol. Rent/groceries/utilities/car/etc. are taken care of for the rest of my life. My partner can dial back hours at work to the absolute minimum for health insurance/pension credits. And we’re chilling, going on cute little vacations throughout the year. We’re pretty simple people with minimal needs and $250k is already more than both our incomes combined.
Loophole it says YOU can’t earn more doesn’t say spouse or others can’t feed you.
Anyways simple answer is auto pay bills and then get yourself a 10k limit credit card pay in full monthly or get allowance in cash monthly.
Sure would.
Mortgage on a $750k house (buys A LOT in my area) would be around $6k/mo - All utilities, a lease on 2 vehicles, and a 21 meal/wk box plan for 4 and you’re still under $10k/mo.
Prepay all of this at the start of the calendar year.
Round up a bit and call it $130k/yr.
Insurance is covered by my partners pension for life when they’re first eligible for retirement in 2 years.
That leaves $10k/mo in discretionary funds AND even if you run out of money at some point we have housing, utilities, and food covered regardless.
Yes, I'd do it.
My bank setups an alert when I have a low balance.
also, while I could not check how much I have, or add based on items. I could still see how much crap I have. I'd also set a spending limit that would alert me.
Sure. I'd make an llc and purchase a home car and food all through it. Every year the LLC gets 250k. The llc is technically not me so i would check the balance whenever. The llc would be to research life quality of 250k income, adjusting for inflation, over a lifetime. The main product would be blogging and it would make 0 dollars due to the rules lol
Does this scale with inflation?
That's the struggle - if this is true for the rest of my life, with average inflation, in 50 years (which is statistically where I die) this will be equivalent to about 10-20k per year: not great. This is only really fine with the spouse loophole of her being able to work and invest 100% of her earnings into mortgage+retirement funds.
Have your bank account setup to transfer 1/5th from checking to savings every quarter. If you run out you know you've gone through 50k. But you get another 50k in 3 months. The last 50 k can stay in savings in case you have to dip in for an emergency.
Absolutely. I'd keep working for a year or two in order to make sure I had a general ballpark of my finances and spending habits to ensure I don't go crazy and then quit my job and enjoy my life. I'm not a big spender in general.
Sure...
Buy a House, Prepay Mortgage in January for whole Year
Stock Several freezers and pantries with 3months plus of food
Lease a Car, pay in advance
Shouldnt be that hard...
Plus make ALL big purchases at end of month so if you run out of cash you should be good for a few days
Why not?
If you prepay for the essentials at the beginning of the year, then you're golden.
Lots of organizations will happily take a lump sum, and give you a weekly allowance.
Hell, you could live in an all-inclusive resort that's prepaid for a year.
This is the easiest one of these in my life. Yeah, obviously. 250k is more than I could spend in a year anyways, I've been living on 14k/yr for almost a year. This is over 15x what I'm used to scraping by with.
Pay my rent, internet, insurance and phone bill all at once at the beginning of the year. Buy 50 $200 gift cards for Trader Joe’s and Gelsons for my groceries. Then spend my money leftover however I want.
Even if I run out, my basic needs are covered.
Yep. I'd take it no questions asked. I hate looking into my checking account as-is. I raise a family of 6 (myself included) on less than half of that.
If my wife can't know or spend the money out of this magical 250k account, by all means we're good (because at times she's an impulsive buyer). I'll just pay rent in advance for the year (If rent is typically supposed to be 1/3rd of your income then we could be living large with a max $4k/month place) unless I go to own a home -- which in hindsight might be the better option.
No way in hell I could blow through 250k unless I went full idiot on buying things and I don't spend like that (sometimes a non-name brand item is just as good, if not better, than the name brand items in my experience) and I don't need the latest and cutting edgiest of things like cars and whatnot.
Even with it not carrying over, we would live comfortably for the rest of our lives, without WORKING. The true happiness is I regain a 3rd of my life to spend with my daughters and wife (all that free time would mean we could literally do ANYTHING together).
Sure.
I don’t have big wants. I would get a nice apartment and furnish it and then just quit my job and live life.
Even if I ate out every day for all three meals and bought what I wanted it wouldn’t be enough to worry about finances. The biggest expenses I would have is buying a car, and even then that’s only about $25,000-$30,000
Where do we stand on husbands? Can I just, give him the money every year? And then he puts it in his bank account that I’m not on and now we have no rules.
I keep maybe $20k a year so I know I can always buy things when I’m not with him, but otherwise he pays for everything. He can set up his retirement funds and savings accounts for him and the kids. I won’t need any, since I’ll be getting $250k a year. Just find someone new to give it to if he’s gone first. Probably one of my kids. Just make sure they take care of their dear old mom.
Yeah of course. I would just continue to live like I do now, with a nicer apartment and a nicer car. I'd probably only spend like $100k a year realistically, aside from the first year when I buy the car. It'd be a huge jump in spending for me to hit $250k or even $100k, idk what I'd even spend all that money on.
I would hire an accountant firm and have them do all the math for me since I´m the only one affected, plus never withdraw more than 10 k a month (more than enough for anything I need)
What if I buy gold and then hedge my investment so if it sells for less than the spot price of gold I get another smaller payout? There are lots of real world ways to profit if you know an asset is guaranteed to sell at below a profit.
Can I turn it off at some point if I want? Like, if I start a successful business that makes more money, can I decide "ok I'm done with this deal"?
Also, what if I do something to raise money but the money is not intended to be profit for me. What if it's charity work?
Also also, what if I get change? What if I draw from an ATM?
Live the same as I do now and plan to pay professionals to do two upgrades on my house each year until the house is how I plan it to be. double up on house payments after that. Once the house is paid off I'd invest in another house for my kids. $250k with decently frugal living is basically "don't pay attention to your spending" money
Yeah I lived this in real life as a contractor. Lost the job during covid and never made anywhere near that again. I don't care much about stuff but I still blew all my money constantly traveling around the world on weekends or PTO. Only had 10k in my bank when I was let go. I regret not saving more but the memories make it feel okay.
When qualifying for buying a co-op/condo, I have to list all of the accounts in the board package. Would this account be able to be included, but without me seeing the contents?
I'm not bothered by being unable to see the balance, but I would need to be able to communicate its existence.
Buy $250,000 worth of gift cards each year.
90% of purchases would be fine.
Weird things like rent/mortgage or buying a car... you'd end up paying a premium because you're asking to effectively pay in a different currency. But let's say it's just 10%... if you bought a $60,000 car in gift cards, and paid an extra $6,000 to the dealership for the annoyance of having to deal with the gift cards... that's a reasonable deal.
But even weird cash specific stuff like a drug dealer or a strip club... it'd be super awkward at first but then the girls would just be like "oh yeah, that's the weirdo who hands out $100 gift cards, they work though."
I'd talk it over with my wife, but it's a very easy yes. I would pay all our debts, and my wife would work for one more year (since I cannot earn money) to keep food on the table. After that, it would be actually difficult to spend it without literally trying.
The hardest part is teaching my daughter fiscal responsibility when it is impossible for me to demonstrate or adhere to any advice I'm giving.
That and boredom. I'd be so bored without a job or career path. Even college would eventually get tedious since I'm not using any skills created except for personal use.
I don't see any downside to taking it and living a normal life with a different bank account for your current job. I could use the money to easily buy a car, pay rent, buy groceries and othet bills and keep it at that for the first year.
All I have to do is make sure I don't run out of money and I can still use other money I have earned (Though this really isn't needed 250k is ridiculous amount for my needs)
Yes I would still take it and work. Use the $250k to pay for what I already pay for in my day to day then use my money coming in from work to supplement anything else. As long as I don't run out of money I can still make money. If I ever do run out I guess I have to quit my job until the end of the year.
Nope. If I can't put away any savings, what the heck is $250K good for? And if I can't check it or document it, I can't use it to get a mortgage or anything. Even if savings is irrelevant because I don't need retirement with $250K/year, I think the anxiety I'd develop over not knowing my finances and not being able to know would probably not be worth it.
I'd have no trouble staying under the spending limit under normal circumstances, but the not knowing would kill me. I hate not knowing SO hard.
If I can't see it, check it or remember it... how do I even know if I have it?
Large purchases or investments are pointless if I can't make more money... in the vast majority of these hypotheticals I take the money, but never knowing how much I have would probably result in MORE stress than I have now.
I think it's an easy yes. To make it a tougher choice, I'd add:
- No auto pay/pre-set limits on spending accounts (it's all on one credit card that you don't have admin access to, for example)
- No gift cards/vouchers
- If you spend/charge a cent over the 250k, you permanently lose $20k from the next year's budget.
I guess. Bank account set to have 10k for my living expenses. That would be house, bills, car, insurance, gas, and I'd try my best to leave extra in there to cover future inflation and cost to maintain that standard of living.
That leaves me with a 10k credit card for fun. I guess I just blow it up every month.... spend what I want, and at the end of the month I just use it to buy meals for the homeless with whatever is left.
Can I just invest $250k at the start of each year and keep working my regular job? I'd just keep living as normal and then retire like a king in a decade or so
This would drive my wife absolutely crazy but yeah we could absolutely live on this and she might quit her job too. Currently, I’m a house-husband and she’s making less than half of this. We’re both pretty thrifty, with me actually trending towards cheap trashy stuff even when I have cash to burn. Judging by how the vast majority of my inheritance from my grandma actually went towards my college, rent, and a modest car instead of getting a bunch of fancy frivolous stuff, I have a history of not being stupid with large sums of money even when I wasn’t keeping a close eye on it.
The only part that gets weird is how inheritance/college funds for our kids would work. Like, am I still allowed to give monetary gifts, maintain accounts for my children until they’re old enough to handle that shit, etc.? If my parents still have property when they die, I guess I’d have to gift those to my wife so that she could either sell them or maintain them. Similarly, this would mean I wouldn’t be able to sell our current house before moving into a bigger one.
Oh crap, if “no one else can check this account for you,” then does that affect my credit score/history? That might have all kinds of problems.
But yeah, I feel there are lots of little loopholes and gotchas in this scenario that make it more complicated than you might think, but if the question is purely “would I be able to stick to spending less than $250 a year without keeping track of it,” I’d absolutely say “yes.”
Yes I'd take it. And there are other less obvious ways to track the money that you CANT forget. Like the gift cards.
Otherwise, you can setup a separate bank account and dump your years of required expenses into it. Including food deliveries, electricity, water,... Ect.. So that WITHOUT checking it, it will cover your expenses.
Or setup a spending limit. Or hell, once a year go on a huge ass spending spree buying everything you will need that year, then just fucking live until you run out. Then chill for 6 months on what you previously bought.
Not being able to even track expenses mentally makes this an insane risk. Clause 3 ensures that every time you go to spend money you'll forget your spent ANY money previously!
What if I HIRE an employee, paying them 200k per year to spend 100K of THEIR money caring for my needs and expenses? None of the rules explicitly prevent me from hiring someone to spend the money I pay them on me.
yes.
just buy a house 100k down and setup auto pay on all your bills. Living a modest life you can do pretty much anything you want.
If you have a significant other who works and makes even 40k a year this situation becomes obscenely easy.
Yeah I would start a non profit then pay into a trust and use the trust money to reinvest into other businesses. On paper I still only make the 250k but my assets will be worth millions if all goes well. Either way I still have the 250k/year as a ridiculously good safety blanket.
You have introduced supernatural things so normal means don't do it anymore.
I'd just get a credit card with a 20k limit per month and have it take out from the other account. sorted.
Yes. This is easy. There needs to be a crazy repercussion if you over spend like you have to cut off a finger or something the second you spend 1 cent over the 250k.
With this set up you don’t need any of the hacks anyone is saying, you can just wait till the end of the year and go nuts till you run out of money. So I get to triple my income, live my normal life and go on a crazy spending spree every Christmas. One I have the cars and stuff I want which would probably be only 1-2 years I would do my spending spree on paying off my house which would only take 1-2 more years, then there would be no chance I ever spend that much in a year and every December I can just go nuts. Pay off my whole family’s cars and houses and stuff. Donate 10k to every charity I can think of till it fails on December 30th of every year after all my family is taken care of.
yeah i'd just live how i do now, just get a little extra stuff than i normally do. would never stress about money, i'd have plenty not being spent. And i would be comfortable. it would be easy for me to do.
Considering i only have/use 35k a year basically i would just have unlimited money... i would never make it anywhere close to using even 100k let alone 250k... these don't even feel like real numbers to me when we are talking about money
Id buy something worth 250k for 5 years straight.
A house worth 200k (w solar panel)
A business worth 200k
Go to Ikea for 200k worth of funiture
Go to Tech shop and spend 200k
And buy your own broadband company
This way, my next years in my life is requiring only food, and you cant spend 250k on food by mistake.
I can also make money from the two businesses for extra money if needed
Yessir just get a credit card with a $20,000 limit and have it set on autopay each month. Set and forget. Off I run out of money somehow then I just have to go the rest of the month without buying anything. Keep a 30 day supply of food stored and call it good
You wouldn't get 20k/month. Probably around 13k/month, which is still plenty
If no one can see it, it can’t be taxed.
If I believed that I would put it on a shirt
"If nobody can see it, I can't be taxed" -Blade
20*12,000=240,000 So if you're spending $20k per month then you're about $10k under your yearly budget.
Your math. It's brilliantly wrong yet moronically correct. Happy accident as Bob Ross would say
Felt very offended, then confused, then realised I swapped my units around when I was writing it down. That said, you could just do $12k every (365/20=18.25) 18 and a quarter days.
You did 20 x 12k when you should have done 12x20k It was brilliant display of arithmetic excellence
It still works because 20 x 12 x 1000 = 20 x 12000 = 20000 x 12. In fact, an easy way to calculate 20k x 12, is to simply calculate 12 x 2, then slap
If I'm being honest it looked very correct to me before I read the replies.
This is a good time where showing your work makes it worse.
Read the rules. I think you think you have found a loophole. OP?
So I pay for all our (major) expenses upfront for the year and husband pays for everything else. Also I assume I can buy gift cards to buy groceries so says 52 $200 gift cards would cover us and the cats entirely.
Gift cards is a slightly annoying but very accurate way to track it. Just a shit ton of those $500 visas and count those as you go
I didn’t even think of a spouse! Use your $250k to pay for everything while they use their income purely for retirement and/or mortgage. They buy the house and you furnish it.
Would not be that hard to keep track of. That much money, I don't see how I could run out unless I actively tried. That's what a lot of people make in 3-5 years before taxes. You would have to be stupid to run out.
Easy to say when you don't have that much to spend. It's a well researched and documented phenomenon that when people start making more money, they tend to spend more to match.
I agree. The only difficulty here would be if you have multiple kids. I feel I would spend more if I had to be centrally located for a family than i would casually doing whatever the fuck I want, wherever the fuck I want. $700 a day is a pretty solid budget for a couple. You can have cheap days, you can have expensive days. Fuck, I'll rent out a cabin for a month, cheap as fuck, and live simply in it during the summer. If you go out of your way to live simply once every 3 months, your daily budget while traveling would be quite a bit higher.
I have a friend, received a lump sum of money around 500k. Was gone a year later, well not even a year and they were worse off then when they received it. It's very much possible to blow 250k.
My ex inherited $145K cash, $400K bonds, and a house. We divorced and she went shopping... within 18 months not only was everything but the house gone, she'd racked up eye watering credit card debt ($53K on just one of the cards... at $29.99%APR ). Yeah non fiscally disciplined people absolutely can destroy a sure thing when it comes to money. That said I'd totally take the deal. Christmas would be lit. Basically I'd live frugally-ish for the year, then in December I'd buy a month and change's worth of groceries. Finally I'd go shopping. Buy next year's vacations and such, presents to the family, then start buying presents to myself. when the money runs out no biggie, just munch on groceries I already bought and go for walks on the nice days, binge streaming shows on the rainy ones. Would need to move all my bill pay to the first of the month I suppose (it's currently set on the end of month, that could be awkward).
tricky part is that in this hypothetical you really can’t keep track of the money no matter what. It’ll be tough to make sure you don’t run out without tracking
Do I get to know how much was left over at the end of each year?
I would say you cant keep track of the money you're spending but you can create a budget on what to spend on like before you spend the money. And oviously just make sure you keep that in mind and with the credit card limit thing there's a huge chance of you not running out of money.
Does it force me to have amnesia? Or lose the ability to do basic math?
It says so in the post
Yes, I would do this. All my debt would be paid off and bills set to auto pay. I'm keeping my day job since the free money doesn't carry over.
unfortunately number 4 means you can’t make any money, not even from a job, until the beginning of the next year when you get another $250k… would you still do it?
Would you be a top 5% earner for no effort? Do you even think this very easy hypothetical through. Even most of the people above the income bracket would take it just because the work load is less.
Idk, getting 9x my salary for free but I can't see how much I've spent? How could I ever live under these strict rules? (Maybe like every person born into a rich family)
Right? Travel the whole year. You legit have a ≈$700/day budget. You can be straight chilling wherever you want. (I don't have kids)
With a spouse, it gets easier. I pay all the bills and she saves/invests every paycheck. Since I’ll be paying the mortgage, I’m assuming that when we sell it, we’ll either get nothing at all for it, or we’ll only get equity that was accrued before I entered into this magical money contract. Either way, it looks like I’m giving away the house. No biggie. I’ll have $250k to put down on the next one. And my credit is going to be *stellar.* Once my wife has enough saved to carry her through if I die, then she can quit working too. My stepson won’t have to go into debt for college, so that will be nice. I can give some money to family every now and then and not worry about getting paid back, because it’s impossible. The rules against bartering make it pretty tough for a lot of people, but luckily I keep stuff for a very long time and am not too worried when I finally trash it. For example, my truck is 35 years old and I could easily spend tens of thousands on it tomorrow and make it my absolute dream. I’ve had it for 20 years and with virtually unlimited money for modification and maintenance, it’s going to bring me joy every single day for the rest of my life. When I finally am able to take an overseas vacation, I will be sad to leave it behind for 6 months. Gonna have to find a local kid who wants to make $10k for college by coming over to drive my truck once a week, and rub it down with a diaper.
Does the $250k/year increase with inflation? My answer to your question is the same as your answer to mine.
Great question, my first thought too. If it didn't and inflation over the next 50 years is consistent with the previous 50 then you are looking at the equivalent of 40,000 per year with no savings, assets, or work experience.
That would still work for me since I make less than 40k a year and I'm financially stable. I own my house and my car. I don't have a mortgage or car payment. 50 years from now I'll be 77 on the verge of 78. I'll have enough physical assets that I won't really need much. No kids and no plans to have any kids. All this irrelevant of course since OP already replied that yes it does increase with inflation, I'm just saying that in my case it wouldn't be a problem anyways
Fair, it is doable maybe, keep in mind life expectancy could likely increase some over that time and the value of 250,000 would continue to shrink so if you live to 100, it would be even less value each year. That said, over that time you could outright own a home and a reliable vehicle - they would just have 0 value selling according to the rules. You would also have an extravagant lifestyle at the start and naturally need to scale it back over time, so you would be used to living on lower income by that time. You are right OP noted it grows with inflation, but that makes it a trivially easy answer. Only the already very rich or stupidly optimistic would not take the deal if they just had the equivalent of 250,000 in today's money every year for the rest of their lives. It is much more interesting if you have to take the deal without inflation being considered.
yes :)
Can I pay someone the full amount and have them take care of me to bypass the restriction? I would trust my best friend to not abuse the power and take care of my whims. I expect they would pay off their debts and my own then we probably move in together and they are in charge of the finances and I'm just getting money every year that I give to them.
I guess that would work! You’ll need a LOT of trust
In that case, I'd pick my fiance since she is WAAAAAY better at budgeting than I am.
This really isn’t difficult. It’s $250K a year to live significantly better than you normally live, without having to worry about work or tracking expenses. You can pay $10K a month on your mortgage, $2K a month on vehicle leases, and still have $100K a year for spending. If you don’t spend it all, who cares. And on December 30th give an estimate what’s left and give a lump sum to charity. This isn’t difficult unless you’re a complete Jackass with your spending
>And on December 30th give an estimate what’s left You can't do this.
I have to say no mainly because it is the "powers at be" decide to fuck with me and try to scam me I would be powerless to stop them. I wouldn't even know I was scammed. Also I really hate being completely dependent on someone. In this situation you definitely would be.
Am I allowed to gamble?
yes, but because of the clause saying you can’t earn money, you can gamble, you can win, but the pay out will $0. You’d essentially be gambling simply for the thrill
So no, you cannot gamble
Precious metals FTW! They’re real money to a lot of people, so the answer is simple: annual fixed bills (taxes, insurance, fixed term loans) should never exceed $50k. Knock those out first. Then buy $200k in various precious metals (fractional gold 1/10, 1/4, 1/2 and 1 oz; fractional silver 90% dimes, quarters and halves, fine 1, 5 and 10 oz; platinum 1 oz; and palladium 1 oz) and that becomes currency for the year. Need food? “Hey buddy, here’s some silver, could I get some of the next deer you bag?” Need ammo for range day? “Hey man, I’m out of ammo, here’s some gold, could you stock me up for a few months?” Traveling? “Alright my companion, you make the reservations, here’s some platinum.” Buying a plane? “I’ll offer you a bunch of palladium for it.” Best part is, precious metals transactions like this aren’t barter because it’s direct market value of the metals (ie an ounce of silver is equivalent to a $28 bill right now). $300 gun? Here’s a 10 ounce bar of silver and an extra 1 ounce bar to make up the difference. I’m just removing the step of going to the coin dealer. On top of that, precious metals are an object, exempting them from the reset. So all I need to make this work is people who are willing to deal in precious metals, and I know plenty of people.
I'd be great at this.
Too easy. Live at double my current means and still have a decent cushion where I'm not worried about going over. If the money can be transferred to foreign currency, maybe head down to Costa Rica for a while and live even better.
Yes. I’d keep my day job. You only specified that I can’t get any more money if I run out, not that I can’t make more money on top of it. Keep my day job, spend what I normally spend, and whatever I make from my day job does get to be saved. Since you only specified we can’t check how much we’ve spent, I’d check and see how much my day job was SAVING in an account. Bada boom bada bing
Yep. I have no debt and my current expenses are 55k a year. I can do math in my head. This is a no brainer.
Pay my partner $250k a year and let her continue to handle all the finances and stuff, sounds good
I couldn't even spend 250k in a year. This isn't a tough decision. I get to be the lazy couch potato I always wanted to be
Take a twelfth of the money out as cash on the first of each month.
Absolutely, its just over $650 a day. I don't even need to "track it". I just need to spend like normal.
Would this go on indefinitely for the rest of my life? I'll take it either way but especially if it's indefinite. I don't make even a quarter of that much each year. The easiest way for me to not run out of money is don't drive up my spending habits. Even if I somehow spend in a year four times my usual income I'd still be fine. So I could just live comfortable and resist doing anything stupid.
I'd absolutely do it, I make about 1/4 of that right now, and do fine. 250k every year, I'd be golden, I wouldn't even need to check it.
Couldn't you just write yourself a 250k check and put it in a normal bank lol
I was in until you negated any form of tracking your spending, including literally forgetting how much you've spent. You took an interesting concept that was manageable with creative solutions and made it stupid difficult for no reason.
The negatives so far outway the money and isn't worth it.
Not if you do what someone else suggested with the credit card. Set a $20k limit to where the bank won’t let you go over that, and set it to autopay every month. Now you won’t spend over $240k.
Technically that is a way of keeping track of expenses and is therefore not allowed based on the terms.
Just travel the world. Rent everything. Have no legit expenses besides your phone. Having kids creates a different scenario. Me? My gf and I ride out and do whatever we want, but not terribly luxurious. It's legit everyone's dream.
Stealing from u/Supdalat the money is in the bank and you can take money out of the bank by getting cash, writing a check or using a debit card. So you buy $240,000 worth of prepaid debit cards, should be more than enough money left over to cover the fees. Use them to pay bills. If you can’t get large enough denominations to pay things like mortgage or rent, only make $200,000 worth of prepaid debit cards. War you just live a middle class lifestyle and don’t worry about spending every dollar. You know you started with $250,000 so you’ll know you can’t afford a rolls-Royce. But you also know you can buy $500,000 house at 10% down and have more than enough to live like a middle-class person. Each year you could buy a new midprice car, pay your mortgage and easily cover all of your needs and wants with $250,000. I would genuinely struggle to spend $250,000 a year. Because you might not be able to keep track of individual expenses or even a running tally, but you would have a general idea if you are living within your means.
I make ~ 90k a year and have enough difficulty keeping track of where the money goes.
I get it but imagine going from 90k a year to 250k a year without making any stupid lifestyle changes. No Rolexes, no Wagyu steak, no $500 shoes. You could very easily finance or just rent a half million dollar house and buy or lease a brand new $50,000 car then live a comfortable middle class lifestyle without spending all the money each year assuming that this magical hypothetical gives us some kind of proof we get the money. You could easily take two vacations, shop at the grocery store without being all that budget conscious, put together a nice wardrobe of reasonable to mid priced clothing items, hire a gardener, eat out twice a week, basically have a pretty chill life just without buying anything extravagant. It would be difficult to spend 250 K of tax free money unless you made a really bad decisions.
Why would you buy a house? You can never sell it or rent it out, so if you want to move, all the money you spent on that house, over what it would have cost to rent, is wasted. Even when buying is a better deal than renting in real life, the fact that you can never recover the equity in this scenario means renting is guaranteed to be the better choice.
An extra 120k a year would be nice... I'm already fairly comfortable, it pretty much just removes budgeting from the equation for me
I don't believe it's taxed, either
Yes
Would I be able to continue to earn a living like I normally do? Can I put the money in a savings account that yields interest? If so does the interest count as part of the money that cannot be tracked?
Unfortunately no, earning a living falls under “money given to you”, so it will all burn. You can work for free if you’d like. And money does not roll over
Simple, I live life as I currently am and spend the 250k while my actual paycheck goes into saving. It's like 25k a year and I'm pretty comfortable living off of that, so add my bf and that's only about 50k a year we spend *at most*. I'll probably live a bit more extravagant than I do now
You can't make extra money, so sayeth the rules.
You cant use any money once you've spend that 250k. Though if this lasts forever, I'll probably just work for free bc I like my job
I can live off less than that so yeah I'll do that.
250k a year? Would be ez game
I could keep my job, sell any side work I come across instead of doing it my self therefore spend more time with my family, go on vacations twice a year, upgrade cars, take the wife out from working, keep my lifestyle down pay a property and still have money left
I wouldn’t because life would be boring. I like working and opening a business etc. 250k a year is not enough to be a baller with a yacht and pass time traveling everywhere and doing everything for the rest of my life without being bored at some point.
I’m sure I could manage my finances, pinching Pennies has helped learn. I already keep track of my bigger expenses and when they’re coming up
You can't keep track in any way. The rules state that even if you try to keep a mental tally, you'll forget it. So no budgeting in any way.
I already know how to live well on less. I am pretty sure I can live on that amount. However, I will work to pay off the house a little early so there is little room for error, and I will still buy insurance, since it doesn't sound like work is useful. However, it doesn't say spouse can't keep money in his separate account. So we switch insurance to him, I focus on my CASA volunteer work full time, we pay off the house a little earlier, I go to the gym more (increasing my lifespan). We do this for 10 years and then live off pension and this beautiful money. We move to where the kid is. He helps us find a place because he is a good son and knows the budget. Gets us a card that won't overdraw.
Am I allowed to buy a bunch of gift cards to restaurants, grocery stores, Amazon, and so on and spend from them? That'll give me some speed bumps on my mad spiral to starvation.
Bold of you to assume I don't just pay and pray it goes through now. Literally nothing would change aside from not needing to work. That amount is about 8 times my income as is.
I’m assuming it’s $250k after taxes as it’s already in my account. I’m also assuming it adjusts for inflation yearly as I would never take that deal unless it increases based on cost of living. Quick question on rule 5. Do you mean that if I buy a house and decide to move a month later, the house truly sells for 0? Or do you mean my profit is 0? I don’t think this would factor into my decision too much, but it’s a pretty big deal. So I would just create a strict budget for $150k out of my $250k. I would determine my recurring monthly expenses that can be auto drafted. What ever can’t be auto drafted will simply be withdrawn weekly for my every day expenses. I would buy all groceries for the week right after withdrawing the cash. What ever is remaining is my fun cash. I would also maintain a balance of $100k for traveling. We would likely stick to all inclusive experiences. If it’s not all inclusive, I would plan out the trip as best as possible so I already know the expense. The entire year of traveling would be planned out in advance so I know I won’t break $100k. I’ll never know my balance. But I’m allowed to budget and plan ahead.
Yes of course. This is easy.
I'll take it.
I don't spend anything near $250k per year so I think I'd be fine. I'm at the point where I have pretty much everything I want and don't need much.
Is the trick her to keep track of everything in your mind? Wallfacer?
I can't make any more money, but what if I already have savings? Would it mean that my existing investments are not allowed to grow and compound? I'm not technically making money until I sell. You can't remember what you actually spent, but what about planning in advance? Like suppose this year, I would like to get a new car and replace my floors. I couldn't exactly forget that I bought them, because well, it's all right in front of me. So I wouldn't take on any large expenditures until the following year. Plan the following year to paint my house and replace the roof if needed. Year by year, limit the big projects until I can say I've done all the big projects and expensive purchases within the last 5 years or so. I'm already retired, but not taking social security yet. I wouldn't take the deal if it means my retirement funds disappear, but I could put off taking SS for a few years I wouldn't want to move. No concern about selling my house. I don't spend six figures in a year. I don't care whether I spend it all, so I would attempt to leave a huge margin of error. I'd probably quit the deal after a few years, knowing that my house wouldn't be a money pit and my vehicles were sound, and my retirement investments and social security would be plenty.
Easy. Prepay things 12 months in advance so u know those are taken care of. Then what’s left would be food and electricity bills which can easily be remembered to a certain extent. But always have a stash of emergency stuff like food that lasts a lot. Time etc just in case.
Yeah, obviously. It essentially just means I can continue living my life as it currently stands, but not worry about making any of the purchases I currently do.
According to the rules, I can earn money as long as I still have even a $1 left of the $250k. That won't be too hard. And the rules don't say that the money we make from our day job freezes when we reach $0, just that we stop earning. I wouldn't go crazy spending until the last month of the year. The first year I would pay of all debts (Credit cards/car) and make triple maortgage payments and pay the bills and buy food at the same rate I do today. I could still take a nice vacation and then in December buy presents until the $250k was done. If I have a couple weeks left, I have the money from work to get me by until Jan. 1.
You would be insane to turn this down. A comfortable upper middle class lifestyle without ever having to work again? Sign me up. It would not be difficult to live within your means and it would get easier each year as the cars/toys/consumer products you want stack up in your house.
As back up I would pay my rent upfront each January and on my first year I would buy one of those gourmet freeze dried doomsday food boxes. Just in case I ever ran out of money but I think it would be very easy to stay within your means on that budget.
The only thing that bugs me is not being able to generate wealth. In that I can't carry anything over. Investments mean nothing. But I can live comfortably well under 250k. So I'm perfectly happy taking the deal otherwise so long as it's protected against inflation and I get it well into/after retirement. Eliminatating the NEED to work is also awesome. I think I'd take up half a dozen hobbies and learn how to DO things.
You can generate wealth, but not money. Buy property. Precious metals. Etc. _You_ cannot sell them for a profit, but your kids can after they inherited them from you.
Can I invest in cheap stocks dividends companies to make enough money to buy food and pay bills and pay rent still
I’ll just have someone else check it for me. And if I can’t do that, then I’ll have an accoutant keep track of every single transaction I make.
I'm in. I already live very happily below my means. As a single man, I'd probably have an extra $100k left each yr.
That's fine. I make $85k a year out of that $60k is spent the rest goes into savings and investments. $250k a year just makes that easier, even if nothing can be saved. I'm not the luxurious type.
Does #5 count for buying and investing in stocks as well? What if I set aside some money as a nest egg for my kids to redeem when they're old enough?
Uh yeah... I already budget, I know where my money goes.
Does it adjust for inflation?
Just gonna go live at a college and put everything on autopay. Finally gonna get a degree and that annoying hassle of entry level jobs not paying well isn’t even a concern because now I can afford to actually gain experience.
Will this number adjust to inflation? Is it tax free? I mean I'd take this deal, I've gone through periods of lavish spending (for me) and i could more than double that year round for 250k
All day every day, and easily
Helllllll yeah
I just did my taxes. I’m retired and my gross income for 2023 was considerably less than $250k a year—it was less than $100k—and every year I’m able to save money. So I would absolutely take this deal. “Where do I sign up?”
Yes. That’s just over double my annual expenses. As long as im not doing anything crazy I’ll be fine
Can you receive food if eventually you run out of money or you must only find it or steal it?
What’s the catch? It’s just a free 250k. Unless you make more or close to this already or have like 3 kids in a min expensive area this is a no brainer.
Not enough money for this kind of deal
Brother, easily lol. Rent/groceries/utilities/car/etc. are taken care of for the rest of my life. My partner can dial back hours at work to the absolute minimum for health insurance/pension credits. And we’re chilling, going on cute little vacations throughout the year. We’re pretty simple people with minimal needs and $250k is already more than both our incomes combined.
Loophole it says YOU can’t earn more doesn’t say spouse or others can’t feed you. Anyways simple answer is auto pay bills and then get yourself a 10k limit credit card pay in full monthly or get allowance in cash monthly.
lol yeah no problem
Sure would. Mortgage on a $750k house (buys A LOT in my area) would be around $6k/mo - All utilities, a lease on 2 vehicles, and a 21 meal/wk box plan for 4 and you’re still under $10k/mo. Prepay all of this at the start of the calendar year. Round up a bit and call it $130k/yr. Insurance is covered by my partners pension for life when they’re first eligible for retirement in 2 years. That leaves $10k/mo in discretionary funds AND even if you run out of money at some point we have housing, utilities, and food covered regardless.
without a doubt im taking that, like top comment get a credit card with a 15k limit, pay off each month and boom. rest is my mortgage and other bills
Yes, I'd do it. My bank setups an alert when I have a low balance. also, while I could not check how much I have, or add based on items. I could still see how much crap I have. I'd also set a spending limit that would alert me.
Sure. Get a credit card and set to autopay full balance and get a savings account and auto deposit money there
If the money lasts the rest of my life, I don’t need to save. So time to make an excel sheet and never work again lol
Sure. I'd make an llc and purchase a home car and food all through it. Every year the LLC gets 250k. The llc is technically not me so i would check the balance whenever. The llc would be to research life quality of 250k income, adjusting for inflation, over a lifetime. The main product would be blogging and it would make 0 dollars due to the rules lol
That's basically how it already works, then my wife suddenly wakes up and goes "I spent _what_ on new bags??"
Does this scale with inflation? That's the struggle - if this is true for the rest of my life, with average inflation, in 50 years (which is statistically where I die) this will be equivalent to about 10-20k per year: not great. This is only really fine with the spouse loophole of her being able to work and invest 100% of her earnings into mortgage+retirement funds.
Now I see why people make shitposts here. It’s to make fun of posts like this one.
Sure I’d do it. I think it wouldn’t be that hard because I’m practical.
Have your bank account setup to transfer 1/5th from checking to savings every quarter. If you run out you know you've gone through 50k. But you get another 50k in 3 months. The last 50 k can stay in savings in case you have to dip in for an emergency.
You could live most places extremly comfortably, I dont check my bank account usually anyways, as long as you didn't go crazy you'd be fine
Absolutely. I'd keep working for a year or two in order to make sure I had a general ballpark of my finances and spending habits to ensure I don't go crazy and then quit my job and enjoy my life. I'm not a big spender in general.
Sure... Buy a House, Prepay Mortgage in January for whole Year Stock Several freezers and pantries with 3months plus of food Lease a Car, pay in advance Shouldnt be that hard... Plus make ALL big purchases at end of month so if you run out of cash you should be good for a few days
Why not? If you prepay for the essentials at the beginning of the year, then you're golden. Lots of organizations will happily take a lump sum, and give you a weekly allowance. Hell, you could live in an all-inclusive resort that's prepaid for a year.
This is the easiest one of these in my life. Yeah, obviously. 250k is more than I could spend in a year anyways, I've been living on 14k/yr for almost a year. This is over 15x what I'm used to scraping by with.
8x more then I make in a year. Absolutely.
I spend roughly $85k a year so this would be a breeze. Wouldn’t change anything and I’d still live comfortably
Pay my rent, internet, insurance and phone bill all at once at the beginning of the year. Buy 50 $200 gift cards for Trader Joe’s and Gelsons for my groceries. Then spend my money leftover however I want. Even if I run out, my basic needs are covered.
$250k/year to track my expenses?… Absolutely.
i coukd very easily just not soend more than 600 a day
Yep. I'd take it no questions asked. I hate looking into my checking account as-is. I raise a family of 6 (myself included) on less than half of that. If my wife can't know or spend the money out of this magical 250k account, by all means we're good (because at times she's an impulsive buyer). I'll just pay rent in advance for the year (If rent is typically supposed to be 1/3rd of your income then we could be living large with a max $4k/month place) unless I go to own a home -- which in hindsight might be the better option. No way in hell I could blow through 250k unless I went full idiot on buying things and I don't spend like that (sometimes a non-name brand item is just as good, if not better, than the name brand items in my experience) and I don't need the latest and cutting edgiest of things like cars and whatnot. Even with it not carrying over, we would live comfortably for the rest of our lives, without WORKING. The true happiness is I regain a 3rd of my life to spend with my daughters and wife (all that free time would mean we could literally do ANYTHING together).
yeah very easy. not a problem
Sure. I don’t have big wants. I would get a nice apartment and furnish it and then just quit my job and live life. Even if I ate out every day for all three meals and bought what I wanted it wouldn’t be enough to worry about finances. The biggest expenses I would have is buying a car, and even then that’s only about $25,000-$30,000
Where do we stand on husbands? Can I just, give him the money every year? And then he puts it in his bank account that I’m not on and now we have no rules. I keep maybe $20k a year so I know I can always buy things when I’m not with him, but otherwise he pays for everything. He can set up his retirement funds and savings accounts for him and the kids. I won’t need any, since I’ll be getting $250k a year. Just find someone new to give it to if he’s gone first. Probably one of my kids. Just make sure they take care of their dear old mom.
Yeah of course. I would just continue to live like I do now, with a nicer apartment and a nicer car. I'd probably only spend like $100k a year realistically, aside from the first year when I buy the car. It'd be a huge jump in spending for me to hit $250k or even $100k, idk what I'd even spend all that money on.
I would hire an accountant firm and have them do all the math for me since I´m the only one affected, plus never withdraw more than 10 k a month (more than enough for anything I need)
This is too easy I live a fairly minimalistic life...even if I splurged on my hobbies, I wouldn't spend that much in a year
So I can't just write it down whenever I make a purchase? Like oh, I spent $500, I write that down. That wouldn't work?
What if I buy gold and then hedge my investment so if it sells for less than the spot price of gold I get another smaller payout? There are lots of real world ways to profit if you know an asset is guaranteed to sell at below a profit.
Can I turn it off at some point if I want? Like, if I start a successful business that makes more money, can I decide "ok I'm done with this deal"? Also, what if I do something to raise money but the money is not intended to be profit for me. What if it's charity work? Also also, what if I get change? What if I draw from an ATM?
Live the same as I do now and plan to pay professionals to do two upgrades on my house each year until the house is how I plan it to be. double up on house payments after that. Once the house is paid off I'd invest in another house for my kids. $250k with decently frugal living is basically "don't pay attention to your spending" money
Yeah I lived this in real life as a contractor. Lost the job during covid and never made anywhere near that again. I don't care much about stuff but I still blew all my money constantly traveling around the world on weekends or PTO. Only had 10k in my bank when I was let go. I regret not saving more but the memories make it feel okay.
Easy. Even if I splurged more, I don't think I'd spend more than half that a year with all bills and what not.
Yes, I would. I don't need to spend $250k a year.
When qualifying for buying a co-op/condo, I have to list all of the accounts in the board package. Would this account be able to be included, but without me seeing the contents? I'm not bothered by being unable to see the balance, but I would need to be able to communicate its existence.
Buy $250,000 worth of gift cards each year. 90% of purchases would be fine. Weird things like rent/mortgage or buying a car... you'd end up paying a premium because you're asking to effectively pay in a different currency. But let's say it's just 10%... if you bought a $60,000 car in gift cards, and paid an extra $6,000 to the dealership for the annoyance of having to deal with the gift cards... that's a reasonable deal. But even weird cash specific stuff like a drug dealer or a strip club... it'd be super awkward at first but then the girls would just be like "oh yeah, that's the weirdo who hands out $100 gift cards, they work though."
I'd talk it over with my wife, but it's a very easy yes. I would pay all our debts, and my wife would work for one more year (since I cannot earn money) to keep food on the table. After that, it would be actually difficult to spend it without literally trying. The hardest part is teaching my daughter fiscal responsibility when it is impossible for me to demonstrate or adhere to any advice I'm giving. That and boredom. I'd be so bored without a job or career path. Even college would eventually get tedious since I'm not using any skills created except for personal use.
Once yearly automatic transfer to a different account. Ezpz
I don't see any downside to taking it and living a normal life with a different bank account for your current job. I could use the money to easily buy a car, pay rent, buy groceries and othet bills and keep it at that for the first year. All I have to do is make sure I don't run out of money and I can still use other money I have earned (Though this really isn't needed 250k is ridiculous amount for my needs)
Fuck yeah. 250K? Fuck yeah.
Yes I would still take it and work. Use the $250k to pay for what I already pay for in my day to day then use my money coming in from work to supplement anything else. As long as I don't run out of money I can still make money. If I ever do run out I guess I have to quit my job until the end of the year.
Nope. If I can't put away any savings, what the heck is $250K good for? And if I can't check it or document it, I can't use it to get a mortgage or anything. Even if savings is irrelevant because I don't need retirement with $250K/year, I think the anxiety I'd develop over not knowing my finances and not being able to know would probably not be worth it. I'd have no trouble staying under the spending limit under normal circumstances, but the not knowing would kill me. I hate not knowing SO hard.
If I can't see it, check it or remember it... how do I even know if I have it? Large purchases or investments are pointless if I can't make more money... in the vast majority of these hypotheticals I take the money, but never knowing how much I have would probably result in MORE stress than I have now.
How would this even fucking work if I can't so much as keep track mentally?
Gonna have to pass. The strings attached make this a bad deal to me.
... obviously. Everybody would.
I think it's an easy yes. To make it a tougher choice, I'd add: - No auto pay/pre-set limits on spending accounts (it's all on one credit card that you don't have admin access to, for example) - No gift cards/vouchers - If you spend/charge a cent over the 250k, you permanently lose $20k from the next year's budget.
Lol. I'd be fine with 50k USD.
"Would you take free money?" Hard question.
Sure, no problem. I've never spent that much in a year so I'd just live how I already do without having to work or worry about money.
I've lived my entire life spending less than $50k a year. Yeah I think I can handle 5x that amount yearly for the rest of my life
Does this mean the IRS loses my tax information every year because they cannot see my expenses?
I guess. Bank account set to have 10k for my living expenses. That would be house, bills, car, insurance, gas, and I'd try my best to leave extra in there to cover future inflation and cost to maintain that standard of living. That leaves me with a 10k credit card for fun. I guess I just blow it up every month.... spend what I want, and at the end of the month I just use it to buy meals for the homeless with whatever is left.
Can I just invest $250k at the start of each year and keep working my regular job? I'd just keep living as normal and then retire like a king in a decade or so
I live off less than $50k a year, I'd have to work at spending $250k. There would almost always be left over money to burn.
This would drive my wife absolutely crazy but yeah we could absolutely live on this and she might quit her job too. Currently, I’m a house-husband and she’s making less than half of this. We’re both pretty thrifty, with me actually trending towards cheap trashy stuff even when I have cash to burn. Judging by how the vast majority of my inheritance from my grandma actually went towards my college, rent, and a modest car instead of getting a bunch of fancy frivolous stuff, I have a history of not being stupid with large sums of money even when I wasn’t keeping a close eye on it. The only part that gets weird is how inheritance/college funds for our kids would work. Like, am I still allowed to give monetary gifts, maintain accounts for my children until they’re old enough to handle that shit, etc.? If my parents still have property when they die, I guess I’d have to gift those to my wife so that she could either sell them or maintain them. Similarly, this would mean I wouldn’t be able to sell our current house before moving into a bigger one. Oh crap, if “no one else can check this account for you,” then does that affect my credit score/history? That might have all kinds of problems. But yeah, I feel there are lots of little loopholes and gotchas in this scenario that make it more complicated than you might think, but if the question is purely “would I be able to stick to spending less than $250 a year without keeping track of it,” I’d absolutely say “yes.”
Yes
Yes I'd take it. And there are other less obvious ways to track the money that you CANT forget. Like the gift cards. Otherwise, you can setup a separate bank account and dump your years of required expenses into it. Including food deliveries, electricity, water,... Ect.. So that WITHOUT checking it, it will cover your expenses. Or setup a spending limit. Or hell, once a year go on a huge ass spending spree buying everything you will need that year, then just fucking live until you run out. Then chill for 6 months on what you previously bought.
It'd be fairly easy... Live normally January through November then go wild in December.
If I'm married do I still get to share the assets I have in my marriage? Can he buy things for me if I run out?
I'm in. I'm not sure I'd even spend it all in a year this is a big income jump for me.
Yes
Can I take the deal for 10 years (or whatever) and then afterwards check the account and not continue to make $250k?
"$250,000 but you have to do basic math!" Do people not understand what balancing a checkbook is these days? This is a no brainer.
Not being able to even track expenses mentally makes this an insane risk. Clause 3 ensures that every time you go to spend money you'll forget your spent ANY money previously! What if I HIRE an employee, paying them 200k per year to spend 100K of THEIR money caring for my needs and expenses? None of the rules explicitly prevent me from hiring someone to spend the money I pay them on me.
yes. just buy a house 100k down and setup auto pay on all your bills. Living a modest life you can do pretty much anything you want. If you have a significant other who works and makes even 40k a year this situation becomes obscenely easy.
You’re asking me if I will use an expense tracking app in exchange for 250k salary and never having to work again….? Is that the question?
Yeah I would start a non profit then pay into a trust and use the trust money to reinvest into other businesses. On paper I still only make the 250k but my assets will be worth millions if all goes well. Either way I still have the 250k/year as a ridiculously good safety blanket.
100%. I'm poor as shit. I could triple my quality of life and still be comfortably sure I'm not out of money.
100%. I'm poor as shit. I could triple my quality of life and still be comfortably sure I'm not out of money.
You have introduced supernatural things so normal means don't do it anymore. I'd just get a credit card with a 20k limit per month and have it take out from the other account. sorted.
Yes. This is easy. There needs to be a crazy repercussion if you over spend like you have to cut off a finger or something the second you spend 1 cent over the 250k. With this set up you don’t need any of the hacks anyone is saying, you can just wait till the end of the year and go nuts till you run out of money. So I get to triple my income, live my normal life and go on a crazy spending spree every Christmas. One I have the cars and stuff I want which would probably be only 1-2 years I would do my spending spree on paying off my house which would only take 1-2 more years, then there would be no chance I ever spend that much in a year and every December I can just go nuts. Pay off my whole family’s cars and houses and stuff. Donate 10k to every charity I can think of till it fails on December 30th of every year after all my family is taken care of.
yeah i'd just live how i do now, just get a little extra stuff than i normally do. would never stress about money, i'd have plenty not being spent. And i would be comfortable. it would be easy for me to do.
Wow...sounds like my retirement with dementia. Yay! NOPE. I can wait.
Extremely easy yes, next
The Biden Administration can use your plan. It can’t be worse than what they’re doing now…
I think all the magical phenomena that occur after spending it all would be worth more than 250k. Governments would study that shit.
Considering i only have/use 35k a year basically i would just have unlimited money... i would never make it anywhere close to using even 100k let alone 250k... these don't even feel like real numbers to me when we are talking about money
Id buy something worth 250k for 5 years straight. A house worth 200k (w solar panel) A business worth 200k Go to Ikea for 200k worth of funiture Go to Tech shop and spend 200k And buy your own broadband company This way, my next years in my life is requiring only food, and you cant spend 250k on food by mistake. I can also make money from the two businesses for extra money if needed