What is a “life changing” amount of money?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My relative played a huge lottery. They never had kids. They were in their 70s and retired in a little laid off house from blue collar jobs.

They gave away 100 percent of money to build an orphanage and set a trust to run it forever. Only stipulation their name on building since had no kids wanted someone to remember them.

All the dead beat relatives and friends told the. They “wasted” the money

Good for your relative.

[Anonymous]

Adding 4M changed my life for the better - I am less stressed about everything. Still driving a cheap car and putting off home renovation, but the lowered stress has been a boon. I'm just a cheap date, I guess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Truly life changing? Would have to be between 5-10 million to even think about quitting my job.

Anything less than 5 million - it’s nice and I certainly wouldn’t turn it down lol - but my life would not change much.

I generally feel this. Like you, I wouldn't turn down any amount (lol) but I don't think it'll change our day to day that much. Maybe one of us could retire much sooner than expected but not both of us.

[Anonymous]

Net of $540K would do it for me!

[Anonymous]

If you are already making 200-300k per year with one salary, I do not consider any salary increase "life changing." I mean, making 400, 500, 600 per year could change things on the margins, but you are still working for that income. Plus in many instances, the added income comes with serious step ups in responsibility and stress, which means you will be spending at least some portion of that increase on stuff that will help you manage that -- more help at home, more money on vacations or other stress-relievers, etc. A step up in income can also come with expectations of a certain lifestyle, and it's easy to say "oh I can resist that" but the truth is that if you are at a partnership meeting and everyone else is discussing their Christmas in Aspen or the Swiss Alps, you might change your tune.

After about 200k, the only way to truly change your life is some kind of large lump sum (inheritance, sale of a side business or property, etc.) that could free you from working for a living, or enable you to make some kind of professional left turn without having to deal with financial hardship to do it. How much it would be kind of depends on what you want. For me, 2-3 million would do it, because I'm in a place with my mortgage and retirement savings and kids where that would be enough to essentially permit early retirement with not only no decline in lifestyle, but also I could do a couple things I really want to do that now feel tricky to accomplish. But other people have bigger dreams where they'd need 10 or 20 million. Other people could probably change their lives with just a million or so in free money. It depends on where your life is at now, how much debt you have, and what your goals are.

[Anonymous]

My base salary is 210K. Our HHI was just over a million last year due to the profit I made on my equity from the sale of my company.

If i was in my 30s or even early 40s that would be life changing money but because I'm in my late 50s, it wasn't.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think 300 to 500k is life changing. I think a million is life changing in the form of ability to save/ invest. But if you are a spender then even that isn’t “ life changing” unless you just consider buying more stuff a goal. You can easily blow through that buying/ upgrading your primary residence. Life changing is a strong phrase.

[Anonymous]

Life changing for me would be anything at or north of $5M. $20M would be the sweet spot.

[Anonymous]

Double what you make seems about right. A little less than a million would put our retirement savings on a different trajectory, we might be able to stop retirement contributions all together.