The Lotto pool guy just came around asking for 2 dollars. “The jackpot is 96 million!” he says. “With my share of that,” I answer, “I can probably quit when we win.” He was surprised. He’d quit if he won a million.
By all the charts and graphs, me and my immediate family are solidly middle class. Being middle class in New York City seems to be a tad different than being middle class in, say, Florida (where I have family). If I won a million dollars the only thing I could do would be to buy a house and a new car. I’d have to keep working to eat. With 12 million and careful planning, I could get my house and car AND retire.
How much would you need to win to retire?
Don’t forget that if you’ve got a million dollars (or more), you can make it work for you. It can earn interest and/or dividends that might be more than what you earn working for a living now.
And barring freakish financial disaster or reckless portfolio management, the pile keeps increasing. My understanding is that even conservative money management can yield very nice sums from a large initial pot like $1 million. Others on board can give you better information … I only know the generalities.
I’m betting (har har) that I could be quite happy with anything over $10 million, even after taxes. But I really enjoy my job, so I wouldn’t retire. In fact, if I won big, I’d ask my boss to cut back my salary to something nominal so he could distribute the rest to other employees, a number of whom deserve a raise.
I’m thinking that if I clear 5 Million after tax, I’m probably set to maintain my current lifestyle for the rest of my projected span, and have a good bit left over when I expire.
I once figured out that a $5 million after tax payout could give me enough cash to retire, support my family, and live pretty well for the rest of my life. I could even come out pretty rich if the investments were done correctly.
OTOH, my wife’s uncle won a 4 million dollar jackpot 21 years ago. He thought that he was super wealthy and lived like it and more. Now the last payment has run out and he only has a very modest house to show for it. He is 63 years old and will likely have to go on welfare to feed himself.
Not to be greedy… but I’ve calculated that I need to win at least an $80 M jackpot to accomplish everything I’d want to do.
After taxes and the reductions for a lump sum payout, and after giving $1 M to each close relative and lesser sums to my close friends, I’d have $5 M remaining to set Mrs. Stone and myself up in the style to which we hope to become accustomed and still feel like I’d fullfilled my familial duties and not ignored anyone.
So $5 M after taxes would set Mrs. Stone and I up for life, but there’d be a lot of stuff I’d still regret not being able to do for my family and friends.
… rereading the OP… I’d say $1.5 M after taxes would allow us to retire, but then we’d live simply (like we do now).
$2 million post-taxes is all I need. Directly invested, and assuming a mere 5% return rate, I’d have $50,000 a year in dividends, with the rest of the return going back in to hedge against inflation.
I think $10 million would do it although $100 million would be very nice. You have to be conservative in estimating the return on the investments, and then you can’t spend all of it anyhow. I think university endowments only spend about half the return on their investments and plow the rest back into growth. So if you could get six percent with a mixture of investments, you could spend perhaps three percent. For a million dollars, that’s only $30,000 per year. Don’t forget that if you’re still young, you’ll need to buy your own health insurance and that’s expensive since you’re not on a corporate plan. It might be worth continuing to work just for the benefits.
A million dollars just doesn’t mean what it once did.
$3 Million:
It figured this would be a gross income of $150,000 per year for next 20.
I would probably see $100,000 after taxes. So $50k to live on and $50k per year to invest/save. I don’t think I would need to work again. (Currently in late 30’s)
For $5m + I don’t have to think about it.
I’m 23 years old (or close enough) and figure that I could probably never even have to start my first real job if I won $10mil. Instead, I would go to grad school and study for fun and see what happens. If I won say $1mil I would be able to have a mediocre job and still live quite well which I would certainly be content with. Fortunately, I don’t have to worry about this because in a year I will have a degree in philosophy and I hear that I am then practically guaranteed a 6 figure job upon graduation.
In the mid-80s, I remember that star Cleveland Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar somehow invested his $1 million dollar signing bonus from his rookie contract, and lived off the interest/dividends for a while. I’m sure he was living a middle-class lifestyle at the time, too – no huge crib, fancy cars, etc. Not at the time, anyway.
Apparently, he was taking somewhat bigger risks with his money than what you are talking about, Dewey. It was about 20 years ago, too – maybe the equivalent today would be living on the interest/dividends off of something like $2.5 million.
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Re: health insurance – seems to me that not having to make rent or a mortgage payment would more than make up what one would pay for health care. I know that there are forms of collective health care out there, too, that aren’t done through employers.
Haven’t really thought about it much. I’ll let you know after I win the lottery. 
One million after taxes would be enough for me to quit my job and go to grad school. I figure a good estimate is a $30,000 return, and after taxes, I don’t make that much currently. $30,000/year should be more than enough to pay for grad school, considering I am sure I would get at least a little bit of financial aid being a TA and/or research assistant to a prof.
Once I had my degree, I would look to get a better job, and then back to the working world as usual, but with 30k more a year than I would have otherwise (plus, I might actualyl enjoy the job, and it might, gasp, be more related to what I studied than my current one.)
But to never work again? I’d say at least $5 mil, after taxes. I’d still go to grad school, cause I enjoy book-learnin’, and Hell, probably go back and get another undergrad degree, too, and maybe another graduate degree! Woo, lifetime student! (I would proably stop by the time I got 30, cause by then, it’s time to settle down…or in my case, move to Hawaii. 
)
There’s another thread around here that asks this question. IIRC, the answer was something like $2 million to achieve the US median income.
Some days, I’d quit for free.
Even if I won a million or more, I would keep working right where I’m at now. I love what I’m doing, and would go crazy without a normal routine each day.
No, it could not. Even at a very generous 7% return on a million dollars ($70,000), we could not continue to live in the style we are living in right now. A fixer-upper house in stinking East New York is gonna cost $400,000-- before it’s been fixed up. Believe me, I’ve given this much more thought than it’s worth. Plus, I’ve got at least another 40 years in me. Not that I’d turn down a million. There’s just no way I could retire on it.
For sure, a million does not go anywhere near as far as it used to.
I would definitely not keep working if I got money to retire. I’d probably be good enough to finish the projects I was working on at the time, but I’d probably also be really surly with management, as the sole reason for my tolerance of corporate BS is my own continued financial security.
Yeah, but you could move to Mississippi or Louisiana or Texas and POOF! – the money buys twice as much.
I will say this, though – having a million dollars free and clear can eliminate your rent/mortgage and car payments (presumably even in New York). That’s a big deal in itself – the money you reclaim can be invested, allowing you to at least retire pretty early, I’d think.
We’ve (Ms. D_Odds & I) figured that, in NYC terms, we’d have to net around $4 to 5 million. We’d invest heavily in municipals and other tax-advantaged, income-producing investments, figuring about a 4-5% yield after any taxes. $160,000 - $250,000, after taxes, per year would allow us to (a)live quite comfortably, allowing for increased expenses (thus, not enticing us to raid the investment piggy bank), and (b)allow a portion of current income to be reinvested as an inflationary hedge. We do have a slight disadvantage in that we are tied to NY for ~ another decade, so a win today would not allow us to reduce our fixed cost of living immediately.
Next question is how much one has to win in order to net $4-5 million. For that, we’ve figured no less that a $16 million jackpot, after present value discount and taxes.
Figures less than $4 million will allow us to aggressively push up our retirement dates to early / mid 50s, especially considering our offspring should be out of school by then (and if they’re not, it’s their problem, not ours).