If I have Multiple Sclerosis, about $5000 would radically change my life. With $5000 I could get officially diagnosed. I might be able to get Medicaid or Medicare. I could get treatment that would get me out of bed.
If I don’t have MS, if it’s really Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, then 100 billion dollars wouldn’t change my life much. I’d still be stuck in bed, having days where I can’t remember how to spell my name.
Sorry to be so depressing, but for some people, it really doesn’t take much money to completely change your life.
$2,500 extra per year - roughly $50 more per week - and I would be one happy camper. I simply can’t get by on my household allowance, about $200 a week, and be expected to buy gas for the car out of that, and the occasional Burger King/Starbucks/slice o’ pizza, or a magazine, bottle of good shampoo, or box of Girl Scout cookies (in season). I’m a really good penny pincher, but enough is enough. $50 extra per week would give me such a nice added cushion, and I could still put aside some spare cash to send to the charities I support.
$100k would get me back on my feet and would serve me well for a long time, but it wouldn’t change my life. I’d just be the same as I am now, but stress-free for a short period.
I’d need to be financially secure for that phrase to apply, and I’ve worked that out to be minimum $750k, but generally round it up to $1million. Which is a lot of money and unlikely to come my way via a windfall or otherwise.
This is Australian dollars, if that makes any difference.
I’ve been thinking. My new mortgage is for $62,000. I owe a bit under $7,800 on my car. Seventy thousand dollars would not change my life in the way I described upthread, but those are my only debts (aside from credit cards, which I pay in full every month). It would, however, free up about $950/month. With that, I could fly a helicopter a couple hours every couple of weeks, or a fixed-wing twice that.
That’s why these exercises are in many ways futile. Most of the ways you think and approach money do not change despite your actual bank account numbers. The purchases you make are bigger but your fears stay the same; after being solidly middle class there’s no evidence that people that are upper middle, upper or extremely wealthy are any happier. Sure, X number of dollars would solve problems but it won’t change the way you think and feel and your level of happiness.
It’s the same situation when you buy a home and people are draw to homes that are clean, clutter free and staged with expensive furniture - they assume once they buy the house that that will be their life. And nothing could be further from the truth.
But in what context? I guess I’m rich at BW3’s because there’s no cause to worry about what anything costs there. On the other hand, I guess I’m not rich when I go to wine aisle at the store, because I get a little more price conscious.
$200k would be enough to pay off my student loans, find a place to live when I move home this summer, and to cover my long enough to find a job without having to worry about money for a while.
I haven’t actually sat down and calculated anything, but I think $5 million should be enough to allow me to essentially retire.
Right now I am a full-time PhD student, I consult part time, and I have a new baby.
One of these things is not like the others. With a bit over $1m invested conservatively, I could dial down the hours I spend consulting and spend it with family, get more research done, or fuck it, play an occasional video game.
