One of the happiest, most well adjusted people I know makes do with quite a bit less than $20k (US) a year. Hand pumped water, wood stove, no AC, some groceries supplemented with hunting, and a horse for local transportation. He has a beater pickup and electricity for the kitchen, and yes, surprisingly, TV and a DVD player. If not for VA health care, this existence would not be feasible.
He does have a bit of trouble attracting women, most are put off by the primitive conditions.
Don’t a lot of people live on less than that without having to change to a primitive lifestyle? I know a fair few people who do, and that’s in London.
His income is derived from farm rental. Most of his income goes to taxes, vehicle license/insurance, and the bank note on the spread.
Deleting those items, I would be surprised if he needs more than 2k per year. He does scavenge quite a bit, and is gifted at fixing broken things given to him. I let him borrow DVDs and books. I also did a bit of wiring for him, he claimed he did not need a light in the kitchen but I insisted.
Just a good old boy, making it work in the way he wants.
The people who say I need all that money to make good investments make themselves look stupid imo. If you really make good choices in investments, you don’t need that much start up. Investing a lot to get so little, 2-6% back, is pretty standard and not wise at all.
With a smaller amount, it’s just gambling.
Not really. If you did research or hired someone, as someone I know did when they fell into a sum of money that was a lot less than one million dollars, you can make a lot on a small start up.
I think people answering this believe there’s only two type of investment: steady ones (the type that people usually pass on to their heiress) and high risk ones. There are many in between the two.
If I’m allowed to find other work then something like $100k after taxes would do it. I really enjoy my job and like my boss a lot, but could find an even higher paying one tomorrow in my line of work.
To retire, the number I’m shooting for is $5 million post-tax. Wouldn’t be partying like a rock star every night, but could easily maintain my current lifestyle.
Maybe they don’t want to spend their time thinking about how to invest their money or worrying whether the expert they’ve entrusted it all to is doing it right. And there’s a lot of value in the peace of mind that would come with owning a property outright.
I’m going to stay out of the investing aspect of this thread. I think a lot of people on here just don’t under how GOOD investments work. Many REAL millionaries don’t seem to mind these type of investments of trusting people to do their job right. I think too many people are confusing holding on white knuckled to every cent you have with wise fiancial choices. So… Yeah.
To the bolded, I agree. That’s why I want to start off with property. Even if you didn’t want to make your money from property, you could outright pay something decent that wasn’t a McMansion and still have more than enough to save and invest.
Perhaps I misunderstood. Yes, I hate my job, but it might take more than a year of intensive work on my part (and with recruiters) to have a successful result. I need about $40,000 a year to hold up my end of the family annual debt. (I’ve found that less cuts out what my family needs)
Me? I’ll eat left-overs & on-sale lunch meat on day-old bread sandwiches twice a day until I’m dead, but my kids? No, I need to feed them healthy food and in portions they can thrive on.
Oh, hell, I’d quite my job for half a million.
I can’t live on that forever, but I could certainly take some time to find a more enjoyable job. With no debts at all, and money left over, I’d be good to go.
I love this thread.
& I think your age & circumstances make a difference.
I’m 54, mortgage free (& love my home), live in NZ younger child left home today & my husband loves his job. If he kept on working, NZ$200k would probably get me out. But I quite enjoy my job so would be likely to stay till I’m 58. But by that age the physical side of the job would make me want to quit if I didn’t have to work.
I’m 50 and not in the best of health; don’t really expect to live more than 20 more years. One million (Probably less if I am honest) would be enough for me to sing ‘Take This Job And Shove It’ as I was clearing my cubicle.
I am a very simple woman. I own my house outright, would probably sink 50K into it for improvements, and live out my days happily puttering around her and not have to worry about listening to customers yell and scream and curse at me ever again.
According to my wife (a lawyer who’s no longer practicing), most lawyers make under 100k- the only ones who make over that are either partners at a midsize or bigger firm, or experienced associates and high-powered new ones at BIG firms- like Baker Botts, Fulbright & Jaworski, etc… where they can afford to pay like that.
Any public-sector lawyer makes probably half that at best; the Texas Attorney General’s salary is only $150,000 and your average county assistant DA is probably somewhere in the 30k-40k range.
Law seems to be one of those careers where the potential rewards are very high (think people 7 yrs out of law school making 200k plus per year), but the vast majority of people don’t make that kind of money. I’d say in bang-for-buck, it doesn’t pan out for most people.
I’d even say that IT is a better field on average- it’s hard to find someone straight out of college who makes less than 40-45k, and also hard to find people who make more than 150k (those would be CIOs, in extremely large part). OTOH, the vast, vast majority of non-cable monkey/PC tech/help desk people make between about 50k and 80k.