# What is "life changing money"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 10, 2024, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-life-changing-money/1011445 "2024-12-10T15:22:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2024, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-life-changing-money/1011445/21 "2024-12-10T20:12:24Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > My monthly expenses are 25 rent You live in a safe deposit box? ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2024, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-life-changing-money/1011445/22 "2024-12-10T20:14:41Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > My monthly expenses are 25 rent, 15 phone, about 40 bus, about 30 toilet paper, and about 40 coffee. > 150 gets me through a month. That’s a lot of toilet paper for someone who doesn’t buy food. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2024, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-life-changing-money/1011445/23 "2024-12-10T20:29:34Z")
It’s all that coffee. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2024, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-life-changing-money/1011445/24 "2024-12-10T20:33:22Z")
Life-changing money is money that either enables you to retire at once, or at least puts you on a very firm path to retire soon. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2024, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-life-changing-money/1011445/25 "2024-12-10T20:34:23Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > A Cadillac was about $3000 in 1950 so that loan was something like a quarter million today. I’m sure dad paid friend back when the press got moving but a nice thing to start with right out of school for sure, pretty much a starter home in a lotbof markets. And the lack of student loan debt, too. Yes, three years later they were able to buy a little house in a new subdivision, for $12K. My dad said they could barely afford it. If you knew my dad … he was worth betting on. I’m sure others could see it. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2024, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-life-changing-money/1011445/26 "2024-12-10T20:34:52Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Life-changing money is money that either enables you to retire at once, or at least puts you on a very firm path to retire soon . Or allows you to buy a house, or pay off o student loans, or a ton of other things that don’t equate to retirement, but changes your life. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2024, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-life-changing-money/1011445/27 "2024-12-10T20:40:08Z")
I get food stamps. 292 a month. I live in Hud housing. Its a third of your income, or 25 if no income. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2024, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-life-changing-money/1011445/28 "2024-12-10T20:45:04Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > > [@LSLGuy](#): > > > > In one sense, the OP’s friend with the gift car simply went back to the middle class existence she had before some bad luck really knocked the wind out of her sails. So not life-changing, although certainly life-restoring. > > If she’d wound up homeless for an extended period of time, would you not have considered that life-changing? > > So if she avoided winding up homeless, why is that not lifechanging? My whole post was laying out a wide variety of different definitions of “life-changing”. My eventual bottom line was that _for me IMO_, life-changing discussed in the context of receiving a windfall means getting to a new and better lifestyle / life circumstance you’d never been before and could not have gotten to on your own but for the windfall. By that idiosyncratic definition, no, that woman getting that car was not life-changing. Although it did change her life, it’s far from clear to me that she wasn’t going to accomplish the same recovery anyway. And, _by (my) definition_, recovering to where she had been previously is not life-changing. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2024, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-life-changing-money/1011445/29 "2024-12-10T20:53:24Z")
Asking from a position of ignorance: For a young 20-something McDonald’s worker with no spouse or family yet, still living with their parents (say) … $50,000 free-and-clear is enough to begin some meaningful investment, is it not? ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2024, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-life-changing-money/1011445/30 "2024-12-10T20:56:59Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > $50,000 free-and-clear is enough to begin some meaningful investment, is it not? I would say hell yes. But that’s not usually where it goes. They may need a car, down payment on a house whatever. The sad fact is that it takes money, to make money. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2024, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-life-changing-money/1011445/31 "2024-12-10T20:58:57Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > $2 mil is vastly different. That upper middle class family is freed from sizeable monthly mortgage payments, they can put the $2M to work paying the mortgage, while they sock away money from the job, or just be free to not worry about finances. Even if they still work, their lives are changed. This is my POV as well. If I got $2 million, the one financed vehicle and the house would be paid off, and we’d put in probably another 20-30k in updates and repairs we’ve put off (new electrical panel, new carpets, new roof). Pay off the rest of the student loans and credit card bills, so around 400,000 for all of that. $1.6 million invested even in a fixed annuity at say 4% is going to result in a more than survivable income in a world without mortgage or car payments. That would be life changing IF I didn’t want to change my _lifestyle_. The key element in a lot of larger windfalls NOT working out is that sure, it changed their lives, but they changed their _lifestyles_ to match the windfall. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2024, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-life-changing-money/1011445/32 "2024-12-10T20:59:58Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > That would be life changing IF I didn’t want to change my _lifestyle_. If you’re not changing your lifestyle, it’s not really life changing. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2024, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-life-changing-money/1011445/33 "2024-12-10T21:02:31Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > If you’re not changing your lifestyle, it’s not really life changing. Sure it is. If I could draw from a pile of cash and got to quit working while maintaining my current lifestyle, that’s absolutely life changing. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2024, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-life-changing-money/1011445/34 "2024-12-10T21:02:44Z")
I’d say somewhere around $10M. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2024, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-life-changing-money/1011445/35 "2024-12-10T21:07:47Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > Or blow it. Money that comes in easy, tends to go out easy. But a smart young person could use that 50K to finance college. That would easily pay for a 2 year trade degree. For us, it would be “paying off the mortgage” money- less than $500K. > [@bordelond](#): > > $50,000 free-and-clear is enough to begin some meaningful investment, is it not? It is likely taxable. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2024, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-life-changing-money/1011445/36 "2024-12-10T21:10:02Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > If you’re not changing your lifestyle, it’s not really life changing. A solid middle to upper middle class lifestyle isn’t bad. Most folks at that income level (and other income levels, of course) feel stressed over money. If you get more money and largely keep the lifestyle, you get rid of the stress, and can enjoy your life. I’m in that comfortable life zone, but I want to spend money on relatively modest things that are a bit out of reach. A better car, but not a Porsche, fixes to the house, but not a mansion, vacations but not jetting to Fiji for a month. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2024, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-life-changing-money/1011445/37 "2024-12-10T21:23:34Z")
This. For the working solid middle to upper-middle class person who’s also middle-aged, they don’t _need_ more lifestyle. Instead they probably _need_ to work a lot less than they do, and they _need_ a lot less stress about money (both income now and asset accumulation for retirement). Those things (reduced work & money stress) _are_ life-changing even if the person only does those spending things @Cheesesteak mentions. They certainly could, per @RitterSport, change their lifestyle. But for a one-time windfall, that lifestyle change tends to be hard to reverse after the windfall has been consumed. When the windfall money is gone and there’s still 3 years on the Porsche’s loan, well, something bad is gonna happen. So that suggests that the amount of incremental lifestyle one can prudently adopt after a windfall is whatever post-tax post-inflation ROI the windfall can produce. For e.g. $100K, that’s (arguably) ~5$K. At that rate it’s going to take a pretty big windfall to move the needle for a fairly typical guy like our @Cheesesteak. Once someone is retired, their life stress is already low(er), and their required spending is winding down, then a different set of tradeoffs apply and what “moves the needle” might be a lot different. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2024, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-life-changing-money/1011445/38 "2024-12-10T21:46:30Z")
A quarter million would probably make it where I wouldn’t feel the need to work part time unless I felt like it after I retire this coming summer. It would double the size of my IRA, so with that, my pension, and whatever Ms. P brings in would be plenty. House is paid off, although property taxes are high to how much our house has appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2024, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-life-changing-money/1011445/39 "2024-12-10T22:10:03Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Life-changing money is money that either enables you to retire at once, or at least puts you on a very firm path to retire soon. It can also be money that enables you to get and keep a job. Or to get a job/take up work that’s much better for you. Or that enables you to become educated. Or that enables you to be or become housed. Or that gives you the confidence to help create a child, in the expectation that you can house and feed that child. Or that allows you to be confident that you can continue to house and feed already existing child(ren). If the only significant life change that you can imagine is retirement, I think you should imagine more widely. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > And, _by (my) definition_ OK. I’m disagreeing with your definitions. > [@RitterSport](#): > > If you’re not changing your lifestyle, it’s not really life changing. I disagree with that one too. If you’re not changing your lifestyle, but all your financial anxiety about whether you can keep living that way goes away – that would sure as hell be life changing for me. ---
**Author:** ![liirogue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dbc845/32.png) [@liirogue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liirogue)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2024, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-life-changing-money/1011445/40 "2024-12-10T22:15:45Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > If the only significant life change that you can imagine is retirement, I think you should imagine more widely. Definitely agree with this. Several years ago, I was laid off but with a generous severance package. Due to that, I was able to live “normally” for the six months it took me to find another job, and had enough left over to pay off my student loans. If I hadn’t received that severance? There would have been a very real chance that bills would not have been paid, I might have lost my house, and my credit would have been shot. So while it didn’t change my ability to retire, it certainly staved off some very hard financial times. To me, that severance was “life changing.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-life-changing-money/1011445.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-life-changing-money/1011445.md?page=3)