I really don’t know what would be life-changing for me. We have a decent retirement, a mortgage payment, a car payment, and the usual living expenses. We’re able to save, despite owning a hole in the water into which we pour money… (ie - we have a boat.) If a million or so dropped in my lap, I’d be inclined to bulldoze the house and rebuild one that has a better design than our 1975 rancher. That would be somewhat life-changing, I guess. And I’d travel in First Class instead of coach when we fly places - that’d be nice
Honestly, if I got a chunk of cash, I’d rather help my daughter and SIL get a bigger house - two kids in a 2BR/1BA house is a tad cozy. It would be life changing for them. But Spousal Unit and I have a money guy who helped us get where we are now - not rich, but not worried much.
Which fits my definition: money big enough that it enables a genuine durable step up the ladder from wherever you are. Not just a chance for a one-time spend-gasm, and not just more insurance against future potential failures that may not ever occur.
Agree completely. As my several examples tried to demonstrate. Folks thinking it’s all about achieving upper middle class early retirement are blinkered. As we’ve both said.
That might be a decent definition applied to them personally individually, but there are a lot of other people and circumstances out there. Both greater and lesser, younger and older.
Or we just don’t care. I like my life. I’m about to retire, I have a pension that means I’ll make more money retired than I do going to work, and my only major expense is the mortgage, which isn’t bad at all. No reasonable amount of windfall money is likely to change my lifestyle a bit.
Now, silly money would change a number of other people’s lives, because that’s who I’d make sure got most of it. Lots of scholarships and such. Plus some Elvis moments.
I’m retired, no debt. I get enough between a modest disbursement from my investment accounts and my social security to have plenty of extra money each month. I live extremely modestly, but that’s mostly because I got into that habit to save for the retirement. My 200 year old house could surely use some improvements, which I’ll make if I ever decide to sell. I have some major dental work, which I’ve put off less for financial reasons than from fear.
I have no kids, but plenty of nieces and nephews. And honestly, those of the nieces and nephews that need money would probably blow anything gifted to them. Those that don’t need it are good with money, so a windfall would be nice, but unnecessary. Right now, my 10 nieces and nephews stand to each get about $75K if I died suddenly. And that doesn’t include the value of my farm, which is probably another $50K each. I’m sort of tempted to donate it to worthy causes and leave them a nice gift, but not a huge one. $10K each?
Yeah, I am not sure, I see his point, but now that I am semi retired with more free time than I want, but no real desire to travel- I think having the Mortgage paid off would just relax me, and i wouldnt w0rry as much. My life would change, but not my lifestyle.
A few hundred grand that wasn’t tied up in retirement funds, just socked away…maybe buried in a coffee can in a place known only to me.
If I had the free cash, I’d certainly invest it, and pay down existing debts, but knowing I had a “secret stash” might help me in my efforts to stop my hair thinning or turning grey(er).
Life changing in that maybe I’d not be such an asshole all the time!
Never do that - paper money rots over time with even a tiny amount of moisture. I once had a co-worker that had to dig up random garbage bags filled with cash (not massive amounts) that had been put there by a senile relative decades earlier. A fair bit of it was partially soil by the time it could be retrieved
“Life-changing” often depends on your life situation.
Right now, despite being (lower) middle class, $50k could be life changing for me, not because it’s that big of a windfall in an of itself but because I could use it as a seed to get further along.
Here’s how I’d use $50k if it was dumped in my lap.
Set aside $10k for taxes. Of course it will be taxed, this is 'Murica! You’ll be getting some sort of 1099 at the end of the year for it, so be ready. May not need all of that 10k for that purpose, and if so great, but it’s better to set it aside early than try to cough it up later. A $50k reward is really only $40k in money you get to keep.
Replace my two elderly vehicles. I’d have the option of either spending almost all of that reward on a new vehicle, or spending a smaller amount on gently used vehicle. Both can be viable options but I’m leaning towards the latter. Having reliable transportation that isn’t nickle-and-diming you can be extremely important for those of us on the lower end of the socio-economic ladder.
Fix/replace anything else major in my life that needs doing. (I have an electric piano that needs to be either fixed or replaced, other than that I have nothing right now. Other times in the past that might have been “dental work” or whatever)
Pay off any debt (at present that’s “none” for me but it can happen)
Invest the rest. Now, that may be as much as $20k or as little as $1k, but there are options for the entire range. You can plonk that into a retirement account. You can buy into a mutual fund. THAT is what, if enough time elapses, can become “life-changing” or at least “life-sustaining” down the line.
That’s how you can use $50k. It’s not how everyone will use $50k
I was thinking of “life changing” as a more profound thing. I mean, if I got rid of my old car with no back-up camera, no adaptive cruise control, and no lane assist and got a new one with all the bells and whistles, it would change my life in some way, but I wouldn’t call it “life changing”. Paying off a mortgage, however you do it, relieves a source of stress, but I wouldn’t call it “life changing” either.
No reason to argue about definitions, though. I would thinking about it as a real change in life circumstances – struggling for food to never struggling again, working to never having to work again, trade in the 20 foot motor boat and affording a 100 foot yacht. I agree that relieving stress changes your life, though.
More money would not change my life, except to allow me to be more philanthropic. Which, I would hope, be life-changing for others. The middle class perspective shown by most posters is pretty blinkered. Volunteer at a food pantry, if you want to see people for whom a thousand dollars would completely change their lives.
Money sufficient to stop living in your car, or get medical treatment, those are life changing. Early retirement, bah.
As I mentioned, it all depends on where you’re starting from. If you’re homeless and living in a car, $50k would get you housing and food security. If you’re living an upper middle class life, $50k just goes on the pile. Giving more to charity is great, but not life-changing. “Remember before we sent that money to WNYC? Wow, life was sure different then…”
In 1988, I thought getting my hands on $200k would set me up for life. Because I was making 12k/year, I could get 8% on a CD and rent in the very unfashionable Washington DC suburbs was $300/mo for a tiny efficiency.
Now if you gave me $1M, my wife might not even notice the magic change in our net worth when I do the annual portfolio review with her on Jan 4.
It might make me willing to retire earlier than Medicare qualification age.
Not for the donor. For those who receive. That’s the point of charity. There’s a lot of sentiment about how it is more blessed to give than receive and there’s no better feeling than giving to others. I do not experience this, personally. I find giving to be sad and uncomfortable – why do I have much and they have little? How is this just? I hate being in a position where people feel obliged to feel grateful to me. Ugh. I do not give to feel better, I give because there is need, and I can. That’s all.
