# What’s your utility curve? How much money would change your life? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 13, 2026, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-utility-curve-how-much-money-would-change-your-life/1028432 "2026-03-13T17:53:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [March 13, 2026, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-utility-curve-how-much-money-would-change-your-life/1028432/21 "2026-03-13T20:29:39Z")
Being in complete poverty and a senior now, who does not have enough ss points to collect ss for years, I guess 100,000 would be a shocking amount. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2026, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-utility-curve-how-much-money-would-change-your-life/1028432/22 "2026-03-13T20:31:04Z")
More than $30,000, clearly, since I’ve gotten windfalls in that neighborhood twice and it hasn’t significantly changed my lifestyle. I feel like $650,000 might be the point where I would be seriously thinking “OK, I _could_ just quit work now and live off of it until I can tap into my retirement accounts without penalty,” since I’m 49 and that is roughly 10x my current salary. I don’t know that I _would_ do that, since I kinda like my job and I would also have to figure out health insurance, and if I were suddenly vaulted into early retirement I would also want to travel more and move somewhere with a higher cost of living than where I live now, but it would mean having the option to walk away at any time, and simply knowing that I could do that might be life-changing in itself? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2026, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-utility-curve-how-much-money-would-change-your-life/1028432/23 "2026-03-13T20:35:11Z")
A million, no. A hundred million, yes. Ten million, maybe. I’m dubious because I know someone who hit the jackpot. There was a girl at my daughter’s barn whose father was a founder of a Silicon Valley company, which IPOed. I don’t know how much he got, but enough that when he wanted a dock space he bought the boat attached to it, and was upset because he couldn’t use a helicopter since his house was too close to a nuclear facility. His wife got stuck managing all his new toys. He told her to hire someone, but she didn’t want to have strange people all over the place. So I see the downside to a lot of money. ---
**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:** [March 13, 2026, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-utility-curve-how-much-money-would-change-your-life/1028432/24 "2026-03-13T20:35:26Z")
Have you ever received a one-time windfall that you considered “life changing” at the time? _Poll ([view on site](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-utility-curve-how-much-money-would-change-your-life/1028432/24))_ ---
**Author:** ![Thumper668](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thumper668/32/20803_2.png) [@Thumper668](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thumper668)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2026, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-utility-curve-how-much-money-would-change-your-life/1028432/25 "2026-03-13T20:36:16Z")
$1,000 might change my week $10,000 would change a couple months $100,000 would change my year and possibly give me enough flexibility to change my own life $1,000,000 would last longer than I expect to live, so it might improve my wife and kids’ lives ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2026, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-utility-curve-how-much-money-would-change-your-life/1028432/26 "2026-03-13T20:56:13Z")
My wife and I have pretty modest needs and we do fairly well with SS, pensions, and investments. I would say that $100K would be life-changing in the sense that it would pay for a (final) few vacations, pay off the one car loan we still have, allow us to do some crawlspace and other work at the house, and leave us a tidy sum for a rainy day. We’re at the age where we don’t care to impress anyone and I honestly can’t think of anything we’d want to spend significant money on. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2026, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-utility-curve-how-much-money-would-change-your-life/1028432/27 "2026-03-13T21:59:03Z")
$1,000,000 would allow us to retire today and travel in a manner to which we aspire, but it’s just accellerating what is already planned. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2026, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-utility-curve-how-much-money-would-change-your-life/1028432/28 "2026-03-13T21:59:41Z")
What a prescient thread! So I just got off the phone with a bank after getting an ‘unclaimed property of $100 or more’ notice from the State Controller’s office. I assumed it was some fee refund or something I forgot to deposit years ago of $150 or something. Nope. Turns out that a year or two before her death a couple years back my mother had purchased a cashier’s check for $10,000 in my name, but had failed to send it to me. We had discussed me holding some cash for her, but she had never followed through as far as I had known and I had forgotten about it. I guess she got it issued then maybe changed her mind or had gotten herself confused (she would have been suffering with severe undiagnosed hypertension at the time and her ability to concentrate was going down the toilet). Anyway I never saw it and it was old enough that the amount missing from her accounts didn’t register with me when she died. It probably got discarded and shredded at some point, but never had a stop payment issued. I am very suddenly $10k richer 😲. Is it terribly significant to my bottom line? Not really. Is it insignificant? Not really - $10k is enough for me to notice. The condo needs new carpeting, soooo…lucky me, I guess. I’m certainly pleased to reclaim ten grand from banker’s limbo. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2026, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-utility-curve-how-much-money-would-change-your-life/1028432/29 "2026-03-13T22:55:33Z")
Someone in my husband’s family paid off all of our remaining student debt for Christmas last year. We both went to grad school. That was after us making 17 years of payments and getting it down by like 65%. But it immediately made it possible for us to afford a house. We have the down payment we just didn’t have the cash flow, and now we do. I’d call that life changing. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2026, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-utility-curve-how-much-money-would-change-your-life/1028432/30 "2026-03-13T23:03:46Z")
My goal is to retire ASAP, with some money to travel and to buy a few toys. If I can convince Mrs. H to _significantly_ downgrade our house, I can probably accomplish both for ~$500k. That’s considering the addition of what I think we can get for our house, and what I’m expecting from my mom’s estate in a few months. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2026, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-utility-curve-how-much-money-would-change-your-life/1028432/31 "2026-03-13T23:05:45Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > There was a time in my life where $10,000 would have been a godsend. Later, I recall thinking $100,000 would change everything. Now, we’re set (thankfully) and now it would take quite a lot to change our extravagant lifestyle. This, except we don’t live an extravagant lifestyle. I grew up poor and was living paycheck-to-paycheck until around 30. However, growing up poor we’ve always been frugal and now have plenty to retire (I’m mid-50s, wife is younger) and own two houses outright. We’ll retire when I turn 60. Even the $1M wouldn’t be a game changer and would just be another million to invest or donate. My job is getting worse these days with a lot of added stress and it’s nice to know I can say “fuck it” and retire whenever I want. It’s looking like a better option all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2026, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-utility-curve-how-much-money-would-change-your-life/1028432/32 "2026-03-13T23:19:45Z")
Hard to say. Twice we have inherited an amount around $75 from each of my wife’s stepparents (oddly, we never inherited anything from any of our natural parents). The first one was just in time to pay off some of our children’s student loans (and my wife’s stepmother would have overjoyed to know that’s where it went) and the other just went into savings. Neither changed our lifestyle. Ten or 15 years ago, a million would have meant more traveling and doing it first class. Maybe spending three months in Barbados every winter instead of three weeks. Sort of life changing. Now we are two sick to travel and it would only mean leaving more to our kids. Or maybe paying for a high end care facility. But we already have over CAD1 million in stock accounts and our condo is worth at least a half million so maybe it wouldn’t even need that. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2026, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-utility-curve-how-much-money-would-change-your-life/1028432/33 "2026-03-14T01:40:28Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > At this point the only thing meaningful in terms of money would be adding enough to significantly increase our contributions to charity or to found some kind of non-profit. I’m not sure how to put specific $ on that This. My wife and I are in that sweet spot where money isn’t everything. We have enough, but not so much we have to spend all our time thinking about it. ---
**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:** [March 14, 2026, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-utility-curve-how-much-money-would-change-your-life/1028432/34 "2026-03-14T01:52:40Z")
What kind of lifestyle do you live that $10 million is only a “maybe” for you? ---
**Author:** ![Happytree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happytree/32/3555_2.png) [@Happytree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happytree)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2026, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-utility-curve-how-much-money-would-change-your-life/1028432/35 "2026-03-14T02:10:46Z")
25K would be enough for me to begin paying off debts and put a down payment on a house. Maybe fix my teeth. Anything less would be nice. Any unexpected expense over, say, 3K would leave me in the gutter. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2026, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-utility-curve-how-much-money-would-change-your-life/1028432/36 "2026-03-14T02:25:44Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > $590,000. > > And that’s actually a fact, I just sold a house for that amount to buy a cond That works for me, or a bit less, say $400k. Pay off the mortgage. A thou? Nope. $10K would help. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2026, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-utility-curve-how-much-money-would-change-your-life/1028432/37 "2026-03-14T03:07:29Z")
If I owned a house, $1m would change my life, with an ability to comfortably retire. Maybe even $750k could do that. But I do not own a house, I rent, so I would need more than $1m to be properly comfortable, and not be on the knife edge. As for the negative, $15k would be a big enough loss to really mess me up. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2026, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-utility-curve-how-much-money-would-change-your-life/1028432/38 "2026-03-14T03:59:12Z")
I would say that $100,000 would significantly change my life. I would finish paying off the house, have a good chunk left for property taxes and insurance for the next bunch of years and so all the money I’ve been paying towards that stuff would be able to accumulate in a snowball effect. It wouldn’t be a change like “rags to riches” but it would be a marked obvious improvement. Underneath that would be more “(Very) Nice benefit” depending on the sum but not really an alteration in lifestyle or security. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2026, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-utility-curve-how-much-money-would-change-your-life/1028432/39 "2026-03-14T05:55:59Z")
Neither would really change my life, I think. Definitely not the $1K - My investment accounts are down about $40K in the last 3 weeks. $1K is a fraction of today’s loss. $1MM is a little more than I have in hand already, but I barely touch my investment money at this point. My needs are modest - no debt, own my home, no HOA fees or anything. My wants are almost non-existent. Although I could use a big chunk to renovate and do some foundation work on my 175 year old farmhouse. I’m not hurting for money. StG ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2026, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-utility-curve-how-much-money-would-change-your-life/1028432/40 "2026-03-14T05:56:53Z")
I could use about $30,000. Then I could pay to have my classic car restored without taking it from savings. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-utility-curve-how-much-money-would-change-your-life/1028432.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-utility-curve-how-much-money-would-change-your-life/1028432.md?page=3)