And what would you do with said life changing money? Feel like if I got “life changing money” I’d invest like 99% of it lol.
Same. $500k lump some today means a fat retirement in 20-25 years, which at the moment is my only significant financial anxiety.
Was going to say $1M but 500k would do it
What if you lost the 500k in investments.
You’re making some abysmal investments if you manage to turn $500k into $0.
You've clearly never been on r/wallstreetbets lol
Their statement still stands. If you blow $500k either the economy is in a nightmare free fall or you're to blame.
theres a difference between investing and gambling.
Hey it’s called wall street bets for a reason lmao
They wouldn’t invest in individual companies. Basic stock market etfs are pretty much guaranteed to rise long term
who needs 100k a year to live?
Anybody on the west or east coast 👀
Or between them
Honestly don’t know what I’d do with $100k+ per year when I’m 50-80 years old, probably spend most of it helping in my community, funding college for grandchildren, etc. That’s just what I could conservatively pull from a retirement portfolio in 20 years with a $500k lump-sum deposit plus 20 years of steady investments
Yeah people don't seem to understand $100k a year is equivalent someone in retirement currently taking $40k out now. In other words you better have a few million heading in to retirement in a few decades.
5 million is enough to put away and live passively off of with no risk. That would mean you are free to do whatever you want every day and have literally no worry financially. You are pullin 16k per month at an annual 4% withdrawal rate.
Thats my dream. 5 mil ,put in SPY etf inflation adjusted 7-8% and you'll never have to worry about cash for life drawing 16k a month for the rest of your life
If you get that much money, it would be better to get a financial planner. Cause they can help with life planning and find those tax loopholes
Well, if you put all into SPY etf, you wont have any problems. Itl grow 4% every yr on average despite taking out 4% yrly
And if your making at least 5% your ahead of the game. But with 5 million you should have it making more than that.
2m can do that, considering you can just live in places that are not stupidly expensive
Yeah i love these guys who only make 3k a month working full-time but only consider it life changing if their passive stash makes 16k.
It's life changing the moment your passive income is higher than your full time job. If you can gradually reduce working hours then much sooner.
It truelly becomes life changing when u have enough money to work for u and your precious time spent doing what u want.
Yup this seems like the correct answer. Anything less than that and I'd invest it but would keep working anyway. Anything over this and I'd quit my current job and pursue my passions
VTI and chill.
What specifically are you thinking of that gives you 4% annually?
No you just take 4% out annually. You put it in an index fund which averages between 7-8% annually. This way it will basically stay at the amount you originally put in.
High yield savings account for Revolut for example give 5% interest on US dollars
Right now you can get a 10 year annuity at 6.9% annual return. Even if you pull the whole 6.9% each year, 345k, you would still have the whole 5mil in ten years. Pull 245k and have 6mil left in ten years. I could live on just 145k a year for the next ten and have 7 mil left in ten years.
Even just 15k at this point would change my entire life.
Seriously! Everybody's about 500k or more but 15k would clear debt I ran up trying to care for my father during his final days and leave me with a modest savings for emergencies. Then the monthly payments I was making could go into investments.
As it stands, I'll have to work until I die. 15k would have a cascade effect on my life that would at least make the dying part a little easier (if I happen to get sick at the end).
I won almost $80,000 end of February. It's a great feeling!
How would 15k change your life exactly?
500k. Would make me debt free and the rest would go up into retirement and life would be a breeze financially.
I played golf with a friend who is retired and just turning 50. She just sold her construction business for $40m. I thought to myself, yeah that’s my number
So 39 isn’t?
So, $30m would not be life changing?
Yea but that’s not his NUMVER!
Does anyone have her number?
30-50k would help me get into a house, help my daughter and son get a cash car, get me another cash car, and still have some left for emergency. That would be awesome
Like 100k. Pay off all debt, period. I don’t mind spending the rest of my time working to build savings, investments, whatever. But man the freedom of owing no-one anything.
My mortgage interest is 1.3%
I feel like the bank owes me. I'll drag this baby as long as I can.
1.3 lmao were you holding a banker's kid hostage?
Hahaha. It was just lucky timing at a time when interest rates were at their lowest. Central bank interest was negative i think
That's awesome, my wife and I got about 3.3% and my mom (Who assumed 8% on her home (a great rate at the time!) is still astounded at it 2 years later. I'm also still thrilled haha
2.5% gang checking in
I'm at 2.9%. If I had waited one more year to buy a house id be at 8%. Maybe 2 years
Hey just being debt free makes one richer than most
Hmmmm about 100,000 to put a down payment on a home for my daughter and granddaughter
Any amount of money spent on something where I make a decision or meet a person that alter the course of my life. Could be $5 on a beer at a bar, or could be a $10k investment that bring huge returns in 10 years.
Love this perspective. Any amount can be life changing if it sets you down the right path
I wonder what these responses would look like if sorted by the age of the respondents?
200 million it'd change my family tree for a long time
Well sometimes I play the lottery and wish to win $2 million. Lol After taxes it will be less but anything above a million in cash would be nice to have. Be able to pay house mortgage completely, pay for my nephews college education and invest the rest. I will still need to keep working but I would be debt free.
It’s sad that $1 million isn’t really enough anymore.
I'd be happy with $1 million lol
I think people need to adjust their definition of life changing. Unless you’re already a multimillionaire, getting $1 million should change your life dramatically, even if it doesn’t mean you get to immediately quit your job. Investing it should mean you at least get to retire 10+ years earlier, depending on your current age.
I think most people are thinking about their life at this point in time. $1M wouldn’t change anything about my day to day life currently. It would allow me to retire sooner, but I’d still have the same routine for time being. Maybe I’d repave my driveway.
It is, though. Say you get $1 Million now and you are 40 and then you invest that Million at an average of 6%. After 25 years, even with not another Dollar added to it, but also nothing touched, you would end up with $4,464,969.81 on your 65th birthday.
If you want to immediately stop working and just enjoy early retirement at 40,and invested at 6% APR, you could swing it on $60k a year interest payout (with the original $1 Million remaining fully), but it would depend on where you live whether it is enough to live worry free. Of course, fully retired you could live anywhere, in any state or many countries to be able to live on that $60k per year.
For me - $802,000
That's my mortgage. My entire lifestyle would change with that $5k/mth back in my pocket.
$5mil. enough to live off of interest in retirement. i can spend my time learning and just working regularly until im bored and want to quit.
6 million, would give a reliable 250k/year in perpetuity.
Honestly it would have to be like $5 million to actually change my life. I would have to have that much to think about flying first class or staying in 5 star hotels.
Getting a nicer car would not change my life.
Getting a nicer house would not change my life.
Really, I like my life. More money is always nice though!
Yeah same. If I got $1m, I wouldn't be doing anything differently. It'd probably take me $10m to quit my job.
Some of these numbers are so nuts. If I had 1M I'd quit today. I could live a wonderfully fulfilling life with only 40k per year. It's much more than the net expenses i have today. And that includes mortgage, food, Hobbies, travelling. I even eat out often. I really don't see how people need more to live. What do you even do with so much money?
That 1M nest egg isn’t going to keep up with inflation. If you are already 60 yo, you might be able to retire and live a life of leisure but that money isn’t going to give you a comfortable lifestyle for the long term. Sorry to burst your bubble.
Any amount that would eliminate the need to pay mortgage or rent.
5 million.
I'm pretty comfortable now. And thinking about retirement in a few years. Add 5 million to our savings and we'd be able to retire into luxury, buy our kids houses and still have more than plenty to leave behind.
$5 million
Hell, I could live comfortably off of 50k a year for the rest of my life. I'd still be able to buy most of what I'd need/want, I'd still be able to save and wouldn't have to work!
I know it's not a lot of money but I have lived this long never making past 30k a year so $50k would be a godsend to me.
1 million. I could pay off my medical debt and maybe be okay to pay off future medical debt right around the corner.
20$ for I could go to work Tomorrow 😭 I don’t want to walk for 2 hours smh
At that point bro just buy a bike
Update , I stole a little kids bike omw to work , thanks guys 😃👍🏽
Great question, I don't have that so I don't know what to do. But I do have that I would start a business.
Just enough to get me out of debt…
The minimum amount for me to consider it life changing would be at least a million.
This might not be popular but I'd buy a house/condo or whatever and invest the remainder amount for retirement.
I wouldn't have to struggle so hard to save every penny.
About 500 bucks
one billion dollars
Honestly just 10k would change my life. I'd be way less stressed, able to afford things like therapy, medication, and other adjustments to manage my adhd/anxiety/depression turducken. Could fix up the iPad i use for art or maybe even get a nicer model. Could get a proper desk to do my art and writing at. Could afford good food to get the energy I need to create. Maybe even afford some classes.
I could turn that 10k into a lot more through pursuing my artistic skill. I already do so much art and content that people like while running on hungry, mentally ill and stressed out fumes. I just want to see what I can do when I have the resources.
30k. It’s been a rough last couple of years and that money would allow me to be 100% debt free and have about 6k left over.
Today, 1.5 million minimum. That's what I would need to pay off the house, the cars, everything, then retire today and live for 20 years, and I'm way, way short of that. Being a 59 year old 40+ year SCI survivor is getting physically tough, maintaining my 35 year long career. But I have a mortgage and car payment like everyone else. I owe, I owe, so off to work I go.
What's it like not thinking 50k+ is life changing? Fuck me.
125,000 for me. - would pay off all of my debt and leave me with a solid down payment on a home. Would absolutely change my life.
5,000,000 to be “set for life”
$100,000. To me that sounds like a dream.
I mean, it depends on what we’re considering “life-changing”
20k would pay off all my outstanding debts overnight and free up like $1000 a month that I could direct into retirement plans and vacations, that’s pretty life changing, long-term.
Right now 20k would flip my life around If only
Currently I'd say $5,000 Pay off my $1,000 tuition fees and the remaining $4,000 will be invested in a gold business
At this point. 5k would put me in a very stable area. Debt would be totally paid off and I'd have a healthy amount to put towards savings/investments
100K would be enough to change my life considerably so that or anything above it.
Whatever amount would allow me to buy a cabin / some acreage in the woods
I could do it with less then a million lol. Wtf do you all need? Lol
-$100k would definitely be life-changing.
A cool $100k would allow me to retire. $200k would allow me to retire with 2 good/new vehicles. I’m 66.5 now and scared to death of retirement
$10,000
just enough to get the IRS off my back... gosh, why did we pass the 17th amendment?
Right now ? 5k its life changing to me. Lol
Idk like 10k
5 million cash. No taxes. Any less and I would have to work still.
5 million usd. I wont ever have to work again and my immediate family wont have to either. Kids will be taken care of as well.
$10 million
5 million usd after tax should set some one in the right direction for a very comfortable life .
4-5 million.
56k it would allow us to get a home and stop.living with the 5 of us in a 1 bedroom apt.
For me 30k would change my life ...
I make over $100k now, I work like a dog, and it still feels like when I was only making $45k back in 2017. I choose to live below my means because I’m building something better for myself. With the way inflation is going, I think by the time I retire I’d need a good $250k per year to live the lifestyle I would have earned by then. That might be a little lean depending on circumstances. Quite literally, that $250k will be today’s $100k because the dollar depreciates by half in about 25 years give or take. So I’ll literally need $4-5 million by the time I’m retirement age to be able to expect that with modest returns and fluctuations in the economy, etc.
Anything less than that will just get put into investments until it IS that amount.
At this point in my life, I'm going to say $2mil.
$100k wouldn't change my life. I'd throw it in a savings account or invest. It's not paying off my house and I'm literally not doing anything in my life differently.
$500k I'd sell my house and get a larger one, but I'd still have a (small) mortgage and I'm not quitting my day job.
$1m would pay off the larger house, put a huge chunk in my retirement, but I'm still not quitting my day job.
$2m would pay for that larger house and guarantee my retirement without question. I could quit my day job and go do something else that I find meaningful because I don't care about my bills anymore.
Right now, $15,000 would be life-changing money
50k
Its crazy the amount of people that just want to Live for retirement. Sad actually
About $20k right now would improve my life beyond comprehension.
$50,000 would absolutely change my life
Any. I’m dead broke and living in my car. I just want to eat and have a full tank of gas. This sucks.
Realistically, 50k would clear all of my household debt, which would reduce my monthly cost of living by about $1400/month, That would be massively life changing
For myself at least a few million plus, you cannot even live off a million dollar nowadays.
$40k per month. A consistent $40k that is.
Anything in the 7+ figures range
About $2 more million and I will be done with running my small business and just retire.
Enough to pay off my car (about $19k) and my house (about $200k). Round it up to $250k. That would mean I would have no payments and free up $1500/mth for me to do whatever I want with. I'd max out all the investments (Roth 401k and Roth IRA) that I could and still have some leftover. I'd probably use it to become a part time poker player.
Honestly? $5,000.
What would you do with it?
Pay rent on time. Maybe look into a house.
look into buying a house after obtaining $5,000?
Rent is just one of many things. Eating regularly would be another
8 millions I would invest all of it and the returns will be able to beat inflation and pay me a decent lifestyle
$300,000+ per year is a ‘decent’ lifestyle?
$200k would make me feel secure enough to have a second child, which I would love to do. I could pay off my small amount of remaining student loan debt and put a down payment on a house…that would make me comfortable enough to have a second.
At this point in my life I could use 10,000$
Literally no amount.
We are retired (since 2009) and our nest egg supports everything we could possibly want/need, and still grows to outpace inflation
If I run across free "life changing" money - you can have it.
We dont need it.
$3.5m
500k. Pay off all debt including mortgage and student loans, invest the rest
$200k salary
Or $1 million in the bank which I’d then invest
100 grand
Any amount. Change is constant.
Anything over 1m for sure
an extra 100k or so post tax would give me the confidence and ability to start flipping houses (with a partner I already have) so about that. Not an insurmountable amount by any stretch, I’m technically already worth that. I wouldn’t up and quit my job, but it would change some aspects of my life Fs.
Anything over 10 million
Ten million or so after taxes
It seems silly probably to a lot of people but about £18k would be life changing to me as it would pay off my debt (apart from my mortgage) and the amount it would free up to spend each month, not to mention the stress it would take off, would absolutely be life changing!
I just got out of debt and it is indeed a very freeing moment.
100k. Life changing because it would reset me financially and allow me to start getting ahead instead of just working to try and break even.
Basically enough to pay off my debt, fix a lot of things wrong in my life, and give me a comfortable cushion to move forward and start building upwards.
Buying a reliable car, being able to buy in bulk to actually save money long term, and the mental health of knowing I’m going to be okay for a while as work shit out, will change my life.
Life changing? 1 million. Yes I live in the u.s. pay off house and all other debts, invest in dividend accounts so I can finally have time to pursue things I want to do instead of slowly dying and barely making it by working for the man
A million dollars is enough for me to clear up debt, go to school for what I want and then have the right profession. Who wants to invest into the broke Puerto Rican foundation over here
At bare minimum it would $168K to pay off my mortgage. That would allow me to save even more, invest more, make a brighter future.
Ideally, ya I imagine $1M or more would really make life easier for me and my family.
$50k lump sum net.
$500,000
4 million and I can let the 4% rule do its thing! that's my goal
3 mil
20k would solve every issue I have right now.
I have a startup and we’re really close to monetizing. I’m not worried about converting to sales, things are going very well, plenty of users, life is good. But we need money to fix a bug that is preventing monetization. So it’s just a slow burn while we’re putting the money together.
Basically, product is fine to use for free - but our clients admitted they don’t want to pay until certain things are fixed (which I’m not upset about, I agree and we’re getting great feedback.
Basically 10k fixes the issues and the other 10k helps buffer / float until we convert to sales. $20,000 would literally solve all my issues right now.
$100k. Tired of working these useless jobs that don’t pay well. I only make about $40k a year and it’s hard to save or invest that and flip it. Definitely open for ideas or career suggestions though I’ll be 35 this year 🙃
Immediately life changing? 2 to 5 mill * I’d pay off debt, continue to work but not be worried about keeping the job/find a company I actually enjoy working with, invest the bulk of it and try to start some side business I’ve been doing as a hobby
Life correcting? $250,000 * pay off debt, allow me to relax and take my SO on a nice vacation and still have enough to jump start long term investments that will pay off in the future
Three million
10 million
500k. I would buy 2-3 condos in a cheap country and live modestly off the rental income.
Not having a morrtgage
For people under 30 I feel like 250k-500k is rly life changing. Just puts them so far ahead of their peers. But escape the matrix life changing money gotta be like $10M. Can make like $300k-$500k per year risk free.
Life changing? Well, considering my wife and I are renting and at this rate will never be able to afford a house in our area, I’d say half the cost of a home (maybe $350k) would be pretty incredibly life changing.
$5,000,000.00
Well, i already have investmwnts but not enough to stop working right now as of today. To me it wouldnt be life changeing unless it would be enough for me to call up work and give them the bad news im not coming in today or ever.
that would be about 1.5mil cash after taxes.
Enough to live quite comfortably where all regular bills are covered and a slush fund available for splurges and then enough to help others around me as rising tide lifts all boats.
$2M is what I'm slated to make for the rest of my career, assuming no raises and a normal retirement age. So I guess that's the minimum amount I could call life-changing, as getting it all up front would allow me to cut back to a part-time job and enjoy life more.
Anything over that and I could start focusing on helping others with it.
At this moment, $350,000 to pay off all my combined debt and then have money left over to invest. Ideally, I'd rather be a millionaire.
About 2-3 million is enough to live well and not have to work anymore, at least in Germany. I recently took a big step in that direction and I just need the freedom of not having to work but being able to work when I want to.
250k - Would own my home outright, no more debt. I'd still have to set money aside for taxes, but that would save me enough that I could easily put my kids through college.
500k - Probably never worry about money again, but live my exact current lifestyle.
1M-2M - Would be able to buy a realistic dream home, still would need to work to stay afloat
2M - 5M - Would probably be able to retire super early or at least just work periodically as I need to. I don't think I have the appetite for risk to invest this much to try to retire in my 30s.
5M+ - Quit job immediately, invest and live off of earnings.
I would buy land, machinery and water rights. Precious metals, maybe some form of energy production like oil. And I would sit on it. Then when the end comes, I'll be a God.
The number varies for everybody based on where they currently are in life.
I had life changing money but my ex husband took it all
Honestly I'm probably naive but I think $79,000. It would roughly give me $100,000 in assets and I think that over the next 30 years it would jumpstart my future.
I feel like I'm on the precipice of being able to make larger financial decisions that would significantly secure my future.
As a 34 year old who's never made more than 40k in a year. 100k would drastically change my life.....now of we are saying life changing as in no work or worries, I could make 2-3million work. After debts are paid and essentials have no monthly payments, I could find ways to make the rest passively make me more.
Anything as I am unemployed
9985.19 what I owe on the house. Would need a million to quit work at 44
100k to wipe away my debt and my wife’s debt, to buy a reliable car and start up a business
The lowest amount to change my life currently? $21,971
1 million dollars
Honestly for me rn as easy as 10-20k would be life changing. It would clear debts for me and start on some of my gfs debts and would put me years ahead on being able to work on retirement save and invest.
Now if we talking about extreme levels of life changing personally with what I know now about finances and preparing for the future 1mil rn could set me up to snowball into a forever fortune through long term and short term investments and careful real estate investing as well.
I could turn my life around with less than million. But its still not enough for everything nowadays…
What would be least amount of life changing money for you?
Mine would be $100, 000
Your first 100k at the minimum.
I could build a never ending decent income with 1m
$120,000 would get me a pilot license.
5 -10 milly 2 mill would be great but I’m still working. 5-10 … working alot less
$50K would pay off my student loan.
Life-changing happens as soon as my monthly obligations become less overbearing.
Life changing money would be:
54k to wipe out all of our debt
300k to buy the house we are living in from the in laws.
500k to invest in my husband's dream restaurant.
300k to buy my sister a house so she can move her family out of a building that should quite literally be condemned and into a home nearby us so her special needs kiddos can get access to the best special education program in the state.
Approximately 2 million so I don't ever stress about how we will pay our bills, feed our kids, and think damn it I wish my sister and my niece and my nephews could have the same life. My sister is saving to move down here, but it's a slow process. She's already gotten permission from her boss that if she can save enough for a house down here they will reassign her work location and they have a spot that's only 20 minutes from my house which means as long as she lives in thr same school district she wouldn't be more than 30 minutes from their no matter where we got her a house.
If my husband decided he doesn't want to work the rest of his life we would invest the restaurant money into the stock market instead, though he would probably feel safer with the restaurant since his skills are amazing.
Life-changing money would be $100,000. I can invest most of it over the years and I’ll be set for retirement no matter what I do with my life, unless I get into a bunch of debt somehow
I would def need about 1 million right now and I would be good for life. On easy street.
Half a million
200-400,000 would go to college debt free and use the extra to support my kids while doing it. (Med school)
100k since that's supposedly when compounding really starts.
I can remember times when $20 would have been life changing money for me. Like yay I can buy good groceries this week money.
I can’t buy the life change that I want today. I want not to have won the lottery of having a rare disorder without a known cause nor cure.
I’ll settle for comfortable if something gets worse and I can’t work. So call it $2M using the 4% rule.
I’ll leave whatever’s left to the researchers trying to figure out the disorder. So in theory they’ll get the entire $2M.
Depends on what you mean by life changing lol
My husband and I have a solid retirement plan. The only debit we have is our house which we could pay off tomorrow if we choose to, it just doesn't make sense to do that financially. We've already started a college and savings account for our daughter.
All that said even 100 grand would be "life changing" for us in the sense that it would push our retirement to enough to free up a little more money from our paycheck.
A million would likely move our retirement goal from 55 down to 45. Im 38 now so I'd invest it all like nothing had changed and re-asses when I hit 45.
5 million, now I'm thinking I could quite work tomorrow if I wanted and live off the interest alone. Because I'm over catuois, I'd probably keep working a few years letting it grow while I figure out how much private insurance and that stuff is going to cost me.
Somewhere between 5 and 10 million is where I would drop work like a bad habit. I wouldn't make any lifestyle changes. A bit more traveling, sure. I'd look for a house on a small lake in the Adirondack. Nothing to crazy, just someplace I can chill in the summer.
Well I can tell you it’s not $1Mil, I’m on a support call right now at 5 am
I’d consider anything over $500,000 a life-changing amount of money; I’d invest all of it, work for at least the next 20 years while continuing to invest, then retire comfortably, knowing my future wife and I could live off $100-200,000 a year for the rest of our lives and still have $2,000,000+ to leave to our children when we pass
Edit: Didn’t realize so many people would have an opinion on my hypothetical use of an unattainable amount of money that I don’t and will probably never have in one lump sum😂