How Much Money Is Enough Money?

[MyPlayIsRAB 0]

if you live a modest life, theres no reason why 5 million wouldnt do it.$1m in your bank for ****ing around when you need to4m invested at 6% (not hard to find that hwen you have that much to invest) will net you 240k a year. if you own a 250,000$ home ( a big house in my area) and dont spend money foolishly, you can live a very comfortable life off the interestim actually reading a very interesting book right now on this topic entitled "rich dad, poor dad" which is definitely worth a read. heres an amazon link to ithttp://www.amazon.com/Rich-Dad-Poor-Money-...e/dp/0446677450

[hblask 1]

The main point everyone is missing is that if you have a LOT of money, you can safely make WAYmore than 5%. I personally have several offers from people for me to lend them money at 10%,and the loan is secured by property that is worth more than the loan. Also, if you have a bigchunk of money, you can invest in things that have short term losses for bigger long termgains. Overall, if you have more than a million dollars, you can plan on at leat 7%, and if youknow what you are doing, over 10% is possible.Having said all that, I think if I had $2M, that would be enough. That's $200K per year, whichis enough to let your principle grow by $20K per year so you can safely keep up with inflation,and still get $180K per year, and tolerate the down years. As someone whose income has beenall over the map, I can tell you that at $150K/yr, you pretty much do what you want with yourmoney. At $200K per year you have to be nuts to spend it all. Anything over that is pure frivolous luxury.

[rog 0]

I would need 3 million to never work again. That's one mil to settle debts, buy a nice house, couple of cars, help out my family and friends. The other 2 gets invested and I live comfortably off the interest.For 100k, I would quit my current job and take a sabbatical of about a year before finding another job. Possibly changing careers along the way.

[psujohn 0]

At $200K per year you have to be nuts to spend it all. Anything over that is pure frivolous luxury.

Says the man who lives in Minnesota. Try living in a place where a starter home is $500K and a million dollar home is no where near a mansion. Add things like private schools at $12K/year/child and expenses mount rapidly. It really depends a lot on where you live, the size of your family and your lifestyle.I think the OPs 10M isn't too far off. I think you can live very comfortably almost anywhere with 5M but the 10 would raise your standard of living comfortably into the uppper middle class and provide an extra safety net for those down years which will happen.

[koolromeo 0]

lol @ the people who think they would need 5-10million.

[theresa113 0]

My rate of return in my 401K so far this year is 10.7%. This is me (who has no clue) doing everything by myself.A close friend of mine just received 250K as an inheritance. She has an amazing financial adviser and in a few short months has made close to 20K.Granted, the market is not always stable but 5% is quite low.Also, if you had a huge chunk of change, you would want to diversify, own real estate and create other sources of income.It really doesn't take a huge amount of money to make a lots of money, but it does take lots of brains and discipline which is what most people lack (including me... especially on the discipline part.)

[nutzbuster 7]

Sadly, the reality for most is 5 mil. (the minimum "F U " mobnies).10 Mil is very comfortable F U money.You can never have enough IMO.

[hblask 1]

Says the man who lives in Minnesota. Try living in a place where a starter home is $500K and a million dollar home is no where near a mansion. Add things like private schools at $12K/year/child and expenses mount rapidly. It really depends a lot on where you live, the size of your family and your lifestyle.I think the OPs 10M isn't too far off. I think you can live very comfortably almost anywhere with 5M but the 10 would raise your standard of living comfortably into the uppper middle class and provide an extra safety net for those down years which will happen.

My house is over $500K, indebted to the max, I have several investments that are short term cash bleeds, and 3 kids, and I still think $200K would be EASY living, seeing as how even with all that I'm living off less than half that now, and pretty comfortably. That's why I said you'd have to be nuts to spend more than that, such as buying a new car every year and crazy stuff like that. Yeah, if you want to live like Bill Gates, and fly your private jet around the world on a whim, you'd need more than that. A comfortable middle class lifestyle takes less than $100K almost anywhere. Maybe SoCal, Manhattan, and SF are exceptions, but why live there if you didn't have to work?Now, if your goal is to live without a job in Manhattan and take 5 or 6 expensive vacations per year, yeah, you'd need way more than $2M. I thought this was about "living comfortably", not "frivolously rich".

[powerpoker 0]

There are two ways to look at this, there is the live a comfortable lifestyle way which 10 mil would most likely due (boo). Then there is the way i would like to live and i would need a lot more. somewhere in the 30+ mil or more liquid range. Why not fly around on your own jet and have mutiple homes, expensive cars and ridiculous jewelry.Cars would probably equal close to 1.5 millionJet would be 7-10 million plus upkeepHomes would be around 2 mil each on the low end (lets say 2 of them to start)Jewelry would easily be over a million (and thats without trying since custom jewelry is expensive)And just invest the rest.Thats would be my perfect lifestyle and that would around 30 million easy.

[gmanshade 0]

No amount of money will ever let you live your life the way you want. You start living the $500K a year lifestyle, and you'd have friends who live the $1,000K lifestyle.Then you'd start thinking ... "if I only had xxxx much money, I'd really be happy.

definitely true.this is a lesson i learned from my dad.you can be as happy making 60k per year but living below your means (cheap rent or very cheap mortgage, not the best area in town, not blowing money on unnecessary stuff) as having 10 mill and living off the interest. our basic needs can easily be taken care of for 20k per person per year. It is much better to have money above this amount, but although it seems like it would be amazing to be rich (omg if i had the money i would buy XXX, YYY, and ZZZ) it is not all that it is cracked up to be.thornstein veblen coined a phrase for this at the end of the 19th century: "invidious comparison." very quickly having money is simply about saying to the person on your right and the person on your left "i have more than you." and if one of them is richer than you are, no matter how much you have, you feel like you need to make more. so my answer: give me 250k and i'm confident i can get 20k per year from it, and then i have the choice to work or not work for the rest of my life

[gmanshade 0]

note:btw, this is another tip from papa gmanshade.when you are trying to decide whether something is true or not, look at people who have experienced it and observe how they are living: how much free time do they have? how stable is their life? and most importantly: how happy do they seem? for people that think 10 million or more is necessary, observe people that are very rich and compare them with people that are verry middle-class comfortable. i mean, realistically, compare anyone who is a pro gambler on tv with a person in town who you know that is living life the way he wants to live, has enough money to cover his needs, has disposable income to splurge on the things that are really important to him. Most of the pros seem very worn down, haggard, depressed.

[dlingdling 0]

I think about this pretty often. If I were to wake up with Townsend-esque skills and have a month like he did in May (or a week like last week), would that be enough to walk away? If I won the Sunday Million, that would be screw you money because I could quit my job...but would have to find something else within a year or two.I live pretty simply, and given the choice I would probably buy a house in an inexpensive yet familiar city and continue that way of life. A few trips to Europe a year to visit friends plus enough money to pay the bills without worry. Maybe a few extra bucks to treat my sisters and their families to some luxury each year. That would be enough. Based on the hypothetical 5% return, $1-2 million would more than cover it for me.

[Billy 0]

I need about tree fitty.

[hblask 1]

There does seem to be a wide discrepancy in what people think the question is. If you think about it in terms of "I hate my job, I dread getting up in the morning, how much would I need to walk away and not have to look for another job and keep my current lifestyle", then I think the answer is "enough to match my current income and have my investments grow enough to keep up with inflation". For most people, that's probably well under $2Million in the bank.If you are asking "how much to walk away from a job that's OK but not great", probably a little more.If you are asking "how much to walk away from a job I love", then why would you ever leave it?If you are asking "how much to be happy", the answer is "there's no amount for that."If you are asking "how much so that I can do whatever I want whenever I want, and buy any house I want", then 10's of millions is probably not enough.Here's my test of "rich": a moderate house where I use all the rooms with no wasted space, but don't need more space; the ability to not have to worry about small (under, say $100) expenses; the ability to take a decent trip 3 or 4 times a year; the ability to buy toys such as an iPod or laptop three or four times a year; the ability to keep a reliable, comfortable car. For a single individual, that's probably $120K/year. For a couple, $150K/year would be enough; with kids, probably $200K/year. (And yes, we'll exclude living in Manhattan, San Francisco, Beverly Hills, etc -- a house in the 'burbs is fine for anyone).And gmanshade's two posts above are correct.

[powerpoker 0]

note:btw, this is another tip from papa gmanshade.when you are trying to decide whether something is true or not, look at people who have experienced it and observe how they are living: how much free time do they have? how stable is their life? and most importantly: how happy do they seem? for people that think 10 million or more is necessary, observe people that are very rich and compare them with people that are verry middle-class comfortable. i mean, realistically, compare anyone who is a pro gambler on tv with a person in town who you know that is living life the way he wants to live, has enough money to cover his needs, has disposable income to splurge on the things that are really important to him. Most of the pros seem very worn down, haggard, depressed.

There are other rich ppl that arent pros, that i have met and they seem pretty damn happy to me. No worries about anything and i really dont want to just comfortable, because then it seems like im settling and i dont want to just settle to be happy i want to do what i want when i want and never have to worry. Gordon Gekko style. "They say money can't buy happiness? Look at the fucking smile on my face. Ear to ear, baby."I love that quote

[Yoda 1]

heh everyone saying it would take millions is mostly full of shit. I bet roughly 50% of the workforce would go into their bosses office, piss on their desk, and tell them to fuck off - for no more then about $50,000. There's always another job. Consider it a sweet buyout package.This is a very different question then "how much money would you need to retire and never work again"

[powerpoker 0]

So what would it take for you? How much money would you need to accumulate to live the rest of your life the way you want? *eagerly awaiting the "eleventy brazzilian dollars" response*

heh everyone saying it would take millions is mostly full of shit. I bet roughly 50% of the workforce would go into their bosses office, piss on their desk, and tell them to fuck off - for no more then about $50,000. There's always another job. Consider it a sweet buyout package.This is a very different question then "how much money would you need to retire and never work again"

Your question is pretty similar to what al asked. Thats why i said 30million or more. I think its a realistic number to live how i want to live. Like i said before being comfortable is fine for some ppl but to me it just seems like settling and i dont want to just settle, i want the cars, homes, jewelry, private jets, vacations and so forth that is how i WANT to live so yet 30 million should get the ball rolling.

[jmkiser 0]

heh everyone saying it would take millions is mostly full of shit. I bet roughly 50% of the workforce would go into their bosses office, piss on their desk, and tell them to fuck off - for no more then about $50,000. There's always another job. Consider it a sweet buyout package.This is a very different question then "how much money would you need to retire and never work again"

which I think was the main questionAnswer: 2mil (even in Cali)taking age into consideration, I'm consistently satisfied with less. The older I get, the more need for more money grows... play with 65% of the interest, put the rest back into the 2mil and I'm living quite comfortably for the rest of my life.

[Yoda 1]

All right, well if that's the main question then all the millions are fine. But how much to piss on your bosses desk and not worry about the consequences might not be the best way to phrase that.Here comes Balloonguy to brag that if he were to do that he would be pissing on his own desk...

[Balloon guy 158]

*Brag Post*When I was making $40K a year as a union heavy equipment operator, I had more balance and serenity in my life.There is a book called the Millionaire's Mind, a guy interviewed a thousand self made millionaires and wrote down his findings.The vast majority of the people he interviewed spent the bulk of their free time dealing with taxes.Everything I do, everything I spend money on, I consider the tax implications. I can afford a plane, but that would not be deductible, so I do not want to spend the money.But if I liquidate, I would invest eveything in tax free munis, that's where all the real wealth invests their money for the most part.In other words, they do not pay taxes, because they don't earn money from work, they get it from investments that are tax free. This money that the super rich live off of comes from the taxes collected from you by your government eveytime they issue a bond.Vote no on all bonds issues, you're just supporting Paris HiltonKind of wish I could live on $50K a year again, doubt I could.

[gmanshade 0]

Here's my test of "rich": a moderate house where I use all the rooms with no wasted space, but don't need more space; the ability to not have to worry about small (under, say $100) expenses; the ability to take a decent trip 3 or 4 times a year; the ability to buy toys such as an iPod or laptop three or four times a year; the ability to keep a reliable, comfortable car. For a single individual, that's probably $120K/year. For a couple, $150K/year would be enough; with kids, probably $200K/year. (And yes, we'll exclude living in Manhattan, San Francisco, Beverly Hills, etc -- a house in the 'burbs is fine for anyone).And gmanshade's two posts above are correct.

ty hblask. i'm highlighting the second part b/c i've gotten a lot of sht on the forum, and you're a respected poster. I'm highlighting the first part b/c i totally agree with you. A lot of people fantasize about wealth as--"I can buy whatever I want, do whatever I want"--but the goal should really be "I can pay for and enjoy the things I care about without waste, and with a maximum level of stability." it would be cool to have a 1 million dollar house, but for every 100 people that have this 5-8 are comfortable (b/c they have net worth of 5 million +), maybe 40 are doing okay because they make a lot of money and have reasonable job security, but the rest are worrying often (and in some cases every day) about not making the payments and having the house repossessed. this is obv not luxury.

[powerpoker 0]

ty hblask. i'm highlighting the second part b/c i've gotten a lot of sht on the forum, and you're a respected poster. I'm highlighting the first part b/c i totally agree with you. A lot of people fantasize about wealth as--"I can buy whatever I want, do whatever I want"--but the goal should really be "I can pay for and enjoy the things I care about without waste, and with a maximum level of stability." it would be cool to have a 1 million dollar house, but for every 100 people that have this 5-8 are comfortable (b/c they have net worth of 5 million +), maybe 40 are doing okay because they make a lot of money and have reasonable job security, but the rest are worrying often (and in some cases every day) about not making the payments and having the house repossessed. this is obv not luxury.

ok but take into reason what the question really asked, which was how much money would you need to accumulate to live the rest of your life the way you want. If i am living the way i want i will not be worrying about job security because i would have no job, and i would not worry abuot bills and making payments because everything would be paid off. Therefore to live how i would like it would take close to if not more than 30+ million. That number is a quick estimate it may take more but i doubt less.

[QED 4]

My biggest worry is that once I don't have a job to go to, I will become too expensive for my income. I love expensive things, flying, golf, good cigars, travel. With more free time do you think I will do more or less of these things?

You could always take up some kind of part time work be it just in some area that takes your interest or in some form of charity/community area. I guess it depends what interests you and if you think you need to fill up some of that free time or not.

[socalpoker_j 1]

I'll just rob Al Smooth and Balloon Guy, or they could adopt me. /thread.

[hblask 1]

ty hblask. i'm highlighting the second part b/c i've gotten a lot of sht on the forum, and you're a respected poster. I'm highlighting the first part b/c i totally agree with you. A lot of people fantasize about wealth as--"I can buy whatever I want, do whatever I want"--but the goal should really be "I can pay for and enjoy the things I care about without waste, and with a maximum level of stability." it would be cool to have a 1 million dollar house, but for every 100 people that have this 5-8 are comfortable (b/c they have net worth of 5 million +), maybe 40 are doing okay because they make a lot of money and have reasonable job security, but the rest are worrying often (and in some cases every day) about not making the payments and having the house repossessed. this is obv not luxury.

I'm not sure where you got the idea I'm respected....I had a college friend who started his own business and it took off. He moved into a gated community with million dollar mansions. He hated it. The neighbors all lived there to show off how rich they were, and he didn't use about half of his house -- he didn't even go into certain rooms. He has since sold it and moved to a reasonable sized house. I also can afford a much bigger house than I have, but instead chose to have more *space* -- 10 acres in the country, and I live in a 2200 sq ft farmhouse (for a family of 5). I think people who want mansions have never lived in a mansion. My last house had over 5000 sq ft, and most of it was wasted. Now, I wouldn't mind a more *luxurious* house, but I don't really need a *bigger* house.