How much $ would be life-altering for you?

[jIM_Ohio]

I just listened to a rerun of an Oprah episode talking to lottery winners and other people who had suddenly come into great wealth and what effect that had on their lives. The term "life-altering" got used several times and I started thinking how much would constitute a "life-altering" amount for me and what life-altering would mean or look like.

My first thought of life-altering would be the ability to quit my job and never need to work again. I figure I could do that on about $3 million, though realistically, I probably wouldn't actually do it on less than $4-5 million because I'd be afraid of outliving my money.

So how much would be life-altering for you, and what would your version of life-altering be?

500k, maybe even 300k.

500k would let me pay off my mortgage and I could invest the rest and live off it... add that to what I have saved now, and the 500k only needs to last me 20-30 years.

[nanamom]

Life Altering for me would be much simpler, we want to adopt a couple children form Liberia. For that I need about 15K. Needless to say tripling th enumber of kids at home would alter my life rather radically as well as having kids who weren't aware of electricity or running water etc. We arent' in major debt anymore except for the house and van so really only lust after enough to add to the family.

[th_tan]

$12,000 after taxes would make my life change big time. I am small time, use that as a downpayment on a house and I'd be happy.

[crazymom]

Interesting thread. Doubling what we currently make salary wise would be life altering for me. I'd buy more gourmet food, new clothes for my kids, and go on more vacations. I would also help out my sister financially. In my wildest dreams, I'd have someone cook for me and I'd own a horse!

[Ima saver]

About 2 million would be life altering for me. My dh would never have to work again, however, he would drive me crazy if he was home all the time. I would like to have enough to just live on the interest.

I think this is an interesting thread. When I was 20, I thought if I ever had $10,000 in the bank that would be the greatest thing in the world. (That was back when you could buy a house for $10,000)

Actually, my life would not change that much cause I have everything I need right now. I am sure my dh would love to build himself a car and that would keep him busy!

[disneysteve]

I think this is an interesting thread. When I was 20, I thought if I ever had $10,000 in the bank that would be the greatest thing in the world.

Actually, my life would not change that much cause I have everything I need right now.

Oprah said something similar. She talked about how she has earned every income from $10,000 on up and when she first earned $50,000 she thought that was it and she didn't ever have to earn more than that.

I love what you said about having everything you need. I feel the same way. It's too bad more people don't share that view. So many problems would go away if people learned to be satisfied with what they have instead of always wanting more.

[Ima saver]

Well Steve, I agree . I have a nice house, furnished nicely and all paid for. I drive a great car and I can only drive one at a time. I have a great husband and a sweet puppy dog! What in the world else do I need? I don't need to waste my money buying clothes or make up to impress people.

[disneysteve]

What in the world else do I need?

Again, I agree. It just isn't a question you hear people asking very much. It's much more common to hear, "I want this or that" or "I NEED this or that" and then I'll be happy. But as soon as they get "this or that" something else comes along that they NEED to be happy. The end result is that they are never satisfied.

Jean Chatzky wrote a book a couple of years ago on money and happiness and found that once people earn more than about $50,000, happiness level stays about the same regardless of income. So someone earning 100K or 500K is no happier with his/her life than someone earning 50K.

[Ima saver]

I would agree. When we lived on $20,000 a year, things were kind of tight and I could not invest the way I wanted to. Now that we make $50,000, I feel happy with where we are at.

[Ima saver]

I asked my husband this question last night. His answer was 5 million. I think he has visions of building million dollar cars!!

[zakity]

120,000 after taxes would be life altering. It would pay off the house.

Now, to quit working for the rest of our lives, I would want about 5 million after taxes.

[disneysteve]

A few of you have mentioned that enough to pay off your house would be life-altering. That got me wondering, so I just ran the numbers. The principal and interest payments (since taxes and insurance would continue) come to just over 7% of income. While a 7% raise would be very nice, it just doesn't seem like a life-altering amount to me. I'm guessing some of you are spending a much larger percentage of income on your home.

[threebeansalad]

Interesting question. Life altering would be 75K free and clear. It would allow us to put a sizeable downpayment in a house in our next location (a high COL area). Otherwise, homeownership we've be renting and saving for a few more years!

[genmed]

I'm pretty happy with how my life is going towards getting where I want to go (see below). I think currently, I'll be there in 5 years. Life altering for me would just be getting there a little faster. I'm pretty happy with my lifestyle. My major dreams would be to travel a bit more, live somewhere more rural... Major life-altering, I would be doing the same thing, just not getting paid for it.

Minor life altering would be $100,000 enough to pay off all debts and move as soon as I am done school. (see below) We'd still have to work, but I could accomplish my dreams about 3 1/2 years earlier.

Major life altering for me would be $750,000. This is enough money to support us through retirement, funding my goals of traveling, paying off what debt we have and freeing my and DH's need to work for money. I'd be able to move into the more rural community I want to, I'd be able to practice medicine without charging/having to be paid.

[MonkeyMama]

Approaching it from many different angles it would be about 1/2 mil.

Our house has gone up so much in value and about hit $450k in equity for a while. Unfortunately it was for a short time (well so now it is only $400k). But we made a mental note that for $500k we would sell our house and leave the area. We were starting to pack our bags. IT would change our lives dramatically. Maybe a little less if we didn't have to move so far from our family. But approaching it from a few angles $400k - $500k would do it. No, we wouldn't even pay off the mortgage. But we have dreamt of cashing out our equity, moving somewhere cheaper, living off the money while the kids are young, maybe working PT, but then benefits wouldn't be so much of an obstacle to part-time work. I don't even have health insurance through my work BUT the benefits I have like vacation and sick pay, most likely lost going part-time come up to thousands every year. So we have dreamt of cashing out and working far less. Maybe even take a few years off, but is not enough to retire on and we would need to keep up our skills so we are realistic all the same. We could buy our dream house, a lot of toys, fund our retirement heavily, and only work 1/2 as much while the kids are young. (BTW we bought our dream home in 2001 - our idea of a dream home has changed dramatically - but $50k down in another state would cover it all the same - not terribly bigger or grander, better function and design and more land mostly).

From another angle we would need about $400k - $500k to pop it in the bank and have our retirement funded for life. Would just free more of our money not to worry about retirement. That would be life altering to me.

Another angle would be just having another $10k-$20k/year to either play with or so I could work less. That would be life altering. For life that comes up to $400k - seems to by my magic #.

If we made any less, frankly we would invest it, I don't think we would do terribly much with it or change our lifestyle in the short-term. May buy us freedom and early retirement in the long-term even if we inherited $100k or something. But for the most part not terribly life altering.

Gosh, 10 years ago $100k would have been so extremely life altering I Can't even imagine. IT certainly changes with time. You know 10 years ago we hardly had a pennies to our name... Now we have some significant assets, it's all different now.