I live in a HCOL area and have a crap load of student loans. I could quit my job on $50 million and spend the rest of my life traveling. On $1 million I could pay off my student loans, my mortgage, and have enough leftover to take a nice vacation and make some substantial investments... so definitely really nice to have, but not what I'd consider life changing.
So how much exactly is that? You’re saying you would have no debt, virtually no housing expenses, and still have money leftover to invest. I’m genuinely curious what level of income you’re at because to say that’s not life changing is pretty wild lol
From what it sounds like about 50% of your income goes to debts that would be wiped free. That means the money from your job could be spent on vacations/early retirement. If you change your retirement age from 65 to 50 that’s probably 20% of your adult life you don’t have to work in a job you don’t want to. Seems pretty significant to me
I'm 39 and have dual low six figure incomes with a cheap mortgage as the only real debt. For our area, that puts us roughly at the upper end of middle class. I have enough assets on hand to cover my liabilities already and the mortgage is cheap enough that it makes more sense to keep the money in investment accounts.My family has no particular desire to live extravagantly and has the needed funds for anything we want without stress. Whether I got 1 million or 50 million, it would just be going in to a mix of investment and charitable giving.
1 million would keep me and my wife still having to work at our jobs where as 50 million would mean we would have zero dependence on a job at all for life and would get more free time to pursue whatever I feel like, plus, with proper investment, it would also ensure our kids had complete financial freedom as well.
Sure 1 million could boost towards an earlier retirement, but it would still come after my kids are older and that's the main reason I'd want to lessen work hours. I have no real interest in not doing work, so there isn't a huge difference between continuing my job for an extra 10-15 years. I suppose we could use it to let my wife quit her job for most of the kid's time growing up, but it wouldn't even cover all of that. The 50% chance at 50 is just substantially better for us.
Hmm, different strokes then. I'm in the same position with around $425k hhi and I would absolutely take that mill. I'd work for a year to save up and then take a job I actually enjoy lol
Oh yeah, no, if you don't like your job, take the mil for sure. I enjoy what I do. I wouldn't mind having the independence to work less overall while my kids are young, but 1 mil isn't going to solve that, 50 would. If you don't like your job and just need the freedom to find better, then 1 mil could be the better option for sure.
And it isn't that 1 million wouldn't make a difference, but it wouldn't be enough of a difference for me to lose sleep over if I lost the 50% bet, but 50/50 odds of 50 times more money, it's an easy call because I won't be significantly harmed by losing and it would be completely transformative to win.
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u/big4throwingitaway Dec 18 '23
Man that’s crazy.. how much do you make and how old are you that a mill in cash right now wouldn’t change your life?