"Life changing money"

[tractor]

$1 would be life changing for me. Now if I can just get 300,000 of my closest friends to each send me $1, my life would be forever changed. Let me know if you need my address.

[raeoflyte]

Aug 1, 2019 7:25:04 GMT -5 Lizard Queen said:

You know, I guess that much more income would be in a way. If my DH earned that much more, I wouldn't worry too much about working myself, saving all the daycare costs. Otherwise, life-changing lump sum would take much more.

This is us too.  If I made that much more per year dh would quit working.  If dh made that much more per year we would save more and hire out all the yard work and a ton of house work.  

It wasn't that long ago that my income went up by about 30k a year and it allowed us to increase housing costs for a nicer area/better schools and for dh to cut his hours, so it was also life changing.  

[Gardening Grandma]

I had to think about it quite a bit.  $500,000 would not drastically change my life.  We'd pay off the lots and DH would buy some toys and we'd take more (and expensive) trips.  But would not move or otherwise change our lifestyle.

$1M - pretty much the same.... It would certainly improve our lives, but not change dramatically.  That would take more than $5M or $10M.

[NoNamePerson]

Aug 1, 2019 7:35:35 GMT -5 tractor said:

$1 would be life changing for me. Now if I can just get 300,000 of my closest friends to each send me $1, my life would be forever changed. Let me know if you need my address.

Only if you send me the $3.82 that will change my life   (see prior post)

[laterbloomer]

Jul 31, 2019 23:32:21 GMT -5 cronewitch said:

My financial life is not going to change with more money. I have more than I can spend and am giving away excess to make life changing amounts for others.

Should I send you my email address? 

[laterbloomer]

Jul 31, 2019 15:42:27 GMT -5 Tiny said:

At this point in my financial life  "life changing" means achieving Financial Independence.   

A lump sum of 500K or more delivered tomorrow - and I could quit my job without hesitation the day after that.    That would be life changing.     If the lump sum was 5 million or more -  definitely life changing for me and it might become "life shifting' for some of my relatives as I started a 10 year plan of  gifting them yearly fixed amounts of money to go into "retirement accounts' and/or to be put towards their student loans  (their current life stays the same - but their future gets brighter).    My relatives are all "young enough' to benefit from some help with these long term things.  

A lump sum of 250K delivered tomorrow - wouldn't change my immediate plans  but it would make me much more happy and relaxed and able to better enjoy the time I do spend at work... as it would pretty much guarantee a FIre date in 2 years versus 4 or 5 years).   

Any amount that was doled out  via a  "paycheck" over the course of years  wouldn't change my immediate plans or my long term plans - as I'd still have to go to work to achieve my goals.     

As per the OP, a 30K increase in pay (or as a bonus) would be nice  (probably 20 to 25K after taxes?)  wouldn't be life changing.   I'd still have to go to work for the next 4 years.    After 2 years - it might cause me to 're-evaluate' my long term plans but probably not. 

 

Pretty much this. 

[resolution]

I didn't recognize it as life changing at the time, but the $10k that my parents gave me when I bought my house had a huge impact on my future. It changed the neighborhood that I bought in from one that was outside a reasonable commute range, to one where I could commute anywhere in the city. That opened up new job opportunities that would have otherwise been ruled out due to the commute.

Now 20 years later, it would probably take $750k, which would be enough to buy and restore one of those old colonial manors on some ground. Other than that, we already have enough to maintain our current lifestyle.

It is amazing what 20 years will do, in regards to life-changing amounts.

[steph08]

Since 2016, my income has increased about $20k. It hasn't been life-changing, but it has made life easier in terms of increasing retirement contributions back to pre-kid, pre-holy-crap-daycare costs, allowing us to pay off DH's student loan early, and now contemplating building a new house that would work better for our family. 

I'd need a good $5 million (after taxes) to really be life-changing. However, about $200k (after taxes) would change our lives because I'd be a huge YM failure and pay off our house / buy a new house outright and never worry about a mortgage payment again.

[cronewitch]

Aug 1, 2019 12:20:13 GMT -5 resolution said:

I didn't recognize it as life changing at the time, but the $10k that my parents gave me when I bought my house had a huge impact on my future. It changed the neighborhood that I bought in from one that was outside a reasonable commute range, to one where I could commute anywhere in the city. That opened up new job opportunities that would have otherwise been ruled out due to the commute.

Now 20 years later, it would probably take $750k, which would be enough to buy and restore one of those old colonial manors on some ground. Other than that, we already have enough to maintain our current lifestyle.

It is amazing what 20 years will do, in regards to life-changing amounts.

This is why I am doing life changing gifts now, it is so much cheaper. I for example gave my niece 7K one day and she asked why. I explained that was 3.5% of 200K and if she got an FHA house it could help. She had said she wanted an FHA house. So this seed money allowed her and her husband to get a nice big house. She said if the house was one more thousand they couldn't have done it. When I die she might get about 50K but that first 7K will mean more being 30 years sooner. My dad gave me 13K early inheritance in 1985 so now I am passing it down to his grandchildren and great grands as early inheritance. 

[CCL]

I wish we had an aunt like you, Crone.

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

I took a $25k/year cut in 2015. This year, I will go back to making the amount I was making in 2015. Because I had adjusted our day-to-day spending plan four years ago, I'm taking the increase in my paycheck and sending all of it to either debt pay off or my IRA. So, at the moment, my pay increase is not affecting my life; it will affect my future though. 

[Miss Tequila]

Aug 1, 2019 8:09:28 GMT -5 raeoflyte said:

Aug 1, 2019 7:25:04 GMT -5 Lizard Queen said:

You know, I guess that much more income would be in a way. If my DH earned that much more, I wouldn't worry too much about working myself, saving all the daycare costs. Otherwise, life-changing lump sum would take much more.

This is us too.  If I made that much more per year dh would quit working.  If dh made that much more per year we would save more and hire out all the yard work and a ton of house work.  

It wasn't that long ago that my income went up by about 30k a year and it allowed us to increase housing costs for a nicer area/better schools and for dh to cut his hours, so it was also life changing.  

I got a bigger raise than that just a little over a year ago...all I did was increase my investing.  Then I realized that the money wasn't worth it and quit without a job.  I'm very happy that I never changed my lifestyle!lol

[giramomma]

Life changing would be a lump sum so that we could fund more kid expensive kid activities (elite/travel cheer for DD1, karate indefinitely for the peanut, and preschool our favorite two schools for multiple years) while having me quit my day job. I'd also want to spend ample time abroad with whatever children can make it.

I'd keep teaching part time, and DH would continue to work part time. DH's pay would mostly cover health insurance. My teaching would bring in enough to cover the mortgage.

My guess is that we'd be looking at 2 million, at least.

Paying off our mortgage only gets us a $400/month cash flow. We're already fairly set on retirement as long as we stay the course. A lump sum 100K wouldn't really be enough of a reward to risk retirement at 55 with a 13 year old at home to support. Even with a full pension. Retiree health insurance might take 1/3 of my pension.  

I think the metrics of upper middle class are hard to define. By some metrics, we look more upper middle class than not. Large family, one parent that doesn't work full time. Kids in activities, paying for private k-8 school (for 25 years!). Vacations.  Some big, some small. With the exception of housing and cars, we look a lot like my clients that earn way more than us. But, even if earned 3x our current household income, I wouldn't want a half million dollar 3500-5000 square foot home with a pool in the back yard. Too much to maintain.

[haapai]

This is a little off-topic, but I think that this is a terrible time to buy a house with FHA financing.  The new MIP rules that kicked in 2015 really raise the cost of this type of financing and the loan to income ratios that are allowed are terrifying.  Ditto for the allowable credit scores. 

I'd counsel the recipient of such generosity to figure out how to turn a 3.5% down payment into a 20% down payment as fast as possible instead.  Bad things happened to FHA borrowers and neighborhoods with lots of FHA borrowers during the last recession and I've got a sick sense that a repeat is imminent. 

[Tiny]

Aug 1, 2019 15:26:38 GMT -5 haapai said:

This is a little off-topic, but I think that this is a terrible time to buy a house with FHA financing.  The new MIP rules that kicked in 2015 really raise the cost of this type of financing and the loan to income ratios that are allowed are terrifying.  Ditto for the allowable credit scores. 

I'd counsel the recipient of such generosity to figure out how to turn a 3.5% down payment into a 20% down payment as fast as possible instead.  Bad things happened to FHA borrowers and neighborhoods with lots of FHA borrowers during the last recession and I've got a sick sense that a repeat is imminent. 

I agree with this.  I'd counsel the person thinking of the FHA loan to think well beyond the purchase date of the house.   The FHA financing might work ok if the buyer is getting a house that will appreciate in value quickly OR if their income will be going up substantially quickly.   Quickly as in a few years.   Those two things might allow the buyer to re-finance into a better loan.    I think that is what those FHA loans are designed to do... get someone into a house and then they will re-fi sooner than later into a traditional mortgage. 

My niece started out with a FHA 203K loan  (the house wasn't habitable so the loan covered improvements) and it worked well... but then 3 years into the loan,property values started going up and she had more than 20% equity in the house but couldn't get rid of PMI. She and her Significant Other were also making more money (as they moved into better positions with their "career path" jobs).    She finally came to her senses (MANY family members were strongly suggesting she do a re-fi) and did the refinance.  No PMI, lower interest rate, lower payment, no additional money down (the cost of the refi rolled into the new loan). 

(FWIW:  you don't need 20% down for a mortgage.   None of the youngsters I know buying houses have had 20% of the cost of the house at closing.  Having to pay PMI for a period of time - isn't necessarily a bad thing). 

[nidena]

$1.65M would cover me every month for the next 40 years and pay off the mortgage, car, credit card, and student loans so I think receiving that as a lump sum net amount would be awesome because I could take out a year's worth at a time and then grow the rest.

[hopetoberich]

I'm wondering where your boss comes from to think $30k life changing. Would it put you in a different tax bracket?
Trouble is if you were to tell him 30k is okay, but it could be better, how would he respond?
Not that I'm rich or anything, but I would try and invest a big chunk of that in the stock market for some regular returns on it.

[cktc]

Aug 2, 2019 0:40:36 GMT -5 hopetoberich said:

I'm wondering where your boss comes from to think $30k life changing. Would it put you in a different tax bracket?
Trouble is if you were to tell him 30k is okay, but it could be better, how would he respond?
Not that I'm rich or anything, but I would try and invest a big chunk of that in the stock market for some regular returns on it.

DH's boss. It's actually a jump to six figures that he is referring to as "life changing". He said once he makes 6, it will be for life. They haven't technically discussed numbers because DH doesn't want the job. 

[billisonboard]

I got to thinking about when I got a new position within the organization that gave me a "life changing money" increase in salary. How my life changed was that I am now responsible 24/365. I used to be able to walk away for periods of time. Now a day does not go by that I am not checking emails at the very least.

[laterbloomer]

$30,000 more a year would be life changing for me but not in a really visible way. I'd stay in the same house and drive the same car. My travelling would go from $2000 trips to maybe $5000 trips and I would get a couple or renos done a bit sooner.

[pooks]

I few thousand would be life changing at the moment, but that is because we are a few thousand short of a goal.  Income wise, when DH got a raise that was equivalent to my salary it was life changing, because I stopped working.

Now to change our lives, we would need a lump of at least a million or a doubling of salary.  We would take more vacations, maybe buy a second home, retire earlier.  Otherwise we just save/invest more, which doesn't change our day to day at all.    

[plugginaway22]

What is a reasonable amount to cover health insurance for 2  59 year olds until Medicare kicks in at 65??  That amount would allow us to quit our jobs tomorrow and for me, be life changing.

[NastyWoman]

Upgrade me to business class (BC) whenever I fly and we'll call it even. I have most everything I want and zero debt. I could retire today and without worry live the way I live now. BUT...I don't know whether I can still travel like I do now in say 10 years when I am in my late 70s. So at that time I want to be able to fly only BC and for now I travel cattle class in order to be able to keep travelling longer. IOW: life changing money = whatever it costs extra to take 2-3 international trips per year in BC.

[Anne_in_VA]

$5 to $10 million would change my life.  While I’m retired, DH isn’t going to retire for a few more years.  I’d ask him to retire and travel while I’m still able to.  I want to take a couple of cruises, maybe some trips overseas as DH wants to visit the beaches of Normandy and some do the other WWII battle sites.  I want to do a couple of river cruises and travel with a couple of girlfriends.  

I would buy buy a slightly larger house.  Nothing extravagant, but our bedrooms are on the small side and I’d like larger bedrooms and a larger living room and maybe a swimming pool.  
Our insurance costs are covered as DH is a retired veteran unless the government messes with that.  Out biggest expenses are food and entertainment.  We eat out a bit and would like to give some money to the kids and grandkids for their education.

[lynnerself]

DH and I discussed this. I was thinking 1 or 2 million would change our life.  But just a bigger house and traveling more and 1st class are not really "life changing". DH says to be life changing it would have to be an amount large enough that we started to worry about our security.

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Jul 31, 2019 14:42:12 GMT -5 cktc said:

DH's old boss is trying to talk him into going for his old job. Said it would be "life changing money". DH scoffed at it, but it'd likely be an extra $30k in annual take home. While we are pretty comfortable now, that would certainly change things vs. annual raises and smaller pay bumps that are quickly reallocated.

Is there an amount of money that would change how you live your life? If so, how much, and what would you do with it?

well - it's a bit odd for the once and future boss to decide on what is "life changing". For someone else. Kind of condescending, really. 

so 30k take home is maybe 50k gross?

It's a nice bump up, but I'd be really concerned about boss' attitude on this.

[cktc]

Aug 3, 2019 17:58:51 GMT -5 Rukh O'Rorke said:

Jul 31, 2019 14:42:12 GMT -5 cktc said:

DH's old boss is trying to talk him into going for his old job. Said it would be "life changing money". DH scoffed at it, but it'd likely be an extra $30k in annual take home. While we are pretty comfortable now, that would certainly change things vs. annual raises and smaller pay bumps that are quickly reallocated.

Is there an amount of money that would change how you live your life? If so, how much, and what would you do with it?

well - it's a bit odd for the once and future boss to decide on what is "life changing". For someone else. Kind of condescending, really. 

so 30k take home is maybe 50k gross?

It's a nice bump up, but I'd be really concerned about boss' attitude on this.

Yeah DH has lots of hangups and doesn't intend to pursue it. I'm a bit disappointed, but trying to be neutral/supportive and let him decide for himself.

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Jul 31, 2019 14:42:12 GMT -5 cktc said:

Is there an amount of money that would change how you live your life? If so, how much, and what would you do with it?

30k more take home would not be very life changing for me. It would great, but I'd be paying down debt and saving and maybe minimally upping my SOL.

however, the life changing effects might accumulate over a significant portion of time, I'd put 10k into doing some vacation and other minor life upgrading, and save an extra 20k for 10 years....let's see....

According to my Phil Script, a yearly investment of $20,000.00 bearing an annual return of 11% could grow to $371,228.60 in 10 years!

ok - so maybe not that much of an affect!

So - it wouldn't alter my plans very much at all, wouldn't really advance the retirement date very much, not that I would turn it down, it would be nice! but - so 30k life altering.

50k take home, so maybe 70k/75k raise would just be the tip of the iceburg on life changing. Put 20k towards current SOL, and 30k into investing.


According to my Phil Script, a yearly investment of $30,000.00 bearing an annual return of 11% could grow to $556,842.90 in 10 years!

That would really begin to have a real feel of change, but you are still working long term there.

maybe 100k raise would really shake things up. But a lump sum of after-tax 500k would ensure retirement and maybe let me quit a little early, 1m would definitely have a great effect, but for "life changing" I think maybe 150-200k salary increase, or 2m after tax lump sum is just the tip of the iceberg on real, deep, life altering.

Right now, I'd be super happy with $500 extra a month, lol!

[Rukh O'Rorke]

but when you say that 500k wouldn't really change your life much, that is depressing!!! because the bonus fairy isn't dropping 500k on any of us! Maybe we are all being a little too cynical.

I think any little amount does make a difference! what does life changing even mean? I can change my life with $50. Go out for a nice meal instead of cooking again.

Life. Changed.

[raeoflyte]

Aug 3, 2019 18:37:20 GMT -5 Rukh O'Rorke said:

but when you say that 500k wouldn't really change your life much, that is depressing!!! because the bonus fairy isn't dropping 500k on any of us! Maybe we are all being a little too cynical.

I think any little amount does make a difference! what does life changing even mean? I can change my life with $50. Go out for a nice meal instead of cooking again.

Life. Changed.

I was wondering if it was that, or thinking I maybe just have very simple tastes.  Lol.  

Although I think it has more to do with income brackets.  When I made $40k and made that first jump to $70k -- that was definitely a game changer.