[Closed] A colleague has just won £1 million!

Solo - Member
Well, with all due respect. I think you'll find that the coke, booze and hookers gets a little boring, after a while.

UR doing it rong. HTH.

buy a decent house for 300k or less (think anywhere north of birmingham southerners) if your 700k earns 3% interest that's 21k p/a. Without a mortgage that would be enough for me to live in, cycling every single day and doing exactly whatever I please.

Not a massive amount of Money these day's is it.

ahhh, stw gold.

Blimey, this is the fastest-running thread I've ever started!

The first £100,000 would pay off the mortgage and finish sorting out the house. Then I'd let it and build a Huf Haus overlooking a Scottish loch, with solar PV and water and ground source. Fleet of bikes in the cellar, Land Rover in the workshop with full workshop equipment and build a pottery studio for the Mrs.

Obviously the loch would need to be nearish to Glasgow airport for those long ski trips to the Alps.

'Bye!

Arguing whether over whether you reckon a million quid is "a lot of money" is a bit subjective.

I think for the average Briton, £1m would be considered a lot when the average salary is £25k and average house price is just over £250k. Maybe not enough to retire on depending on your individual situation, but deffo life changing for the vast majority I'm sure.

I would certainly expect anyone who disagrees that "a mill would be ill", would be in the top 1-5% of UK net worth of people in the UK, and wear massive wear blinkers and/or never leaves their castle.

I'm pretty sure that I could make a million quid last me the rest of my life without having to work. I'd be moving somewhere warm and cheap next to the sea. Thailand would work.

Kryton57 - Member
Not a massive amount of Money these day's is it. I wouldn't reactive by leaving my job.

It'd pay the mortgage or trade up to a new yet sensible house, buy a couple of nice cars and decorate the place then the rest would be left for the kids/a rainy day.

I'd still need to work though.

It'd square me up for about 40 years worth of work, too right I'd be chucking it! 😆

seadog101 - Member
Sadly, Nowadays, a Million does not give you a millionaires lifestyle for long...

to quote john goodman, that's a "**** you" amount of cash! 😆

a three bedroom thirties semi round the corner from me went for over £500,000 a few months back.

I think people don;t understand quite what some of the South East is like for property.

And, no I wouldn't move somewhere cheaper for housing just to get a bigger house, we like living here, my wife has a good job (and so do I) and the kids like it here too.

And a 1 bed flat in town just sold for £220,000 near us.

I think you proved (to me anyway) my own point in your last statement, why would I work just to 'afford' a house near work when I could buy the same house somewhere else and still earn more in interest than I'd earn in a job? That same £500k would have bought a converted watermill down the road when I lived in North Yorkshire! There was an entire keep/castle for not much more in Northumberland!

Not all of us hate work....

That's a fair point. I tolerate work rather than enjoy it, so on the whole I'd be perfectly happy to do something else (ride bikes, run, swim, surf, whatever) but still maintain the same standard of living I have (or potentially improve it with a bit of property purchase / renovation - something I'd now have the time to do).

I would feel very sorry for anyone who actually won £1M and then carried on working.

Maybe they enjoy their jobs - more to life than money as the trail of shattered dreams from past lottery winners shows.

On Thursday I bought a £2 scratch card from Sainsbury's supermarket and won £100 ...

I would prefer to have more four more zeros if you don't mind. 😆

that's a "**** you" amount of cash!

Indeed. I tell my bosses that they need to recruit so that the systems I maintain and the work I do would be covered by others 'in case I win the lottery'. It's a much better example than 'if I get hit by a bus' and it leaves them in no doubt about what I would do if I was lucky enough to come into that amount of money 🙂

[i]why would I work just to 'afford' a house near work[/i]

I work at home 🙂

I'd smash it all on redecorating the house 😀 😀

Hmmm, I'd pay off my mortgage and debts, keep the house and rent it out, then head somewhere like [url= http://www.rightmove.co.uk/overseas-property/property-42763642.html ]here[/url], in the [url= http://time.com/3594543/happiest-countries-maps-costa-rica/ ]happiest country in the world,[/url] if the missus can tear herself away from her parents (hell they can come too, and live in the next village down the road).

I often have the "What if" conversation with my Missus about hypothetical lottery wins, I normally suggest clearing the mortgage first, maybe new cars, banking/investing the rest to live comfortably off of the interest forever more, setting up trusts for the kids, all meaning we could then choose what to do with our time from there on, I'd rather convert financial wealth into being "Time Rich" TBH.

In her scenario she'd be straight to the travel agents booking some grand world tour, then directly onto the Estate agent's to buy a sodding mansion, She'd buy her Mum a new house, give some to charity, Us living comfortably for the next 60 years be damned! She'd rather live like a millionaire for ten minutes...
She'd could burn through a million inside of a week and I'd be back at work cursing her...

Given the OP's colleagues situation I would be waiting for the money to land in my account, and have a bit of a forward planning meeting with my wife before handing in my notice... But it would be going in within 24 hours, I do like my Job but not that much...

teamhurtmore - Member
more to life than money as the trail of shattered dreams from past lottery winners shows.

I'd like to credit myself with a bit more intelligence than this guy! 😆

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Carroll_%28lottery_winner%29

Just looking at the money in isolation (ie, if I didn't spend any of it on outrageous lump purchases, and it wasn't earning interest) there's probably enough money there to match my current salary until I'm dead.

Sure, it won't give me a "millionaire's lifestyle" in so far as I could retire to the Bahamas in my private yacht to snort champagne from a Filipino virgin's navel, but it'd mean that I wouldn't have to work again if I was frugal.

And of course, if I was to spend a chunk and bank the rest, I could probably syphon off a quarter of it to buy my dream house, spec it out inside and have a nice holiday with the change, and still live reasonably comfortably on the interest. At that point, I think I'd go self employed and pimp myself out as a consultant.

With a bit of haggling I could get a [url= http://www.rightmove.co.uk/overseas-property/property-47524204.html ]5 bed room manor witha barn and 3 hectares around it[/url] in france

[img] [/img]

and a 612 BHP Ferrari

[img] http://pictures2.autotrader.co.uk/imgser-uk/servlet/media?id=1e18aa51c4e7e5127038ed09f87f36d5&width=800&height=600 [/img]

and have half a million left over for pain au chocolat and petrol. Anyone who says it's not a vast sum of money simply doesn't live in the real world.

i love my job on a good day, but 1M in the bank would make it so much easier to just say 'nah, don't need this' on a stressful day. or 'sorry can't make it today' when the weathers nice etc etc.

i think the thing about the millionaires life style is we've been sold the idea of building chris evans car collection/ mark walhbergs gym, donald trumps [s]wig[/s] private jet. thing is they are all a lot richer than just a 'millionaire'...

thing is they are all a lot richer than just a 'millionaire'...

Which is a good point actually. It's easy to think like a regular person with regular worries; mortgage, credit card, kids' education etc. But a million quid (or even a chunk of it) could be a doorway into making some serious money. The really rich (who weren't born into it) only amassed a large fortune by first starting with a small one.

How you'd go about that, I've no idea. Property seems to be one of the few relatively reliable lucrative investments these days; buy something, do it up, sell it, rinse and repeat.

I could "retire" from 9-5 work and do some freelance work

I'd be more inclined to retire from freelance work and get a nice easy part-time permie job somewhere. Much less heartache.

I'd quit work, sell my house, buy a nice new camper van, new bike and some new fishing gear and head off into the sunset!

EDIT: Wait a minute, I don't need a million for that, see you later suckers!

I'd definitely go down the "living like a teacher on summer holidays for the rest of my life" route, rather than "splash it all on a flash house or car" route.

Clear debts
Buy decent sized but not extravagant house
Two brand new sensible cars
New caravan
Bikes - not sure if I would get rid of what I have - maybe upgrade for future proofing reasons
New computers/TVs
Nicely decorate new house
Rent out old one
Buy extra holiday through the workplace scheme
Use freed up cash to employ a cleaner and gardener
Stick the rest in the pension pot
Retire @50 🙂

I'd think carefully about a lower paid job with no travelling in it, but that would get me down far more than my current job does.

Quite a lot of falling for rich men's' toys (after paying off the debt) - what happened to the socialist utopia and putting the money to good causes? This is STW....

Indeed, or buy five buy to let properties and sit back and watch the money roll back in.

Wouldnt waste another second at work, thats for sure.

rather than "splash it all on a flash house or car" route.

I neither want nor need a flash house, a nice one would suffice. I'm pretty sure that the novelty of a 12-bedroom mansion with half a dozen acres would wear off in about a month when it all needed dusting, hoovering and mowing.

Great news, congrats to her.

Can you show me these government savings that are paying 5-9% gross interest?

I'd do my best to sack work and see more of my son, ride more, train more, eat and live better. The wife can keep working though 😀
$50k interest per annum off 1m? No probs.
New house (w/mortgage), let out the existing and buy a van.

There are a few lottery winners near us, and they're not living in huge houses. The ones I know of have sorted out their own debts and those of their immediate family, and then live a nice, comfortable but not extravagant life.

You'd struggle to find a £million house near to us; the last one I saw on RightMove turned out to be two massive houses. [url= http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-30220428.html ]This one[/url] is just round the corner from us for £600k 🙂

[i] Lifer - Member
Solo - Member
Well, with all due respect. I think you'll find that the coke, booze and hookers gets a little boring, after a while.
UR doing it rong. HTH. [/i]
Funny, I've had that opinion about your entire life.
HTH 😉

[i]New caravan[/i]
[img] [/img]

[i] teamhurtmore - Member

Quite a lot of falling for rich men's' toys (after paying off the debt) - what happened to the socialist utopia and putting the money to good causes? This is STW.... [/i]
Ha, well, you see the thing about our resident altruistic types is while they're poor, they aspire only to make everyone else as poor as themselves, taxing the rich and such.
However, should lady luck ride into town, then its "[i]see you later, suckers![/i]"

I've often wondered this. Most of the stress at work comes from the 'if I don't earn, i could be on the streets in a few months' worry. Ref: another multipage thread that was running earlier.

If i had a million quid safety net, and could in essence just say '**** it' at any point; from that moment on choosing to work is just that, a choice. And once the stress goes, I'd imagine it would be a lot more enjoyable, to be able to do the right thing without having the fear.

For the 30 second or so after finding out, there'd be a me shaped cloud of dust hovering over my chair as I move quicker than any human being ever has, straight out of the office door and back home, never to return again. 🙂

You'd struggle to find a £million house near to us; the last one I saw on RightMove turned out to be two massive houses. This one is just round the corner from us for £600k

PSA --- Don't venture past the kitchen if you've just eaten...

This time last year I came to just over a tenth of the ops mate. From the year I've had, a million is a vast sum of money. I haven't given up work, obviously, but I have bought an investment property, had some nice holidays, bought some nice bikes/toys and generally had a much better year than the one before, and still have enough of a pot left to not have to worry about money for ages

To have 10 times that would be unreal.

You'd struggle to find a £million house near to us; the last one I saw on RightMove turned out to be two massive houses. This one is just round the corner from us for £600k

PSA --- Don't venture past the kitchen if you've just eaten...

It's certainly proof that money doesn't buy taste. There are far nicer houses available round here for much less money.

If you want to be sensible with a £1m win, it can buy you choice and security. I'd use my hypothetical win to clear debts, invest in my kids' respective futures and make sure my old age is not going to be one of poverty and misery. If the calculations mean that I have to stay at work to do all that, so be it, but I'd hope I could find more time for the stuff currently sacrificed for work and fatherhood.

Wow!! A million IS ALOT of money.I bet she's in shock.

I'd wisk my in-laws off on holiday asap then think

I'd wisk my in-laws off on holiday asap then think

me too.

a long way from where I would be going...

[i]There are far nicer houses available round here for much less money. [/i]
Yeah, but that's because nobody wants to be your neighbour.
😛

I'd wisk my in-laws off on holiday asap then think

Could you take mine with you while you're at it? 😉

[i]make sure my old age is not going to be one of poverty and misery.[/i]
Best you switch supplier to someone other than Eon, otherwise you'll need all your winnings just to pay for the hot water.

[i] hora - Member

Wow!! A million IS ALOT of money.I bet she's in shock.

I'd wisk my in-laws off on holiday asap then think [/i]
I think I'm spotting a flaw in your plan....somewhere.

about 20 million people seem to think differnetly otherwise they would all be moving north to the land of opportunity and cheap property.

Of that 20 million how many would go back to where they came from if they had any chance of decent employment?

To obtain perfect left wing credentials, should one give the money away, or use it to ensure one doesn't have to work then volunteer for a charity?

Indeed, or buy five buy to let properties and sit back and watch the money roll back in.

What if you bought 5 btl properties and then rented them out at cost to deserving families? You'd have to decide who was 'deserving' though.

[i]What if you bought 5 btl properties and then rented them out at cost to deserving families[/i]
[img] [/img]

To obtain perfect left wing credentials, should one give the money away, or use it to ensure one doesn't have to work then volunteer for a charity?

Some friends of mine do both. On top of running a successful (and lucrative) software business, they fund and run a charitable trust for small community projects and the wife works part time voluntarily for various charities.

I reckon as long as you live a 'normal' lifestyle, pay all taxes that are due, don't invest in dodgy companies, and try to give something back, then being 'left wing' and financially secure is not incompatible.

I like my bro/sis in law and her parents were good to us. Sheesh.

[i]A quick bit of maths suggests I could pay myself £30k a year, with 2% rise each year to account for inflation, save the rest at 4% interest rate and have over £10m in the bank after 60yrs.[/i]

Your maths makes me think that you ought to also budget for an Accountant...

I'd stop working tomorrow (or at least drop down to a day or so a week - small family firm), and so would the wife - especially as we've already:

- are 50 y/o and 47 y/o
- paid off our mortgage
- live in an old Mill in the country
- I MTB from my front door and my wife can ride her horse
- Two sons already left and working, one at college

and already have decent pension provisions

Plus I spent 20 years travelling the world with work, so don't need that again.

I would though buy a new Range Rover, sort out a new kitchen plus get the grounds landscaped - and probably get a part-time gardener. Also would sort my lads out with houses, but they live in the north, so £300k the pair.

keeping hold of your million in the bank would be a full time job in itself. I've heard of people having to split it between as many as 50 bank accounts. Try keeping on top of that lot!
😯

It's enough money for me to live comfortably for the rest of my life, and never work again. If that's not a millionaire lifestyle, I don't know what is.

@solo, why on earth would you split your £1m between 50 bank accounts. Also with that amount the money should be invested not left gathering dust and zero interest in a bank.

Of that 20 million how many would go back to where they came from if they had any chance of decent employment?

no idea? I’m certainly not going to ask them.

@solo, why on earth would you split your £1m between 50 bank accounts

because of the limit of protection from bank failure that’s guaranteed by the government/BOE (isn’t it 80k now?)

£85K is the limit for UK bank saving guarantee per individual account so only 12 different back accounts required!

Screw working.. There's so many pastimes and hobbies to fill your time it would be ace.
Modest detached house with workshop..
Enough land to setup some poly tunnels and veg patches.
Maybe a wind turbine and enough solar panels to be self sufficient.
Time would be well filled with surfing, riding bikes, fishing, tinkering around with old cars, having fun with the kids. Million quid should cover it easy.

@MrSmith ok got it now but that's daft in practice. The vast majority of people with millions in the bank keep it in one or two banks. You just pick ones which are not going to go bust. As I said the people I know with that sort of money have it mostly invested in property and shares. Bank just holds the spending cash / dividends / returns from other investments

The Mrs and I have had this conversation and what you do depends on what stage in life you are in.

34 living in surrey

Realistically, without uprooting the family to a much cheaper area a million would mean we could buy a decent 4 bed with a garage and pay off the current mortgage and have less than a hundred grand in the bank. Not able to give up work but able to not worry about things anymore as pay would be pocket money and savings for children.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-50226218.html

This is on the street I live on now...

Pretty depressing really.

I'd love to win a million - it would allow me to have a cracking house in a lovely area - probably build that myself.
Nice holidays etc etc
I'd have plenty loose change to work part time, but it's not enough to give up my work completely, which would be a really good state to be in!

DrP

[i]Pretty depressing really. [/i]
Something like that. £750K, [i]really?[/i].
I sometimes wonder if the rest of the world laugh at the English and their totally bonkers obsession with trying to afford crazy priced housing.

I reckon I could find a place I'd be happy with for less than £400K
[img] [/img]

Realistically, without uprooting the family to a much cheaper area

But, what would be stopping you from doing that?

Buy a nice house outright somewhere cheap and live reasonably comfortably on the 30k a year Interest from the remainder (or use it to top up a lower paid job that you really enjoy doing)

[quote> http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-50226218.html

This is on the street I live on now...

Pretty depressing really.

Well the decor certainly is horrible.

teamhurtmore - Member
what happened to the socialist utopia and putting the money to good causes? This is STW....

If it was a choice that would be an interesting topic. £1 million in your bank or a socialist utopia. 😆

[i]I'd like to see the socialist utopia you could create for £1million! [/i]
Me too, especially when you consider the rental costs for all those choosing to live in London.

I agree, would happily upsticks and move somewhere life is a whole lot more affordable but that would mean wife leaving family behind which would not go down well.

The difference between a million in the south east and anywhere else is becoming a bit more obvious

what happened to the socialist utopia and putting the money to good causes?

meh... the socialists can go buy lottery tickets as easily as I can 😉

DrP

(the ironing being that I never play the lottery. I make my own luck...)

Of course, before they mouthed off at my potentially contentious statement no one bother to ask about my crcumstances.

I live in London, my wifes roots are here, and I have two young kids and I'm not wishing to uproot them. The decent 4 bed we'd like is not too far away from our current address but is circa £500k. The cars we'd like add up to £100k, I'd like to see the kids to university so potentially up to another 100k. So thats £700k already, which at 43 with a 6 yo and 4yo leaves enough for us to invest in out future in addition to the property but not enough to give up work for.

Of course I could uproot the family and all that that means, change schools, move away from family & friends, live up North an probably save £800k instead, its all a matter of choice.

So no, £1m for me would be very nice thanks, but wouldn't change my current lifestyle other than having more security by owning my own (better) home and a nicer vehicle to smooch around the country in, plus some certaintly around the kids education.

I wouldn't be living in monaco or buying or yacht or drinking Crystal every weekend.

[i]I sometimes wonder if the rest of the world laugh at the English and their totally bonkers obsession with trying to afford crazy priced housing.[/i]

Eh? It's no different most places - example:

Somebody up there mentioned the jones.

I sometimes wonder if the rest of the world laugh at the English and their totally bonkers obsession with trying to afford crazy priced housing.

The English are nothing compared to the Spanish 10 years ago - you just have to visit any Spanish town and see the half-built and unsold shells of new housing to see what a real property bubble looks like.

Yep, a million would do me nicely aswell.
Pay off mortgage, wife can pack up work, which means we save the childcare.
Make some sensible investments to put some of it out of temptations way for a few years, maybe even drop down to part time/4 day week at work.

i'd rather cop £100 million on the euromillions but a million would be a life changing sum of money for us.

Also a more interesting graph on that site br is the aus household debt as a % of disposable income.

It peaks at 160%

Big expensive house , big expensive 4x4 and big expensive boat seems to be the order of the day for your early 30s out here.

[i]you just have to visit any Spanish town and see the half-built and unsold shells of new housing to see what a real property bubble looks like. [/i]
I guess you didn't hear about the construction bubble in Ireland then.
But anyway, lets stay on topic folks. I reckon £750K for a house gets the fool it deserves.

I reckon £750K for a house gets the fool it deserves.

Elaborate?

DrP

[i]Elaborate?

DrP [/i]

Don't be lazy. And anyway, stop posting on here and get busy making some more of that luck you are so well known for. If you have any left over, throw it my way.
😉

Agree with Kryton57.. 1m yes please but life changing meaning I could give up work for the next 20 years and live very comfortably./... err Not likely

Would give me better choices rather than keep slogging permenantly in the city!!

Elaborate?

He can't, becuase he can't appreciate not everyone wants to relocate thier family's to the outer reaches of Lancashire for the sake of saving a few pounds, or that some people prefer to cruise around in an expensive Bavarian rep rather than a Landy becuase they drive 50k miles a year and value the comfort and ease it brings to the task.

Albeit some people like to live cheaply, but in both case the money brings a choice which each of us can make how we like, he's more foolish to judge people in the manner he does.

The decent 4 bed we'd like is not too far away from our current address but is circa £500k. The cars we'd like add up to £100k, I'd like to see the kids to university so potentially up to another 100k.

£100K for two kids to uni? Where? Princeton???

Albeit some people like to live cheaply

There's a big difference between living cheaply and wafting your cock out of the window of your Bavarian whip!!!!