[Closed] Life changing amount of money

Had the advantage of being born a long time ago, so paid off the small mortgage 10 years ago.

Would have to be millions to make any real difference and even then I'd just give 90% to Charity as I don't want a lavish life style and quite like working.....

I guess it depends on whether you want to stop work, your debts, whether you want to live a frugal life or like a lord, whether you want to help family, and so on...

for me, probably a surprisingly small amount, but then I'm largely debt free, and single.

Enough to pay the mortgage off and buy a decent camper van. £100k would do it.

I think the better question is what is your personal threshold for a substantive change in life.

For me that would be for me and partner not to have to work for money but to work (in whatever capacity, charity, small niche business, very part time, whatever) for pleasure. So it would be enough to replace our estimated life earnings from now to planned retirement.

Life changing for me always means - "Don't need to work, could choose to"

So given it's probably 20 years of work time I want to not have to do - 20 times my annual nett pay.

An then there's MrsWW who I'd want to have the same choice so add 20 times hers as well.

It's quite a lot.

And that's really just to continue my current lifestyle. If I wanted to have lots of holidays or do interstign things with cars I'd need more.

So let's say 40 times our current joint annual incomes.

[edit] what convert said.

Fixed cost: pay off mortgage - 200k

Even that on it's own would make quite a difference, and would allow a change of lifestyle, so I suppose that counts as 'life-changing'

For pretty comfortable early retirement: annual income of £40k for 40 years =~ £1.6m lump sum, so with 200k to pay off mortgage on top call it £2m for cash all in.

It's not just the money, it's a state of mind. Some folk would take the cash and pay off the mortgage, others would just move to a bigger/better house.

For pretty comfortable early retirement: annual income of £40k

For pretty comfortable early retirement: annual income of £40k for 40 years =~ £1.6m lump sum, so with 200k to pay off mortgage on top call it £2m for cash all in.

Thing is, if I retired now, mid 40s and pretty fit, I'd want to do loads of outward bound holiday type stuff, so my spend rate would more than treble - 52 weeks holiday a year vs 5....

£5mm.

I have 3 years left to retirement. I will earn around £90 000 in that time. 3 years pension contributions will also increase my pension by around £1000 pa and say 30 years drawing my pension so for me £150 000 would allow me to give up work tomorrow without any damage to my future income and allow me to have 3 more years of retired fun.

Had the advantage of being born a long time ago, so paid off the small mortgage 10 years ago.

mid 40s

😐

Woah. You think £40k per year is only "pretty comfortable"?

Yeah, tbh (although I mean 'pretty comfortable' in the British sense of 'really quite very'), mainly cos of

Thing is, if I retired now, mid 40s and pretty fit, I'd want to do loads of outward bound holiday type stuff, so my spend rate would more than treble - 52 weeks holiday a year vs 5....

There's a lot more potential spending time if you're not working.

And wot Jamie said 😐

Mortgage. Without question.

So about £110000.

For me it will be 4 years mortgage and all household bills plus a little contingency.

That will allow me to go self employed (totally different field from day job), spend 2 years trying to make it work and still have 2 years to find a job if it doesn't. All without having to worry about bills, food etc.

I will have this saved up by August of this year and fingers crossed I can make it happen.

It would have to be enough to give up work + not worry about pension and still live at least as comfortably as I do now. So at least a million quid tax free (sounds a lot but it's only £25k for 40 years and £25k isn't going to buy much in 30-40 years time...).

Sure £100k would be nice, would allow me to be debt free (inc. mortgage) and sort my kitchen and bathroom out but it wouldn't really be life-changing, might allow me to switch to a 4 day week I guess but I think I'd soon get used to that and still hate work just as much :p

I'm in the same boat as tjagain but less time to go to retirement. so give me £50k and I'll leave now. Life changed.

Well I never considered it a 'Life changing' amount of money, however a few years ago I took voluntary redundancy and walked away with a years worth of salary. This went on to a deposit on a bigger house in the suburbs on the other side of the city. Its been life changing because daughter goes to a different school and made new / more frieds, as have we. We have a nicer place to live, bigger garden and so on.

Tough one, a few years ago £10k would have been a total game changer, but thankfully those days are past now, hell of a slog mind you.

I think £250k would be enough to be mortgage and debt free which coupled with youngest starting school full time in Sept would mean I could earn a LOT less, I read about a STW who’s recently taken a job ferrying around Oldies in a mini bus, I really fancy that in a few years.

I think the biggest lesson I learned through some though times were I don’t really need *things* and I certainly don’t need the agro that comes with trying to maintain a ‘lifestyle’. I’d rather have the time.

£300k would sort me. I'm 51 and as soon as last kid has left the nest me and missus are off touring Europe in our motorhome til we kick the bucket. £300k would pay off remains of mortgage and credit cards with a small income each year. We are reckoning on £20k/ year when we leave the UK. ( I have my mums house which I will rent out along with mine). 6 years and counting!!!!.

Short term, about £1.50 would do it, as there's a doughnut with my name on it int he canteen and getting my hands on it right now would be pretty life-changing in the immediate future 😀

Long term, I'd be happy with paying off our (modest) mortgage, that would allow me to drop to part time, or lower-paying charity based work with enough money to buy food, keep the house going, and a few luxuries. Then maybe having, say 50K in the bank would be a bonus as a 'just in case' type backup plan of taking the odd year off here and there or to travel a bit.

Enough to buy some reasonable sized area of farmland/forestry nearby and turn it into a trail centre I can cycle to.

£10M?

Well, mortgage is paid off and we've no debts of any kind. Life changing for me would be not working to get money to live. I'm closing in on my 59th birthday so let's say I've got another 30 years (my grandparents all died in their mid 80s, parents in their 60s). Take my current disposable income and add a bit to allow for inflation and possibly going ga-ga, let's make it £40K PA.

That comes to £1.2M. That assumes I'm just taking money out of the pot and there's no interest being paid on the residual.

There'll be some reduction in costs - no commuting, etc. but that will be offset by increased leisure costs. I worked out our base costs (council tax, utility bills, heating) at under £8K/yr but that might have included the finance on the car which has ended.

Finish off the Mortgage, and a bit extra - £90k

+ Enough to provide me an income per year that would cover the difference between what I currently earn, and what I'd earn doing what I really want to do ~£300K

Not a huge amount if any rich one's got that going begging?

I got no debt, but also no money. Enough to pay to get mrs woodbine to America for the surgery she needs would make the world of difference for both of us. She could potentially go back to work, I could work full time, anytime rather than having to take days out all over the place to look after her. That would be truly life changing.

A tenner could be life changing depending on what you done with it.

Half a million quid would change our lives, but not by much. We'd still need to work a few months a year.

2 million is plenty to give up work and live comfortably, though perhaps not if you’re intending to spend as hard as you can.

£300k would clear our mortgage + all other debts/liabilities, but we'd probably both need to still work, but could drop down to something less stressful.

I'm 45, with kids aged 7&10, so they'll need our financial support for another 15+ years.

I've got no interest in Hypercars or penthouses in Dubai, but I would like to see a bit of the world, by a combination of motorhome, 4x4 and bike.

I think at this point in time I'd need something like £5m+ for us both to never have to work again and lead a good standard of living for potentially the next 40 years.

If I won a silly £100m+ on the Euromillions I'd probably start a charitable foundation to give me something to do, and to build a legacy.
(the "Freeagent Children's Hospice" or similar)

.....And I'd do the Dakar rally.

Properly life changing: would have to be enough to give up work, buy a bigger house (nothing outrageous, the dream is a 4 bed detached house with a double garage), and have a bit of spending money.

Enough to pay off mortgage would be amazing but would still have to work, imagine the only real differnece is we'd spend money on nicer things / holidays but the basics of out lvies would be the same.

I'd also need enough money to be able to fund other people to investigate things I'm interested in but don't have time for.

£300k would do me - just enough to buy a nice place in the mountains. I like working (for myself, not for The Man) and we don't have a huge amount left on our mortgage but I'd love to spend part of the year in France.

But then, if I had that coveted mountain abode - what would motivate me? Would I just need to have a different life goal?

dont own a house so enough to buy one mortgage free would be enough for me, even a modest wage would be alright if you didnt have to pay rent/mortgage.

500k so I could retire 🙂

Not much to be honest.

I'm of the opinion that you can't sit and do nothing with your life (without it being very expensive!), so I'd always want to work part time doing something I enjoy.

With that in mind, enough to pay the mortgage off and a bit left to get all the house re-decorated and up to date (at least 120 year old stone house with wattle and dube plaster, and old floor boards all over the place!), then I'd earn any spending/bills/saving money from my part time job.

£100k would do that for me, probably £70k actually. For reference to people above, I'm 32.

Honestly? £10M.

I'm 53, paid off our mortgage 3 years ago and bought a fully-restored VW camper 😀 My biggest 'life change' would be to relive us of the shackles of having to look after my wife's house-bound mother :(- non-existent social care means my wife doesn't work. If she was to move into assisted / supported care it would cost £50k / year - the sale of her house would provide maybe 8 years, but based on her mother's life expectancy that still leaves us 7 years short. With a bit more freedom, I'm hoping to rent the house out for a few years and go off travelling for a few years before settling down to take my pension. Luckily we have no kids, so we just need a couple of one-way tickets to Dignitas. My priority is staying healthy and active rather than having chronic illness, a bank account full of money I can't enjoy that'll got to the taxman

depends on your age, your housing situation & were that house is.

early 30's and our house definatly isn't our 'family home' so to pay off the mortgage we have would be great but wouldn't leave us mortgage free for life.

live in the SE so housing is silly money too. half a million would pay off our debts & buy us the house for life.

One of my collegues is mortgage free - doesn't buy him an extravagent lifestyle but just a slightly different outlook on life. He takes the train places as it's relaxing (I don't becuase it's cheaper to drive), and he eats out a lot - not in fancy places just local ones.

£150 000 would be life changing but I'd still need to work. It would need 2 million I would guess for me to live a life of my view of luxury.

Must try harder at pushing MIL down the stairs!

Would I just need to have a different life goal?

Why do you need a life goal?

I'm 50, paying off our mortgage in two weeks time, wife took very early retirement last year and we have everything we need. I'll be retiring at 55 so all I would really need is enough money to get me by until then.

We have saving etc so I don't necessarily need to continue topping up my pension.

So say £2k a month, which would still allow me to save a bit, for the next 54 months, £108,000. That'll do me.

Hmm.

£100K tax free would allow Beej-ess to cut back on her current work dramatically and continue her studies to something she really wants to do, without there being any financial risk or change in current lifestyle.

For a significant life change - so different house, not needing to work, place in Italy, lots of trips and travel, probably £5M?

Any amount of money would technically be life changing, but to really help it'd need to as others have said pay off the mortgage or something.

I think enough to pay off the mortgage, buy a nice car (Yeah I know, but I like cars - £30k or so should be enough for something I'd consider very nice) and not have to work would be what I'd really consider life changing.

I would probably continue to work but I would use some of the money to start a business. I've never been at the point of costing up any of the businesses I'd consider running seriously, so I don't know how much it'd cost.

I'm pretty sure 5 million would do it, perhaps less. Perhaps more for some lines of work!

£1M

Nice house in Bristol with space for a secure workshop = £500k

New motors for me & the mrs, nothing mental but nicer = £50k

2 Bristol rental properties to generate ongoing income = £450k

Very surprised that people think they need £5m to get by for the rest of their lives!

Gary_M - Member
Very surprised that people think they need £5m to get by for the rest of their lives!

Very surprised that people think they need £5m to get by for the rest of their lives!

I know, they must be very frugal....

Even £2M wouldn’t be life changing. It would mean that I could live the best version of my current life without any consideration to money for the rest of my days but if I wanted a significantly different life then it would need to be a fair bit more than that.

The thing is I don't want to change my life, I'm very happy with it as it is. If I didn't have to waste time going to work that's pretty much the only thing that would make it any better.

My life would be significantly changed by being in a house actually big enough for the 4 of us.

The difference in price between ours and something with an extra bedroom/garage/extra reception/downstairs toilet room seems to be about [b]£200k[/b] in these parts.

I don't think I need anymore money to be honest. Its not that I'm already loaded, just that my lifestyle doesn't cost much. I live a fairly simple life through preference. Don't see that changing if all of a sudden I came into several millions. I'd likely give away most of it to more deserving people who could use a break if I did so.

if i could sell up pay off all debts and retire to a nice chalet in the alps

Enough to give me and Mrs SWSD investment income of about 24k. (we're not particularly extravagant).

I have no idea how much I would need. Half a million maybe?

rene59 - Member

I don't think I need anymore money to be honest. Its not that I'm already loaded, just that my lifestyle doesn't cost much. I live a fairly simple life through preference

thats the sort of position I am in so I only need enough to allow me to retire now not in 3 years. Even with millions I wouldn't lead an extravagant lifestyle as carbon footprint is really important to me. I'd still cycle / train to travel not buy fancy cars. Probably buy a nicer commuter tho and maybe a full sus MTB

Life changing money to me is financial independence and finically future security. It’s different amounts to different people obviously. Money does not necessarily equate to happiness of course!

Probably buy a nicer commuter

You wouldn't be commuting anymore 🙂

People who think you need £Xm to secure an income for life clearly aren't familiar with compound interest, investing and safe withdrawal rates.

£200k and I'd quit my job tomorrow - would bump my annual passive income up to about £12k/year and I'm mortgage free.

I've no doubt I'd start creating extra income streams pretty quickly, but on my own terms. To me, retirment doesn't mean going on endless holidays, just the freedom not to spend five days a week in an office.

People who think you need £Xm to secure an income for life clearly aren't familiar with compound interest, investing and safe withdrawal rates.

I don't think most people are taking it [i]that[/i] seriously 🙂

Fair point 😀

I don't think most people are taking it that seriously

You never know, Trump and his loaded mates could read this thread and take pity on us all, and give us what we want!

So let's say 40 times our current joint annual incomes

That's how I would look at it too. So around £5MM would do it.

Very surprised that people think they need £5m to get by for the rest of their lives!

Hang on - this was supposed to be 'life changing' amounts of money.
£300k would leave us totally debt free with a great standard of living on our current wages..
But £5m will buy me a sensible detached house on a plot of land in the SE, a few toys (Motorhome and a couple of Landrover Defenders) and give us a decent income, through investments etc) to enjoy life without having to work.

As said before it depends on your current situation. I certainly don't need millions as apart from going to work life is just how I want it, about £100k would sort that.

I don't need a bigger house, new cars or an income for life - I've already got investments and savings to cover that. I just need to stop going to ******* work 🙂

Never had the chance to go to university. To stupid and lazy at the right time to realise I might actually be able to do it.
So Id say enough to do that

Or even, just enough money to not work for one year and get to Maritime college, get my Masters ticket. That would be properly life changing as many more positions open up for me.

I wouldn't count slightly larger suburban box and a german car life changing. For that money you could live out your days letting out kayaks on a beach in Thailand or buy an old tramp steamer and smuggle diamonds along the amazon Now THAT's life changing

Depends on your outlook and your definition of 'life changing' I suppose.

Having no mortgage would certainly change my life pretty significantly. Going past that would change it some more, it'd certainly be nice not to worry about funding the kids through Uni.

£50k ish....

I purchased a huge sprawling property in Croatia for £35k with enough land to become fairly self sufficient if we needed to in the future....

Came here with £20k in the bank and a joinery businesses worth of machinery to start up....

5 years on and a couple of little un's and all is good.

That small amount, In comparison to the above comments, was pretty life changing for us.

I started my business 15 years ago with a £1.5k loan from a very generous friend..... Also pretty life changing at a time when I had been made redundant,had nothing and needed a new direction.

People who think you need £Xm to secure an income for life clearly aren't familiar with compound interest, investing and safe withdrawal rates

My initial investment will be growing at, say, 2% after tax.

I then plugged this all into excel and I would need £2.24m today leaving £0 when I get to 90.

If on the other hand I only want to have £15k/yr with the same parameters as above I merely need £840k.

In reality I would like to continue working part time/ doing more charity work rather than stopping altogether, but the above gives an idea of just how much money a 35 year old would need to stop work.

Obviously I've ignored the small issue of buying a house and at £40k/yr I assume that I could buy cars/ bikes from income,

£100k would be enough to pay of my mortgage and give me a couple of quid spare. That'd be fairly life changing I reckon.

To be honest, being made redundant and having to live on Universal Credit would be a life changing amount of money too, just in a different way.

But in my case 100k would more than do me. I don't earn a huge amount but have paid the mortgage off & Mrs.P is retired so that would enable me to get a new car & caravan, go part-time and enjoy spending a bit more time with the wife, whether she wants me to or not 😉

How much is a bag of heroin? That could be pretty life changing.

Yeah I would like to pay off my mortgage and do something more worthwhile with some of my time and this is something I have pondered a bit on recently. I am in the 'fortunate' position of having a big enough house (with correspondingly big mortgage 🙁 ) but I could downsize (without moving town) and still have a home and no mortgage. I shall definitely do this when the kids have grown up and moved out (10+ years yet)

Very surprised that people think they need £5m to get by for the rest of their lives!

I thought we were being asked what was life changing, not what we could get by on.

I could probably do fine with significantly less if invested well, but 5m would really make a huge difference.

I thought we were being asked what was life changing, not what we could get by on.

It was really a response to people saying they need £5m to be able to give up work

Enough to pay off the mortgage and my current gross income until retirement age: so about £2.5m.

It was really a response to people saying they need £5m to be able to give up work

Also the amount you need is less than you'd think if looking to replace a lifetimes income, assuming that lump sum is tax free. I would hope that I could invest the income replacement I would have earned in 20 years if given it now. Also I would have paid tax & NI on that income so that can be knocked off too. Finally if I'm able to pay my mortgage off now rather than pay years of interest on it that would have otherwise taken away a chunk of my take home that reduces it again.

Anything could be life changing, 10/20/50k would change my life, 100k would leave me mortgage free 10 years early at early 30s. That gives me 10k a year extra to play with, would certainly change my life in a massive way.

A million quid well invested would give me a 50k a year income before tax assuming 5% return.. and actually when you think about it it wouldnt be that life changing as id still have to work, that amount wouldnt be enough to do all my hobbies all the time, but would certainly make life easier.

So, if anyone scoops a 5million lottery win i suggest splitting it up on here and giving 49 of us 100k each for maximum life changing ability!

50k a year and you’d still ‘have to work’?

Even with no mortgage?

This is one of these threads when you realise that you really are on the outside looking in.