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Original poster

What do you consider to be a "life changing" sum of money?

146 replies

HaaaaaveyoumetTed · 03/12/2021 14:56

Just that really.

Inspired by another thread where someone won on the pools, and people saying "if it's a life changing sum?"

So what would be a life changing sum to you? I think for me, it'd be enough to pay off my mortgage, which is sizeable.

OP posts:
Bearsinmotion · 03/12/2021 15:38

£500k for me. That would pay off the mortgage and let me cut my hours to fit round school. It would need to be more to give up work altogether but I don’t actually think I would be happy not working!

MistyFrequencies · 03/12/2021 15:40

A million.

ComeAllYeFaithful · 03/12/2021 15:40

I have a friend who told me her family member was set for life. I was expecting to hear they were millionaires. She went on and on about it for months and finally I asked how much. She said they’d inherited approx 150k.

To me, that’s not set for life.

Personally for me it would be paying off the mortgage and allowing the purchase or at least one other property, and extra money to invest to bring income in and mean you never had to work again.

So I suppose I’d say £500k absolute minimum, £1m definitely.

Pickles89 · 03/12/2021 15:40

Isn't that a bit 'How long's a piece of string'? I mean £10k would be lifechanging for me in that I'd feel I could justify buying a new car, and a new laptop, so my life would be changed going forward but not substantially. I think £30k would be the 'And That Was When My Life Changed' amount.

Helpstopthepain · 03/12/2021 15:42

@StarlightStarlight what do you do for a living?

Helpstopthepain · 03/12/2021 15:42

I don’t know how much I would see as life changing.

ICanSeeARainbow123 · 03/12/2021 15:45

£600,000

rurbane · 03/12/2021 15:46

I have an equation for this, so mentally recalculate it each birthday!

It's currently £670,000. It would pay off the mortgage, let us bring the house up to a decent standard for our needs, and would replace our incomes to retirement age so we could retire/retrain and support our children (some SEN issues). But if that's too much £50,000 would be enough to overhaul the house.

BarbaraofSeville · 03/12/2021 15:46

@ComeAllYeFaithful

I have a friend who told me her family member was set for life. I was expecting to hear they were millionaires. She went on and on about it for months and finally I asked how much. She said they’d inherited approx 150k.

To me, that’s not set for life.

Personally for me it would be paying off the mortgage and allowing the purchase or at least one other property, and extra money to invest to bring income in and mean you never had to work again.

So I suppose I’d say £500k absolute minimum, £1m definitely.

A lot of it depends on what you want and expectations.

If someone gifted me £1M, I would buy some sort of country property in the Spanish mountains or similar for about £200k and make the rest of the money work to provide for me for the rest of my life.

Others would use it for a deposit on a large family home in SE England and continue to work to provide all their other 'essentials' like private schooling, a big mortgage, £300 pw on groceries in Waitrose etc.

Soontobe60 · 03/12/2021 15:46

Currently I work part time having retired 2 years ago, my DH has 8 years until he can retire. If I had enough money to enable me to stop working completely it would be life changing. So that would mean £1000k a month until I get my state pension = £48k. For my DH to be able to retire now we’d need another £200k. £250k would therefore be pretty life changing.

Kbyodjs · 03/12/2021 15:49

300k where I could pay off our mortgage; something like 30k would be amazing as we could do stuff to the house, have a great holiday etc but wouldn’t change my life in the same way that not having a mortgage would

Ducksareruiningmypatio · 03/12/2021 15:53

For me at the moment 20k would be life changing as I could pay off all of the debt my fuckwit ex left me in and move on with my life. As it stands it's going to take me years

Dimondsareforever · 03/12/2021 15:54

Around 3 million for me. I’d retire. Do stuff I want to do (charity work etc..). Buy a bigger house and live very very comfortable on the rest.

TheCreamCaker · 03/12/2021 15:56

Enough for my husband (63, got 3 years left until he gets a state pension) to tell his boss to shove the job retire

WowIlikereallyhateyou · 03/12/2021 15:57

Life changing, a couple of million.

LER83 · 03/12/2021 15:59

At the moment about £50k would be life changing. We could pay off all remaining debt, have a decent safety net for things going wrong (which happens to us a lot!), and should still be enough left over for dh to put into his new business.

Gearedtoyou · 03/12/2021 16:00

This is why only wealthy people win Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

ToughTittyWhompus · 03/12/2021 16:04

250K

Would buy me a house (a 3 bed terrace will do)
Cover a PhD (if I don’t get a fully funded one)

RobotValkyrie · 03/12/2021 16:05

Depends on your life...

When I just started my adult life, I guess something like 100k could have been life changing? Would have been able to buy a flat instead of renting, would have been able to save a lot more a lot earlier, use that first footstep on the housing ladder to upgrade to something nicer sooner, etc.

Nowadays, that same amount would make a nice dent in my mortgage, but I'd say I'd need at least 500k (if not a million) for the sum to be truly life changing, e.g. enough to never have to work ever again.

Indecisivelurcher · 03/12/2021 16:07

My DH unexpectedly inherited £140k and its not been as life changing as I would have thought. Well it has in that we are now not in debt, we've been able to do up our house to the tune of £30k and we've put a bit aside for the children if they want to go to uni / alternative one day. Don't get me wrong, that's amazing and I never thought we'd be in this fortunate position. But we still live the same lives every day. It's a really odd one.

Tempusfudgeit · 03/12/2021 16:07

10K to pay off debt. Life-changing because I wouldn't wake up every morning worrying about it.

BarbaraofSeville · 03/12/2021 16:08

@Gearedtoyou

This is why only wealthy people win Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
????
Houseofvelour · 03/12/2021 16:09

For a nice change? 1 mil
For a complete, private island mansion with private chefs and a helicopter to take me around? A shit ton more than that 😂

SirSidneyRuffDiamond · 03/12/2021 16:11

£1million would make a real difference.

Thegreencup · 03/12/2021 16:12

@TeeBee

One million to make a proper difference.
Yeh, this is what I think. Half a million on a decent house and then the other half a million meaning I don't need to work for a few years, buy a decent car, get the kids in private school etc.

In the real world, I'd be happy with a couple of grand to clear the credit card.