What would be a "life-changing" sum of money for you?

[mauvish]

Traitors s1 made me wonder this. The finalists all talked about the prize (somewhere betwen 35-40K each) being a "lifechanging" amount and I wondered, would it really change their lives? Or is it hyperbole?

So then I wondered what amount of money truly would change a person's life? Obviously it depends so heavily on which stage of life you're at, whether you're in debt, etc etc - but how much money would actually be LIFE-CHANGING for you, as opposed to just "nice to have and treat myself and family"?

Me - I am very lucky in that I'm older, I don't have any real "needs" that would be fixed by a particular sum of money, no desire to move house etc, so I don't really have a "life-changing" amount. (I can think of plenty of things I'd treat myself and family to if I won a million quid but that's different in that daily life wouldn't really change!) But in the past, it would utterly have changed my life if I'd suddenly got enough to be able to pay off the mortgage and work part-time instead of full time for the rest of my career. I suppose maybe now, if I were in that situation, somewhere between £250-500k? A lot more than 40K!

It's the end of the month, I'm skint so £65 should do it.

For me I wouldn’t want millions - I enjoy work etc but have some debts so enough to pay off the mortgage and pay off any debts etc. probably around £300,000 then I can just use my monthly salary to live off

Around £300,000

Half a million would pay off the mortgage, redo my house and enable me to leave my much-hated current job for something lower stress, fewer hours and lower paid.

DH and I talked about this.

Realistically it would need to be 6-700k to make a material difference and £1.5-2m to actually change how we live.

I'm neurotic about money so this is tough. To really make me stop worrying, probably at least £20 mln. £100k or even £10k would be lovely, of course.

About a million would do it for me, pay off mortgage, finish renovations, take care of school and uni fees.

£50K would be good for me, I could pay off my mortgage.

£300,000 would allow me to buy a nice flat outright, which would mean I could reduce my working hours by a substantial amount and get rid of a lot of stress/worry/anxiety.

£40,000 would be amazing, but it wouldn't change my life.

£2 million would make a difference but we’d still need to work.

I'm 40 so looking at another 20 years of work.

Say I'd earn £50k per year. That's 1 million.

At least.

I think the Traitors prize pot is not that great, especially if you have to share.
For me probably 5mil would be life changing, as in it would actually Change My Life! It would allow me to quit my job and look for something more satisfying, while being able to pay off mortgage/loans and save for DC.
While I'd love even 100k, it wouldn't change my life much - I could pay off some mortgage but I'd still have to work to pay bills.

50k would pay off my mortgage so in a sense it would be life-changing to be past that milestone... but it wouldn't make a massive difference to my day-to-day life. To really feel able to make big changes, I guess about 300-500k? And even then we're not talking never working again, just being able to do/afford stuff I can't now.

I would stop working altogether and start volunteering in my professional field if I had 100k extra. That would tide me over nicely until I'm 60 and the pensions kick in. So that would be life changing, even though it's not a huge amount.

£1mil as it would pay the mortgage & Reno plus leave enough money to enjoy and invest.

To CHANGE my life - several million.

A couple to buy a house in teddington/Wimbledon Village and the rest to invest and live off the dividends so that I didn't have to work.

Otherwise knocking £100k off our (small) mortgage would be nice.

£800,000.

£70k to 100k would be good as I could retire completely now and that would bridge the gap comfortably until state pension age kicks in. As long as I only used it for that. So, yes, life changing.

My parents gave me £75k to buy a house last year (aware how extremely lucky I am). It enabled us to buy a house vs flat but wasn’t life changing. For me ‘life changing’ would be close to a million. Otherwise I would still be working as normal, only with better holidays

I think about this a lot😂 Wouldn't want millions; I'd find that too stressful and ideally I'd not want anyone else to know about the money. I really don't like obvious displays of wealth. So enough to repay the mortgage in full, buy a decent family car in cash outright and do a few bits to the house - £300-500k would be ideal

250k would do. I'm in the south east. The next houses up.are about 200k more. The extra space, driveway and a sunny garden would be amazing.

£40000 would be enough to pay off the mortgage with some left over. As we have an offset mortgage that would give us all our savings back too.
This would allow me and DH the freedom to drop a day at work ( both currently work 4 days) which would free up more time with the kids and at home. That would change our lives.

If you start talking about 100s of 1000s of pounds that would completely change our lifestyle.

I'd live to be able to buy my ex out if the house. Do it up a bit. Pay school fees for DC. Have money for their uni.

A million; could pay off mortgage, get the house sorted, new car and maybe both go part time. Actually maybe 500,000 but we would both need to keep working.

Probably £150k as we could pay off our mortgage

However to be significantly life changing as in private schools, new house, not have to work to live - maybe £2m.