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!

Like others 1 million will do it. But 100k will let me retire early. 500k would be sweeter. The million would let us live as we do now plus holidays and poss University for my daughter if she chooses to go

£2 mil would give me the retirement id love.
£1mil would be pretty good but id have to relocate.

Paying off the mortgage is probably a good yard stick. So around £250k. But I’m not sure my life would really change that much. The day to day would still be the same. We’d still have a bunch of work we’d want to do to the house. We’d still have our 16 year old car. It would just be a little less tight.

At this point in January..a tenner..😂

I guess it depends how you define life changing.

£500,000 would be exceedingly helpful, and solve our immediate housing concerns. A million, would be better. £5million plus would mean we could fully breathe out with no worries about retirement, teens, and we could have a nice standard of living.

£20million plus and we could run riot.

£1.5 would pay off the mortgages and pay for the renovation we need but we would still need to work for income.

£35k

That would pay off the mortgage, pay for the conservatory to be dismantled and sort the bathroom.

Then my doer-upper would be finished and I could retire. 🤗

Instead it will take me another 2.5 years.

For £7million I could retire now, do whatever I wanted for the rest of my life and look after my family.

My husband got over £100k compensation when we were in our mid 20’s. Although not completely life changing, It’s been an amazing financial buffer that’s meant we’ve been able to grow our family to our desired size (3 kids) whereas we would have probably had to stick at one otherwise. We’ve also paid both our cars off and put some towards our home and now only have a mortgage of £600 per month.

It’s not much in the grand scheme of things, but it’s meant we have been able to have a comfortable lifestyle for the last 5 years!

£350k would make me feel secure, but £1.5m would change my life in a material
way.
£4m would be the perfect windfall!

While I would love to own my own place, I was thrilled to find £150 in my bank account, I did not think work owed me any money this week (get paid 2 weeks after any work), so I was able to trundle around to the launderette and also go to the cafe!

Would be nice to have more though!!

Life changing? I mean paying off the mortgage wouldn't really be life changing. We'd have a little bit more money each month but not dramatically so that we could splash out on anything.

It would have to be enough to upgrade the house or stop working or similar.

I mean ideally I'd have enough money to pay off our mortgage and give to the dc so they could have their own houses too. But again that wouldn't really change my life. Might change the dc's life a bit I guess.

So realistically, pay off the mortgage and enough to stop working and have some spare for retirement. £600k?

But if you'd asked me 20 years ago, then £40k would have been lifechanging because it would have been a deposit to buy our first house and we were saving up at that point.

£2M would be the amount that meant I never needed to work again. It would pay off my mortgage, provide a sufficient pension pot, and provide me with enough to live off until I reach retirement age (in about 25 years’ time). Having said that, anything from £300K would change the game.

About £150k would be enough to make a significant impact on my life as mortgage could be paid off, and some home improvements done. But for a real LIFE changing amount, I'd say at least £1m.

£300k would give me the option to do some substantial building work to the house, or sell and upgrade, put money aside for DC and to up my pension nicely.
£500k would possibly cover buying the house next door and knocking through but with current prices there wouldn't be much left over.
£750k would allow buying next door and redoing the whole lot into a big house with large garden, and holding a small reserve pot for travel/DC future.
£1m would let me sit on it for a bit, put the interest aside for DC/travel/pension and I could get a very nice property farther afield once DC finish senior school, as well as help out family and friends a bit.

Around £1million would greatly improve our lives. We could pay off the mortgage, have all the work done to our house, extension and decoration, get new cars and finally be able to afford to take our dc abroad for the first time and we might have enough left over to finally have some savings. I don’t think either of us would give up work unless it was a few million we were gifted.

About £1 million.

Buy myself a house mortgage free and one each for the kids. I’d rent out their houses and that will pay for them at university eg £1 K a month income each and a house at the end.

I’d retire tomorrow and live off my pension. My pension could easily cover bills and little holidays. Easy.

Outstanding on the mortgage is £220k. Paying that off now wouod change our lives in that our monthly income would be well in excess of our needs and we could save for a fantastic retirement and not have to worry about the dcs university years.

£160k and I could buy my house off my LL or one very like it. Security for my disabled DD26 when I'm gone.

£600k to pay off my mortgage would be life changing for me.

To be life changing? About £500k. Could pay of a mortgage and invest it in a property, with funds from another, for one of my kids (we live in London). However, £1m would mean I could ensure I wasn't a financial burden to my children as I get old plus leave them with property.
£40-50k of course would help (I have two kids about to go to uni), but it wouldn't be life changing.

We would both still definitely work, and we earn quite a lot, so not having a (very high) mortgage to pay off would give us so much spare money each month - we could do whatever we wanted! And we could save loads for the kids' futures.

I thought one of the nicest things about the traitors was the impact the money could have. Andrew wanted to start his own business (perfectly feasible with the money), Evie wanted to move up the housing ladder from a small flat to a small house, not sure what Jas said, I think he mostly just wanted to be proved right, not so much for the money. Harry wanted to treat his family on meals out. Mollie I’m not sure had a firm plan but something to do with disability awareness I think.

I always feel a bit eye-rolly when people say that sums like 40k odd aren't life changing.

With 40k, I would extend mat leave whilst moving house, cover my contributions whilst nailing a couple of IT qualifications that would double my salary and have my mortgage paid off by 40.

Pretty fucking life changing I'd say.

I inherited 700K 5 years ago after the death of my parents. It enabled me to buy a nicer house and to have decent savings but we just feel comfortable - I'd probably need a couple of million to be classed as life changing