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!

I worked out the other day that 250k would be the perfect amount for me. 200k for a house, 10k for a decent car then 40k to invest and start a business. 2 million would be the dream amount.

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

Yup, so for "life changing" it would need to be at LEAST 1 million. I think people forget that even at age 40 ish, you could live for another 50+ years and 30k is not going to change your life when you consider that you have another 50 years to finance so definitely at the very least 1 million

I love my life, I don't think I want it to change

I think some people think life changing means living in a mansion somewhere hot never having to work rather than something that would change your life like being able to pit a deposit on a hour or buy a car or work part time etc
And those who need millions to be ‘comfortable’ live in a different world

Yup this. For me £30k would be life changing in that I could buy a house that I vaguely like.

I'd be ok with 5m, but ideally 14m so I can live off the interest, clearly I'm greedy!

That’s so lovely! If you do come into some money then could I have just £5000 please, that would change my life!

It would cost another 90k to get a house with an additional bedroom.
Maybe 200k would be borderline life changing. We could get a less squashed house and pay off our mortgage.
300k would be properly live changing. Bigger house, mortgage free and 100k of breathing space.

What on earth would you do with 14 million?!

£45k would cover our childcare bills until free hours kick in, so in that sense it would change our lives in that we could do things like go on holiday, go out for meals, live our day to day life a lot less frugally.

£145k would give us that and paying off the mortgage, but we'd still need to work roughly the same hours

£350k and we could do a house extension that would be great

It's probably 500k upwards that would actually lead us to make changes in our lives in terms of jobs etc.

That's great, but it wouldn't be life changing for me. It might buy us a new car.

I'm not on maternity leave and I don't have any debts to clear. It wouldn't be enough to make a material difference to the price of a house we could afford and we currently rent, so couldn't do renovations. Don't have any kids going to uni. Don't have any training to take advantage of that would make a difference to salaries.

For me, life changing means I can give up work or be choosy about where I work.

I’d say I need at least £1.5million. That’d cover school fees and get us a bigger garden where we are. I’d still have to work and so would DH. We might get away with me working less.

It would be enough to cover retirement in full so you didn't need to work for the pension. I'd say a few million. I wouldnt stop work unless house was paid off and I could live off interest. I also don't work for the money so I'd probably carry on anyway!

I’ve thought about this A LOT.

1m would be enough to make a good difference

• pay off mortgage
• do the renovations we want
• 200k into pensions which with 30 years left of working would go far hopefully
• paying off the mortgage would mean I could drop a day at work
• 50k to start a hobby business on the side
• 100k into investments

Another 300k on top of that would mean we could buy a holiday home in our dream location

I think a million is life changing for us.

40k is nice, but wouldn't substantially change anything as such.

Actual life changing would have to be several million. £500k would certainly make life far more comfortable so I do occasionally play the Thunderball 😂

Depends how life changing I guess.

I mean £20 - £30k would mean I could pay my debts and free up some money, get a new car that doesn't need fixing as much as my 12 years old one and get broken things we live without fixed or replaced etc, have a nice one off holiday experience and something in a savings buffer.

That'd change my life if only in a small way to some but it would be life changing to me because I'd have more money each month and so a better standard of living, less worry, savings to fall back on and choices.

i imagine I would need a few mil to buy me a property outright and retire completely never having to work again and maintain a decent standard of living.

But as it's pay day tomorrow tbh £20 would do right now 😂

I would love to have £250k, it wouldn't massively life-changing for me but it would for my kids... if I could get them both a decent car and £100k on a flat deposit each. Maybe leave £10k for new windows for me!

It would be enough to live off the interest. Although for bare minimum I think 50k a year for the rest of my life would be enough (say 60 more years). I think you need that much passive income to be able to pay bills, go on holiday etc and basically be comfortable assuming of course that you have no other debt. I'd also want to be able to provide for my DC and get them a house when they are older.

100k and I could tell my boss to go fuck himself. That would be pretty life changing.

I'm always intrigued by the idea of life changing though, because it obviously means life changing for the better. I mean I could tell him to go fuck himself right now, and it would be life changing, just probably not in a good way in the short term.

£1m so I could privately educate for the rest of my girls school years. Giving them a top notch education where we live would be life-changing.

Actual life changing I guess a couple of million.

Circumstance changing a couple of hundred thousand so we could leap frog a rung up the property ladder where we live from a flat to something with its own entrance and a garden.

It's ironic that you say you want to be choosy about your work when my point is that it would enable me to... Be choosy about my work.

And I'd be willing to bet that there's a job you'd love out there that 30-40k would get the training for, even if it's a total swerve.

I find it a bit depressing somehow that people only think of "life changing" in terms of quitting work etc, not in terms of making a change to their every day.

About a million.

Buy myself a nice house in a smart town in the Midlands. Buy a flat for DD in London.

I'd be sorted then.

£14M would be £700,000+ a year in interest currently.