If you had £2 million, would you still work full time?

[Summerlovin99]

You obtained the money through early inheritance. You are married, have two very young children and your house is already mortgage free. And if you wouldn't work full time, what would you do with your time?

Work part time to keep busyish but my self what I needed. Invest some "pay" myself an allowance each month. Retire at 60.

ArthiaNS
Exactly. Every bloody thread that gets posted, there is always a few who have got to let everyone know about their ridiculous high salary. Or how much their house is worth. Or how “hard” they have worked for the lifestyle. It’s laughable

If I had two million, I would not feel comfortable taking a job from someone for whom the wages would be more personally beneficial.

My dream would be to use the interest to go round finding and helping individuals to change their lives for the better, people who otherwise couldn't catch a break in life.

I think it might depend on how old you are when you inherit though, I am quite old and am already set up in life.

Well I don’t work now so that wouldn’t change.

I’d set up my life to be comfortable, and when the DCs are older probably work part time or set up my own business that I could run around my life rather than run my life around it.

I’ve never had any specific career goals or job I’d want to commit my whole time too so I think it would be easy for me. Others who love their jobs or feel their careers are too important might not feel the same. I think my DH would still work, but he likes his job.

Well I’m 49, so I reckon if I’m lucky I have another 40 years. So that would be £50k a year. Hell yes I’d retire

I do think though that unless your job is genuinely very interesting, I don’t see why you’d carry on working just for something to do. Instead, write a book, travel, become a foster parent, do house flipping etc etc

I've come to a similar conclusion Arthia, though having worked for many years and brought dc up, it is a very different mindset, I'm trying to get used to.

Never mind 2 million, £200,000 would do it for me 😂

@Sinkmyship

TatianaBis Always someone sucks the fun out of a good thread with their bragging! Only mn

If I’d wanted to brag I could have just done so. I started with the basic premise of the OP. It was only because I was questioned on that, that the truth came out.

No. I'm 50 I've worked hard for a long time. I'd definitely retire!

@Moonpeg

Yup. £60k salary is absolutely enough. Especially when you don’t have a fucking mortgage on your naice London house. But of course, if your little darlings HAVE to go to private school, and they are too good to have to have uni debts, and you also want to make sure they have house deposits ready for London homes, then maybe on £60k you are stretching it, especially if you want a holiday abroad each year. Oh, how gutting.

@RichPetunia

I’d kill for £20k even That’d be a deposit on a 2 bed terrace in my town, I’d just need a job with more hours for the mortgage. Being free from the instability of private renting would satisfy me.

No. I only work part time now because I like my job a lot.
We plan on running our own animal rescue soon
so I’d bring those plans forward a bit possibly.

@TatianaBis

2 million will only yield around 60k per year.

but nearly half of that would be going towards the mortgage anyway, so I'd be ecstatic to get the money but wouldn't make the mistake of thinking I am set up for life (unfortunately).

Work? No thanks - done that.

I’m shortly about to retire early, using a combination of pension drawdown and savings to bridge the gap until all defined benefit pensions and state pensions have kicked in. An extra £2m would be some extremely thick icing on the already adequate cake.

So in addition to what we already plan - a combination of hobbies, volunteering, travelling etc - I would contribute to a personal pension plan for each of my nephews and nieces (no DC), so that they would also have the prospect of a comfortable early retirement ahead of them. Once it’s possible, I’d make that trip to New Zealand we’ve always talked about, but make it 2 months rather than 3 weeks and not worry about the cost.

I have inherited nothing and never will.

I have worked for everything I have and always will. I enjoy my work. For that reason it is not 'work' as some may perceive work. It is about creating and growing. It is about people and doing. Money shakes out because of it and is a side product not the reason to work.

George W. Merck, son of the Merck company founder : “We try to never forget that medicine is for the people. It is not for the profits. The profits follow, and if we have remembered that, they have never failed to appear.”

I work part time at a job I love, so I would carry on with that (2 days a week). The rest of the time I would study something like herbal medicine and start up a small business.

ArthiaNS

parents sharing a windfall with their kids and ensuring they get the best education they can afford and the best start in life, oh the horror!

I expect the OP has inherited a strong 'work ethic' as well as the money, and that makes such decisions harder.

I'm in a situation where I don't enjoy my 3-days a week job, we don't need the money (at all) and I can think of plenty of hobbies/volunteer work I could do to keep myself busy. But my inner work ethic (which I never realised was so vocal) keeps telling me that if I can work, I should work, and I feel guilty and 'spoilt' to be considering giving up what is a very well-paid, stress-free, WFH, flexible, part-time hours job that most people would give their eye teeth to have.

So OP, I understand why you are feeling the way you do, but two observations:

(1) you have young children - you don't need an 'excuse' not to work

(2) you're currently working full-time, which again, is more than most people with kids and no mortgage do.

So you're setting the bar very high in terms of your work ethic already - you're not in-line with how the majority of (wealthy) people with children live, even without the £2 million inheritance.

If I do give up my career, I'd like to work (very part time) in a farmshop/a cafe/a National Trust property, as I enjoy 'work' per se, but then I'd have the guilt of taking a minimum wage job away from someone who needs it more than I do.

MyOctopusFeature

it's nice, but for many of us, work pays the bills.

I would have more interested and growth if I stuck with my hobbies, but they don't bring an income...

Yes, I would work, I would expand my business.

Only you can say what will make you happy. Doesn’t matter what we would do or if we would feel guilt and if so what we would do about it. I would say that it is probably best to do nothing quickly. Let the fact of the money sink in before making any drastic changes.
The other thing I would say is that you can make different changes for different stages of life. You may decide to cut back in work while kids are small, or stop and retrain for something you do part time when they are a little older, and go back to work full time when they are teens etc. Or you may decide to do something voluntary like become a magistrate alongside work or alongside staying at home. Or you may feel that maintaining your current career is part of what is important to you and it isn’t about the money. Life is a journey with many parts and one size does not fit all parts of it. and it is your journey, so what matters is only what is right for you and your family.

I’d aim to pass £4m to my children

Im currently in this position myself. I've chosen to retrain and do something different that doesn't feel like work

I think I'd give up work and set up our dream businesses.

But I would quit my job!

And use the time to make more money......!