How much money is 'enough'?

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How much money would you need to have in your current account before you thought that having any more wouldn't make any difference?

MarkH (MarkH), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 17:53 (nineteen years ago) link

A couple mil would be nice.

57 7th (calstars), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 17:55 (nineteen years ago) link

Isn't the idea to have enough money so that you can live off the interest without actually tapping into the main body of the account, or something? That way you always have shitloads of reserve.

I can't honestly say for myself, for fear of coming across like some sort of CAPITALIST PIGDOG SCUM.

emil.y (emil.y), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 17:57 (nineteen years ago) link

One.... million... pounds!!!

< /Dr Evil >

Markelby (Mark C), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 17:59 (nineteen years ago) link

£750,000, but I'd be fool to keep that sort of money in my current account.

So, I'd invest in property, have a house of my own, have around £200,000 in investments.

Overall, I need a million to facilitate absolute ideal life style

It could be achieved on less, say having a house worth £350,000, no mortgage, and a £100,000 in savings, with X amount interest coming in PA.

So, enough would be £450,000.

jel -- (jel), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:01 (nineteen years ago) link

For me, enough money would involve bankrolling AFC Wimbledon (albeit in a totally benign, cuddly, non-controlling way), so I'd need a few million from that to start off.

The main problem is that I would want enough money to never have to work again, BUT I wouldn't want not to work again. So I'd need money to fund my dream plans, business or pleasure related, and if that had to come from a one-off supply of seed capital, it'd have to be pretty hefty to deal with both keeping a large reserve and supporting risky investments, as well as buying a wonderful family house or two.

So I'd say £15 million. Yes, I am a greedy, overprivileged drain on society.

Markelby (Mark C), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:02 (nineteen years ago) link

I could rent out rooms too, I guess.

When are you giving the cheques out Mark?

jel -- (jel), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:03 (nineteen years ago) link

£100,000,000. that should be enough for my house to be a cinema/bowling/arcades/sushibuffet entertainment complex + a helicopter?

ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:03 (nineteen years ago) link

Around £40 000 would get me out of debt (inc. student loan etc) and give me enough to live on (just above my current standard which is laughable) for a couple of years. I don't dream about being rich, I dream of being out of debt.

Anna (Anna), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:04 (nineteen years ago) link

Or, on the other side of the coin, I'd need enough to simply live and work in London with a family in reasonable comfort. Actually, that'd probably require about the same amount :(

Markelby (Mark C), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:04 (nineteen years ago) link

(Now I feel like Bez)

Anna (Anna), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:04 (nineteen years ago) link

Probably in the range of a million/million and a half dollars, but I don't know if a lot more or a little less would make much of a difference, I just know that if I had that I amount of money I could 1) easily put a hefty downpayment on a house in San Francisco and 2) basically live relatively comfortably off of whatever interest acrues and whatever part-time almost just for fun job I want (or start my own business.) I wouldn't want to not work however much money I made. But I'm pretty comfortable where I am at the moment, I guess.

Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:04 (nineteen years ago) link

It's going to take me around 24 years to get £450,000 - that's if I don't spend anything at all :(

jel -- (jel), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:06 (nineteen years ago) link

sorry i guess i sound greedy there but then again the question was how much when i feel any more would make a difference - and that'd be a lot. i mean, there's always more things i can buy with more money...

ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:06 (nineteen years ago) link

and not just buying things for the sake of being able to afford them, like real, practial things. And amphibious vehicles don't come cheap these days.

ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:08 (nineteen years ago) link

you'd have more money than Roman Abramovich, ken!

jel -- (jel), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:08 (nineteen years ago) link

Accounting for inflation and the probably drop in value of the US dollar, I would say I'd need at LEAST 10 million dollars to be happy and feel secure. Now, that may not be in my bank account, obviously, I think about 2 million of that could be in liquid assets and the remainder could take the form of equity in real estate, bonds, or other such long-term investments. I've got a long way to go.

TOMBOT, Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:09 (nineteen years ago) link

I mean, yeah, if a genie offered I'd go for, I dunno, £100 billion or something? I could use 90% of it to destabilise the Bush regime and do public works 'n shit.

Markelby (Mark C), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:10 (nineteen years ago) link

Enough to:
a) pay off all our debts
b) put the kid through college
c) give to good causes and charities
d) generate enough interest income to handle daily expenses
e) travel widely, and eat and drink well

Say, $5 million?

Curious George Rides a Republican (Rock Hardy), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:11 (nineteen years ago) link

you'd have more money than Roman Abramovich, ken!
-- jel -- (freeduni...), January 25th, 2005 6:08 PM. (jel)

all the better!! then i can go "haha i have more money than you!!!" to his face and he'd carry on doing that grin thing. and then i go mad.

ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:17 (nineteen years ago) link

i know it seems ridiculous but ever since i was a kid i have wanted and believe that i will earn about 100 million dollars by the time i'm 35... i'm not making great promise but it still seems totally possible.

firstworldman (firstworldman), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:19 (nineteen years ago) link

5 million would probably seem like a better number to me if I didn't spend all my time in either Washington DC or New York City and didn't smoke cigarettes.

TOMBOT, Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:21 (nineteen years ago) link

If human history tells us anything, it's that there's never 'enough'. I would solemnly promise not to complain for at least 15 years, though, if I had a nice 25 million dollars to spend.

Michael White (Hereward), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:22 (nineteen years ago) link

I'd settle for enough to pay off my student loans. I realized long ago that I'll never have the kind of job (or relatives) that will give me lots of money, but I'd love to be debt-free. Have a net worth that isn't negative.

sgs (sgs), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:22 (nineteen years ago) link

The inherent problem with this is that when you start making all this money, there is that pesky "invisible hand" that tugs upwards at your wallet strings towards expensive habits. Life becomes a pursuit of quality, and this quality does not come cheap. <cliche>Humans, by nature, are seldom satisfied.</cliche> blah blah.

gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:23 (nineteen years ago) link

i know it seems ridiculous but ever since i was a kid i have wanted and believe that i will earn about 100 million dollars by the time i'm 35... i'm not making great promise but it still seems totally possible.

I really must hang around you more often and practice my toadying.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:24 (nineteen years ago) link

$1 million yields a $50,000 income annually (if you assume a 5% return). That used to seem to me like a lot of money; now it seems low. So an initial post-tax infusion of two million dollars or so would replace a comfortable enough upper-middle-class income, while allowing for a fair amount of fripperies on the side.

Though I'm with Alex in that I couldn't bear not working; I'd just like to be able to pick and choose what work to do with more free rein.

The Mad Puffin, Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:26 (nineteen years ago) link

promise = progress there...

the other thing is... and don't know if this has ever been discussed in a thread: on my mother's side my family has a lot of money, but i have already been written out of wills for a variety of reasons. that's fine with me. i don't like them. and then there's that my dad is about 40 million in debt (on purpose-- company startup and research money) with the possibility of earning hundreds of millions of dollars if things pan out. he says his only goal is to leave me enough money that no one in our family would ever have to do a job they don't want to do ever again (which translates to spending their whole lives in school, to him). i do not feel guilty about wanting this. is that bad?

firstworldman (firstworldman), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:29 (nineteen years ago) link

(the prospective thread topic i was talking about is inheritance, in case that wasn't clear, btw... not my inheritance.

firstworldman (firstworldman), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:30 (nineteen years ago) link

I just worry about being destitute when I'm old, given the financial situation in the U.S. I would just like enough to ensure I wouldn't have to worry about that, I'm not certain of the exact amount though.

Leon the Fatboy (Ex Leon), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:32 (nineteen years ago) link

enough to fly the stone roses over to play at the dive bar i used to work at

kingfish (Kingfish), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:47 (nineteen years ago) link

Just want to point out that, between your thread title and your thread text, you've asked two very different questions. IMO, the amount that's "enough" by any rational measure is very different than the amount that ceases to "make any difference".

After all, Bill Gates's life is very different today than what it would be if he had a mere $100 million at his disposal. And if he had $10 trillion, his life would different still - not in terms of luxury, but in terms of power.

But it appears that the answers you're getting are more in response to the implied question that lies between the two that were asked - how much money do you imagine you would need to satisfy your future desires?

As Michael White pointed out, desires have a way of outpacing the expansion of one's means. Money is a very poor measure of satisfaction and setting one's life goals in terms of money is a great way to lead to sterility of thought and action.

Incidentally, $1 million is a nice round figure and would do me fine.

Aimless (Aimless), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:47 (nineteen years ago) link

Fuck it, I want my own luxury-outfitted aircraft carrier crewed by talking cats and R2 units. Gimme billions. I need MONEY FOR SCIENCE.

TOMBOT, Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:59 (nineteen years ago) link

I NEED TO CLONE MY DOGGY!

Star Cauliflower (Star Cauliflower), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 00:55 (nineteen years ago) link

I do alright. I am a student, though.

Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 01:09 (nineteen years ago) link

oh god im so poor

chaki in charge (chaki), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 01:18 (nineteen years ago) link

6K is enough to get me out of debt as it stands.

several million would enable me to buy several properties which i would then either let out to others or live in depending on where they were. my dream is to buy huge rundown factories in both London and New York and convert them into space for struggling artists with bar, club and other cool shit attached. really i'd just like to travel around parts of the world whenever i chose.

Stevem On X (blueski), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 01:33 (nineteen years ago) link

One daydream I've had since I was 12 was buying the Blue Bell factory building in Tupelo and making the coolest loft apartment/personal amusement park ever. To this day I drive past it every few weeks and keep the dream alive.

Curious George Rides a Republican (Rock Hardy), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 01:38 (nineteen years ago) link

I need approximately $70k to get out of debt (incl. student loans), I think. It might be $60k. I don't need anything after that because I've never had a huge problem figuring things out and being quite fine up until I suddenly had to pay for flipping school.

Allyzay Highlights The Fallacy of Radiohead (allyzay), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 01:44 (nineteen years ago) link

To be happy and secure and debt-free - maybe $350-400k? Just enough to buy a small older building in a medium-sized city and renovate it into a snazzy live/work space for myself, pay for four years of art school or college and have a little cushion in case anything went wrong.

I could spend and give away an inordinate amount of money if I hit the lotto.

milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 02:06 (nineteen years ago) link

I don't think it would matter how much money i had, i don't think I'd have it for very long.

Nellie (nellskies), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 02:18 (nineteen years ago) link

nine years pass...

per annum we've settled on around €40k PA each probably doing the job what with the no kids and the lack of student or any other debt

how about you now ilx?

nakh is the wintour of our diss content (darraghmac), Wednesday, 3 September 2014 00:51 (nine years ago) link

reckon if i had £25k a year i wd live like a prince

Daphnis Celesta, Wednesday, 3 September 2014 06:13 (nine years ago) link

In London, idk, probably at least twice as much as i currently earn. I'd get by fine elsewhere on £30k - £35k.

Wristy Hurlington (ShariVari), Wednesday, 3 September 2014 07:18 (nine years ago) link

but uncle jack - no matter how much you got, how do you turn your back on more?

messiahwannabe, Wednesday, 3 September 2014 12:29 (nine years ago) link


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