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How many zeroes to change your life?

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    #11
    Originally posted by vetran View Post

    £2000 a month after tax and housing is more than most people have.

    nhs is free.
    This ...

    I've said on here before, my costs are about £20k a year currently and that includes £5k budget for 'going out', a budget for clothes, insurance policies, car costs etc.

    Obviously if someone wants to live a more extravagant life then costs will soon rack up (golf club, top end car etc) but normal living is easily within reach of £20k once mortgage gone.

    Personally, I'm mortgage free and have enough to draw down £30k a year and my money will run out by the time I get to 100 years old (highly unlikely by the way!). This is in part because my pension kicks in at 67 and covers most of the £30k

    I'll continue to work for a few more years (part time, not going back to 12 months/5 days a week) to ensure my cash lasts a bit longer/I have a bit extra to splash around, but once I get to 55 my life will be more pleasure and a hell of a lot less work.

    When I get too old to travel/bum about, I'll sell my house and based on current house prices this will free up another £300k to spaff away.

    All this of course assumes I don't meet someone in the coming years and my life direction changes. I have no idea about that.
    I am what I drink, and I'm a bitter man

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      #12
      In your mid-40s, you *could* retire on a million if you're frugal and at the very least semi-retire by investing in holiday rentals or similar and living off the income.
      Anything beyond 2m and so long as you've not got a significant mortgage and you can retire happily imo.

      The key is obviously what your intentions to keep yourself busy would be and how much that costs - a grand a year for golf gear/membership and living like you've not won the lottery (i.e. pretend you work from home still to avoid the begging letters from family and friends) vs considerably more to travel or indulge in similarly expensive pastimes.

      If you're looking at stages of zeros, let's start with a 5 at the beginning.
      £5 - £5,000 - not much, through to clearing a car PCP, covering holiday or Christmas, etc.
      £50k - large chunk out of mortgage, all other sundry debts cleared, new car (yeah, yeah, INKSPE, etc.)
      £500k - mortgage gone, holiday let purchase, work stress gone but still working.
      £5m - as a contractor, you could slowly bleed this into your life without others knowing. The fun of doing so would help you from disappearing up your own 'arris. Keep it real, a few charitable donations, etc., pretend you work from home and have made a non-specific "few quid" on a bitcoin pen drive.
      £50m+ - life-changing. Would probably need assistance/advice to figure out where it's going.
      £5bn + - buy United from the Glazers.
      The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn't exist

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        #13
        Originally posted by LondonManc View Post
        In your mid-40s, you *could* retire on a million if you're frugal and at the very least semi-retire by investing in holiday rentals or similar and living off the income.
        Anything beyond 2m and so long as you've not got a significant mortgage and you can retire happily imo.

        The key is obviously what your intentions to keep yourself busy would be and how much that costs - a grand a year for golf gear/membership and living like you've not won the lottery (i.e. pretend you work from home still to avoid the begging letters from family and friends) vs considerably more to travel or indulge in similarly expensive pastimes.

        If you're looking at stages of zeros, let's start with a 5 at the beginning.
        £5 - £5,000 - not much, through to clearing a car PCP, covering holiday or Christmas, etc.
        £50k - large chunk out of mortgage, all other sundry debts cleared, new car (yeah, yeah, INKSPE, etc.)
        £500k - mortgage gone, holiday let purchase, work stress gone but still working.
        £5m - as a contractor, you could slowly bleed this into your life without others knowing. The fun of doing so would help you from disappearing up your own 'arris. Keep it real, a few charitable donations, etc., pretend you work from home and have made a non-specific "few quid" on a bitcoin pen drive.
        £50m+ - life-changing. Would probably need assistance/advice to figure out where it's going.
        £5bn + - buy United from the Glazers.
        $124tn - buy the United States...
        Down with racism. Long live miscegenation!

        Comment


          #14
          Originally posted by TwoWolves View Post

          At 50 you'd really need at least 2.5 million in cash to live in comfort for the rest of your life. Inflation and healthcare costs to think of.
          2.5 million per year or in total?



          I could live on approx £30K pa as a couple, have no mortgage. Tax free allowance it about £12K pa each, so would have about £2.5K per month so cover bills and living expenses.

          Would be enough, others might need 10x that amount for expensive cars and private school fees...
          First Law of Contracting: Only the strong survive

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            #15
            The point was what is life changing?

            £1m would do it for me. Pay off the mortgage, I could keep on working but part time on stuff that interests me. I could holiday and travel a lot.


            I would love £50m but £1million is enough.

            Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

            Comment


              #16
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              England's greatest sailor since Nelson lost the armada.

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                #17
                Originally posted by d000hg View Post
                I'm not driven by avarice, beyond enough to be comfortable, but it's fun sometimes to wonder what I'd actually do if I came into substantial funds, of different amounts.

                Let's call it a question of zeroes, where 1 zero is £10-99, 2 is £100-999, 5 is a between 100k and a million quid, etc
                1. Maybe give it to a homeless person or buy PsycoCandy lunch or buy a book/album off my wishlist
                2. A nice dinner or a new power-tool, buy a friend something they could do with
                3. between 1-10k. Tricky, it's a sizeable amount but for us doesn't materially change anything in our situation. In all likelihood, stick it in the ISA or pay of a bit of mortgage, or perhaps have a holiday
                4. 10-100k: More of the same really. It would make a decent dent in a mortgage or buy a nice car but we don't really want a nice car. We could help some people out, give a chunk to a local grass-roots charity, but our lives are not going to noticeably change even with £100k. This is the point we start to differ from a lot of our peers, for who £100k would effectively clear their mortgage or allow them to do major property improvements or pay for private education for their kids.
                5. 100k-1m: depending quite where on this wide scale, we can pay off all our mortgages. Even 1m isn't going to mean we can retire though it would mean our disposable income rockets so we could work less, or travel more, put substantial amounts into savings, etc. I would say our lives are still not drastically altered just more comfortable.
                6. 1-10m: Work should become optional especially with decent investments, you can effectively live a comfortable lifestyle without actually caring what you are spending. We don't have profligate desires so I reckon I'd retire and find interesting pursuits, interesting causes to support. Basically live like people who have really good pensions
                7. 10-100m: I reckon I could easily spend 10m on some luxury house, more depending where it is. Beyond that I am not sure what - more properties around the world perhaps but it doesn't really attract me when you can just rent and at this level, pay someone to make sure everything is how you want it. A house that sits empty 10 months seems a big waste. But you have the capability to seriously change the lives of a lot of people... rebuild our church building, buy houses for local charities to use helping people get a clean start.
                8. 100m-1bn... it's fun to just dream but I have no interest in a collection of supercars. Beyond a private island (which does actually attract me) I'm stumped. Interested to know if others have a realistic idea how to use this amount of cash. Being able to decide you're going to attend major sporting events and so on without bothering to check if there are tickets, hire a theme park or get private entry to busy tourist spots are all things I would enjoy as an introvert.
                9. 1-10bn. Utterly perplexed how you would even give it away fast enough let alone spend it. I fear I'd end up working really hard to try and figure out what to do with it, and be tired and stressed. Of course, everything you can possibly want or need is done without ever having to wait - you have staff clearing barriers before you even see them coming.
                Was just idly thinking about this hearing a friend has sold their company for £Xm. We actually were already in 5. about 5 years ago, when a 6-figure inheritance came my way. We moved to a nice big old house in the country but that's where it all went - so we are living the same life as before but in nicer surroundings. On the other hand we could have stayed somewhere cheaper and semi-retired, like the dinner-lady who wins the lottery and stays on her terraced street.

                Anyone got any good ones?
                1-10m -> 10-100m: You really care about what you are spending to move up a rank here.

                However, if you want to be really rich:





                Comment


                  #18
                  Originally posted by LondonManc View Post
                  £5bn + - buy United from the Glazers.
                  Football club == money pit and stress from the fans.

                  "You’re just a bad memory who doesn’t know when to go away" JR

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                    #19
                    Originally posted by LondonManc View Post
                    £5bn + - buy United from the Glazers.
                    They don't own Leeds so that makes no sense. I don't thik Radrizzani is selling any time soon.

                    Or did you mean Sheffield?
                    England's greatest sailor since Nelson lost the armada.

                    Comment


                      #20
                      Originally posted by Uncle Albert View Post
                      They don't own Leeds so that makes no sense. I don't thik Radrizzani is selling any time soon.

                      Or did you mean Sheffield?
                      Manchester?

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