Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

How much money would make you happy?

Call it $45,000 to pay off credit cards, car and student loans, and pay for a shiny new computer.

Another $75,000 for start up capital to open my own hookah bar.

Make it $125,000 even, that's a nice round number.
 
I'd take the £200m, then buy some toys and set up a savings plan for my (extended) family and friends, then give away the leftover, which would probably be at least £200, maybe even £2000. ;)

I do believe that, unless you're just not capable of being happy, money will always increase happiness because of what it enables you to do for yourself and for others. So I'd take whatever the old eccentric would give me.
 
jsw said:
I do believe that, unless you're just not capable of being happy, money will always increase happiness because of what it enables you to do for yourself and for others.
Click to expand...

Very well said - that is one of the points I was trying to get across in my above post as well. :cool:
 
I remember once reading an article that talked about a study or survey asking people how much money they thought they needed to be making, realistically, in order for them to be happy. It seemed like pretty much across the board everyone thought they needed twice whatever they were currently making.

If they were earning $30,000 a year, they wanted $60,000.

If they were making $60,000, they wanted $120,000.

Of course, if someone wanted to give me money, I'd be happy with any amount! I would use it to buy a condo, and invest whatever was left over. I would only use the interest for "fun" purchases, like some new Macs.
 
I've always considered $5 million to be the amount necessary for not worrying about money anymore if it could be obtained discretely.

Through moderately conservative investing one should be able to pull at least 5% interest yielding $250,000 per year to live off of. That's more than my wife and I currently make but we'd need extra if we didn't have to work since we've both found our spending increases when our free time increases and of course we'd now be responsible for our own insurance. I'd probably keep up working (possibly for the insurance) but I'd probably drop down to half time or so to do volunteer work and spend more time with the family.

When it comes to the Lottery though my entry point is at least $20 million. So that my wife and I can decide how to divvy up all but the $5 million we'd keep to keep our family and friends from getting PO'd if we tried to be frugal with the winnings. I could easily see where winning a lesser amount publicly would cause a lot of hard feelings amongst friends and family who only want $X to do something but when multiplied by the number of people the $X payments add up.
 
for me it has to be 100 Bil $$ and this to compete with Bill gates foundation

also i would keep 1 bil for myself and bye-out as much Apple stock as possible, then apoint me the position of VP testing and looking around around Apple labs and Steve in general..

Am I asking that much???:confused:
 
atszyman said:
$250,000 per year to live off of. That's more than my wife and I currently make but we'd need extra if we didn't have to work since we've both found our spending increases when our free time increases and of course we'd now be responsible for our own insurance.
Click to expand...

You'd need more than $250K a year to live off of? :eek:
 
georgi0 said:
for me it has to be 100 Bil $$ and this to compete with Bill gates foundation

also i would keep 1 bil for my self and byeout as much Apple stock as possible and then apoint my self the position of VP of testing and peeking aroung Apple and Steve..

Am I asking that much???:confused:
Click to expand...

Yes. Yes you are.

:p ;) :cool:
 
That $5 million mark is about right. Just enough to live off of and still be generous with your money - set up scholarships, support organizations, etc. and have enough left over to live comfortably for you and your family.

And some left over to reinvest to stay ahead of inflation.

So where is this billionaire or are you doing research for the next email scam ? :D

D
 
Any amount for free:D

Something like 100Million...donate to some problems in Africa(20MillioN), invest 10 million in Apple. Fix up the house(5 million), give some to my family members(1million per Aunts, Uncles Cousins and grandparents, and 5 million to Mom, Dad, Brother, and the grandmom who lives with us.
 
Foxglove9 said:
You'd need more than $250K a year to live off of? :eek:
Click to expand...

No, perhaps I was unclear. We live very comfortably off of considerably less than $250k per year now. If we had $5 mil invested earning 5% we would have lots of extra money if we did not change our lifestyles at all.

The extra money is what I consider the extra we would probably end up spending. If we had more free time due to working less and the possible added burden of insurance.

So in summary the $250k figure is not what is required, it is just a nice round figure that covers current expenses with a little extra for fun money.
 
I think you cannot have enough money (it would be never enough); the more money I have, the better. When you land a $100 million fortune, you would crave for more (I think that's how it works).

I don't believe the people who say they are happy at, say, $40,000/year or something in that line. In general, people work till the retirement (or till they drop) to earn the nest ege (to retire on).

I admit I am very materialistic.
 
Pending on inflation and other factors, whatever amount it'll take for me to live comfortably for the rest of my life. Assuming that I can still earn my own money, I would be very satisfied with about $50k in real income a year. I wouldn't go hungry, I could still get rich if I wanted to take that path, but most importantly I would have few hinderences to doing what I really want.
 
It's a cliché but no amount of money will buy you happiness, but there is a minimum. That minimum, depending on where you live, would be enough to support your family and live in a warm and comfortable home and not worry about surviving day-to-day.

Being happy means just looking at the positives, be grateful for what you have and not to sweat the little things.
 
atszyman said:
Through moderately conservative investing one should be able to pull at least 5% interest yielding $250,000 per year to live off of.
Click to expand...

Indeed. Even my bank's high-interest savings account offers 4%. And with that kinda money you would have no difficulty negotiating a good rate on a GIC. And that's not even looking at mutual funds or other investments..

(Presumably, all these people with millions of dollars don't simply keep it in a savings account or GIC somewhere. Surely they do much more exotic things.)
 
atszyman said:
No, perhaps I was unclear. We live very comfortably off of considerably less than $250k per year now. If we had $5 mil invested earning 5% we would have lots of extra money if we did not change our lifestyles at all.
Click to expand...

You'd actually need to put $150k of your $250k back into the original investment to counter inflation of say 3%. So if you're only earning 5% you'd only be able to spend $100k.

If you didn't do this you'd only have the equivilent of $2,768,000 left after inflation adjustment in 20 years.

Or even uglier, if you spent the interest and left your kids the $5mil (sound's pretty generous, it ain't) if you look at the rampant assett inflation that seems to be a part of the modern economy, you can probably expect to see house prices climb 8.5% on average over that time. Nice house now $750k, in 20 years at 8.5% = $4,080,000, I hope you haven't got more than 1 kid because if you've got 3 kids they won't even get a 1/3 of a good house unless you saved most of that $250k.

Might wanna revise that amount you were wishing for.
 
Money can't buy happiness.

I'd tell him to give it to someone who needs it to survive, and I'd walk on by.

Sure, it would be tempting. But I'd never shake that horrible feeling of guilt.
 
Enough to give myself and all my friends free college educations.

And MacBooks. :)

And an apartment NEAR CAMPUS. Parking is a NIGHTMARE at UH! :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back