How much money is needed for ideal life? Most are OK with 8m, study finds

[Nevilledog]

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David Wallace-Wells
@dwallacewells
“In the US the majority of people said they would need at least $100m or more to lead an ideal life, with 31.7% (the most popular response) saying that they would like at least $100bn.”

theguardian.com
How much money is needed for ideal life? Most are OK with £8m, study finds
Research counters idea that everyone want to be as rich as possible, though many Americans want $100bn
5:08 PM · Jun 18, 2022

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jun/16/how-much-money-is-needed-for-ideal-life-study?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

No paywall
https://archive.ph/gONAz

How much money do you need to lead your “absolutely ideal life”? The answer for most people, according to new research by university psychologists, is $10m (£8.6m) – but not Americans, who say they need at least $100m, and frequently insist on $100bn.

Academics at the universities of Bath, Bath Spa and Exeter found that contrary to the assumption that everyone wants to be as rich as possible, most people say they would be happy with a few million.

A study of almost 8,000 people from across the world found that in 86% of countries the majority of people thought they could achieve their ideal life with $10m or less.

In Argentina, India and Russia more than 50% of people said they would like $1m or less. However, in the US the majority of people said they would need at least $100m or more to lead an ideal life, with 31.7% (the most popular response) saying that they would like at least $100bn.

*snip*

[patphil]

1. At 75, I'm not sure how much longer I have to live, so...

I want to frame my answer a little differently.
My wife and I could live quite comfortably on $100,000 per year, after taxes.

[Tree Lady]

6. Sounds good to me plenty of money

For nice vacations.

[chowder66]

2. OMG. 100bn? 100m? I don't think people have any concept of how much money that is.

[A HERETIC I AM]

3. In the brokerage industry, the level for "UHNW" starts at $30 mil

“Ultra High Net Worth”.

That’s thirty million of investable assets, not including primary home, cars, etc.

I always look at the coupon rate of the 30 year Treasury as a benchmark for annual interest income, so at the current 2.88% coupon, a million dollars face value of those bonds pays $28,800 per year in interest payments.

If you had 30 mil in those securities, your income before taxes would be $864,000 a year and you would still have every cent of the principle.

There is a SHITLOAD of people in this country with that kind of money. A. LOT. And they live very well. Those are the kind of people that have a house in Naples or a Condo on the beach in Clearwater or Boca and their regular place in New Jersey or wherever.

I’ve hauled their cars down to Florida from up north!

[brooklynite]

7. "you would still have every cent of the principle. "

No you wouldn't if those funds were invested. Based on market trends, you would have lost about 15% of your assets since January if your investments were broadly diversified.

[GregariousGroundhog]

9. There are only two ways to lose your principal on a U.S. treasury

The first is to sell it on the secondary market during times of rising interest rates. The second involves the U.S. government defaulting on its debt. It is entirely possible to collect the $432,000 coupon payment every six months and receive the principal back after 30 years.

[A HERETIC I AM]

12. You didn't read my post.

I never said “broadly diversified”.

I said said specifically “If you had 30 mil in those securities”.

[markie]

4. people are ridiculous (Hedonic Treadmill)

"...A net worth of $25 million or more brings temporal freedom, spatial freedom and sometimes psychological freedom, but it's not always easy. Eventually temporal freedom — the freedom to do anything you want — raises dilemmas about what the best way to use all your time might be. There's also spatial freedom: You get to build anything you want — a house, a business, a new nonprofit — and people often get lost or befuddled with all of their options. And you get choice. You can go to this restaurant or that one, this resort or that one, buy this car or that one. People can get overwhelmed by all the choices and possibilities, and the amount of freedom that they have.

Then the overwhelming question becomes: What is the best use of my time and resources? After a while one can actually become stymied and even dispirited. There are plenty of folks who are more than willing to make suggestions, but it takes a lot of individual work to develop the psychological freedom to make decisions. For most, that's not a problem because time and money are limited, so the choices are limited. Being willing to try to understand the challenges of having an oversupply of time and money can be difficult for therapists.

The takeaway from all of this is that there seemed to be a trend that said you can't buy your way out of the human condition. For example, one survey participant told me that he'd sold his business, made a lot of money off that and lived high for a while. He said, "You know, Bob, you can just buy so much stuff, and when you get to the point where you can just buy so much stuff, now what are you going to do?"

......But what you often lose when you have all this money is the friendships that support you through the difficult times...

https://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/07-08/money

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. I am living quite comfortably on

a bit less than $50k per year. I do have a mortgage, but no car payment.

I think that having been relatively poor growing up, and at various other times in adulthood, I have no trouble living on what's apparently dire poverty to some.

Even $10m is overkill.

[Thtwudbeme]

16. That's about where we will be with our pensions

That said- I hope to have the house completely paid off.

We do have a tiny condo in the mountains of NC. And by "tiny," I mean it's about 600 sq. ft. But! It has a full kitchen, bath, laundry room and deck. We love it. We bought it when the real estate market was depressed- and our payments are less than a nice car.

We wanted a mountain place where we could leave our clothes and take the dogs with no hassles. So it's worth it- all our food is sitting right there in the kitchen- our bathroom stuff is there. We usually don't have to pack a thing to walk out the door for a long mountain weekend.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

19. That sounds absolutely wonderful!

A tiny condo in the mountains of NC, and I expect you live reasonably close, so it's not a long trek to spend those weekends. And it sounds like you enjoy it a lot. I'm pleased for you.

[roamer65]

8. The planet cannot support it.

I remember reading that for everyone to have a European standard of living, population would have to be reduced to 2 BILLION.

[NCLefty]

10. LOL. 29% of American kids want to be a YouTube star too.

I guess it's good to have dreams.

A recent survey of 3,000 kids found that being a YouTube star was a more sought-after profession than being an astronaut among kids in the US and the United Kingdom.

https://www.businessinsider.com/american-kids-youtube-star-astronauts-survey-2019-7

[electric_blue68]

11. 🤔 I could live comfortably on about 15 million $ after taxes because

1] I'd love to have a nice 4 bedroom apt in Manhattan (1 bedroom for me, 2 for guests, 1 as my Art & Craft Studio); 2] take a few vacations to the cities, countrysides I'd never been to, and return to favorite places(!!!); 3] have the loving joys of giving monies, and gifts (including vacations) to my family, and (especially, but not only) my low income friends; 4] the wonderful, deeply satisfying joys of giving monies to people, places, causes, non-profits, It institutions believe in, support, and want to help (yes!!!!!)!

[Silent3]

13. Imagine having enough money to do a hostile takeover of Fox

For those pooh-poohing the desire for enormous piles of money, keep in mind that there's more to wealth than yachts and mansions and private jets.

My life would be much more comfortable if I had enough money to buy off all of the forces trying to destroy democracy in this country.

[DFW]

14. I hear that!

If I suddenly came into $50 million after taxes, a third of it would go to Planned Parentood, a third would go to Democratic candidates I like (or, more specifically, their PACs, due to the $5800 limit) in tough-but-winnable races, and the last third would be divided between visiting cool places and helping out friends and relatives in need.

A friend of mine back in Dallas actually DID come into a huge amount of money last year. Some company he helped set up years ago offered him, at the time, a percentage of the company instead of a cash payment, and he accepted, since he believed in what he was doing. The company became wildly successful, and was recently sold, netting him, after taxes, about $45 million for his share. Noting that he could only live in one house at a time, and only drive one car at a time, and wasn't a great world traveler, he didn't go out and spend it on worldly goods. He was pretty much OK with what he had. What he did was set up a foundation to further education (Texas Republicans don't like that kind of thing), and support a few arts projects around Dallas (modern dance troupe that has no city or state financing, that kind of thing).

A fictional character named Beñat le Cagot once put it this way:

“a man is happiest when there is a balance between his needs and his possessions. Now the question is: how to achieve this balance. One could seek to do this by increasing his goods to the level of his appetites, but that would be stupid. It would involve doing unnatural things—bargaining, haggling, scrimping, working. Ergo? Ergo, the wise man achieves the balance by reducing his needs to the level of his possessions....."

[DFW]

15. A MAJORITY of Americans said they would need $100 million to lead an ideal life?

I'm betting a majority of Americans wouldn't know what to do with even 1% of that, except maybe blow it and be broke within two years. My wife has friends here in Germany who have come into minor inheritances (under €100,000) and had blown every cent of it within six months because they had no conception of how much €100,000 was, or what its limitations were.

[Buns_of_Fire]

17. Where's John Beresford Tipton when you need him?

One million would do me just fine. Oh, and the paddle-ball game. And this ashtray. Just a million dollars, the paddle-ball game, and the ashtray.

[Victor_c3]

18. I wonder how old the respondents were

When I was a kid I would have said $100 million or more, but as a 42 year old guy I’d say a $6-8 million. As we get older, I suspect we mature and figure out what really is important to us in life. At least that’s what happened to me.

All I want now is a modest 2,000 sqft house in the woods, a garage full of woodworking tools, and a newish Porsche 911. Beyond that, it’d be nice to be able to travel around the world a few weeks each year with my children. In reality, I’m really close to having it all. Free time and decent health is more important to me now than nearly everything else.

[NickB79]

20. $3 million

That would pay off my mortgage, allow me to buy 20 acres behind my property to add to my own, add solar backups, build a new barn and greenhouse, buy 2 new hybrids or EV's, and go on vacation once or twice a year. I could pay my daughter's tuition in full and still put almost $2 million into savings.

I'd quit my 50-hr lab job, start working 20 hr/week at a local plant nursery or farm supply store for fun money, health care insurance and social interaction, and work on starting my own plant nursery while restoring the 20 acres to native oak savannah and edible landscaping/food forest/wildlife habitat. Spend time with friends and family, garden, fish, hunt, etc. Escape Minnesota for a couple weeks in the winter to visit family in Puerto Rico, shoot and grill some iguanas, relax on a beach. Another 20 years and my pension and SS would kick in as well.

I have no need to fly around the world on my own private jet.

[Ace Rothstein]

21. $5 million is a nightmare.

[Raftergirl]

22. Ridiculous.

My husband’s pension is in the low 6 figures and he has a part time job consulting in his old Division - most of which goes into his 403B for tax purposes. We don’t even collect SS yet and can’t even spend all our monthly income now. We live on half of it and we live very nicely. We can go and do whatever we want and spend whatever we want. Except for our small mortgage we have no debt.

I don’t know if we will ever even have to touch any of our retirement funds - except when we have to start taking the distributions. Do not plan on ever taking money from non retirement investments.

Of course, when we were younger and putting kid through private high school and private college things were tighter, but that is just how it is when you are raising a child(ten).

Reading the bit of article posted, no wonder so many people are in so much debt.

[LuckyCharms]

23. For me, 1.5 million after taxes.

I have a 1,700 square foot home that I would not want to move from.

I put my body and soul into this home for the past 10 years or so. It's not something that would highly impress most people, but it impresses the hell out of me.

Every morning when I get out of bed, I look around and admire my handiwork. I remember how it took me hours to cut that weird angle miter joint so perfectly. I remember how I put a chisel through my finger trying to get something perfect. I remember when I literally broke down sobbing one evening after royally fucking up a $1,500 piece of raw material. And it reminds me that I worked through it. It reminds me that I pushed myself to the limit and got things done, despite being ill. It reminds me that I tested myself, and worked through my illnesses.

What could make me happier than that? A mansion that someone else built? Nope.

A yacht? Nope?

The ability to throw lavish parties? Nope.

The ability to travel? Nope. I've done a lot of travelling and had some wonderful experiences.

I want enough money to not have to worry about financial problems due to health issues. To be able to pay for the best medical insurance available to the public.

And I want to just be able to sit back and enjoy what I have created.

I would also like the ability to financially help out a few people.

No new cars, No new tools...I have all the tools I would ever need. I'm not a clothes horse, so no new clothes.

Materially, I have everything I need. I know when enough is enough.

Sitting in my back yard on a nice day and listening to the birds is enough for me.