I actually retired at age 40 with less than 700k. My wife and I own a house. We both moved back to Canada, so we don't worry about health care costs. And, we really don't spend money on much. I figured our food/living costs comes out to $1000 a month. We don't have kids or any other big expenses. We're pretty frugal too. Anyways, it all depends. Some will tell you 7 million. That's fucking absurd. If that was true, h…
Thanks for answering. Out of curiosity, did the 700k include the house? My company is quite small. It can maintain it and have a relatively stable income, but I'm not sure if I have the motivation to keep working on it due to other changes in my life.
Ask HN: How much money is enough?
21–24 of 24 posts
Re: Ask HN: How much money is enough?
#22Probably 7 million after taxes. The first million will buy you a decent house. The next million will let you buy other materialistic goods and/or give away. The next 5 million can go into a very safe savings account which will net you 6 figures a year in interest. With 7 million, you should be set for life with a decent lifestyle.
I think I once decided I could live happily from £3 million. To pay off the current house would cost me £50k, then spend half a million to buy a huge house to live in, along with all the gadgets, furniture, and solid wood you could need. After that spend 4x100k to buy four more houses. That leaves £2 million to live off, plus the rental income of five properties, and a spare 100k to cover emergency repairs, and furni…
Re: Ask HN: How much money is enough?
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think I once decided I could live happily from £3 million. To pay off the current house would cost me £50k, then spend half a million to buy a huge house to live in, along with all the gadgets, furniture, and solid wood you could need. After that spend 4x100k to buy four more houses. That leaves £2 million to live off, plus the rental income of five properties, and a spare 100k to cover emergency repairs, and furni…
The thing with your route is doing the rental business would be too stressful for me. For me, enough is being able to live off interest. Unless the bank goes bankrupt, I really don't have anything to worry about.
I'd go insane with nothing to do, so I'd probably find myself working for a coffee shop or similar anyway, but the idea of the renting is to make sure I had a token-job, or function. (Hell with five properties and low fees I could probably become a management company..)
Re: Ask HN: How much money is enough?
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks for answering. Out of curiosity, did the 700k include the house? My company is quite small. It can maintain it and have a relatively stable income, but I'm not sure if I have the motivation to keep working on it due to other changes in my life.
Sorry for the late response. No, the 700k didn't. However, our house isn't worth much. We live in a rural part of Canada, and our house here was just under $70k. It's a pretty nice house too. You can even find cheaper houses, if you're willing to compromise a bit. It's not that far from Kelowna, which is a nicer area but over priced. In the States, I've lived in California (SF Bay Area) and Hawaii. Those places are W…
It has become much better with new laws. For $200/month you can have a decent health insurance in California.