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Poll: What number would make you say "I am financially independent"?

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Poll: What number would make you say "I am financially independent"?

#1

Post by codegeek »

Seeing all these deals and billion dollar aquisitions including some comments on life changing money etc, just wondering what is your number ? It is not necessarily a number to retire, but a number that will give you the financial freedom to do whatever you want. If that means working at a walmart because you want, then so be it. The differentiator is "want" and not "need".

The numbers are in USD. Of course, it could depend on where you live. So feel free to convert it into your local currency, consider inflation rate etc etc.

EDIT: To clarify, this number is the "cash" at hand and not your net worth. So if you own a million fb shares but have not liquidated any, it does not count.

Re: Poll: What number would make you say "I am financially independent"?

#4

Post by shaydoc »

500,000 invested intelligently would give you a yield where you could expect a decent income to live upon, so if you are clever enough that should be enough. Plus it would give you the freedom you wish for, plus a little incentive to do "something" as its not a crazy amount of money....

Re: Poll: What number would make you say "I am financially independent"?

#6

Post by elviejo »

shaydoc wrote: post #4

500,000 invested intelligently would give you a yield where you could expect a decent income to live upon, so if you are clever enough that should be enough. Plus it would give you the freedom you wish for, plus a little incentive to do "something" as its not a crazy amount of money....

500k is the smallest number I've seen for this calculation. What kind of investment are you thinking?

Re: Poll: What number would make you say "I am financially independent"?

#8

Post by cynicalkane »

shaydoc wrote: post #4

500,000 invested intelligently would give you a yield where you could expect a decent income to live upon, so if you are clever enough that should be enough. Plus it would give you the freedom you wish for, plus a little incentive to do "something" as its not a crazy amount of money....

Incidentally, that's the number George Soros had in mind when he decided to go into finance to support his dream of being a philosopher. He ended up making a little more than that, however.

Re: Poll: What number would make you say "I am financially independent"?

#9

Post by JoshTriplett »

elviejo wrote: post #6
shaydoc wrote: post #4

500,000 invested intelligently would give you a yield where you could expect a decent income to live upon, so if you are clever enough that should be enough. Plus it would give you the freedom you wish for, plus a little incentive to do "something" as its not a crazy amount of money....

500k is the smallest number I've seen for this calculation. What kind of investment are you thinking?

500k at 7% per year (common number used for the growth of the market as a whole, and thus the average growth of index funds) means $35k/year, not an unreasonable salary to live on.

Re: Poll: What number would make you say "I am financially independent"?

#10

Post by shaydoc »

cynicalkane wrote: post #8
shaydoc wrote: post #4

500,000 invested intelligently would give you a yield where you could expect a decent income to live upon, so if you are clever enough that should be enough. Plus it would give you the freedom you wish for, plus a little incentive to do "something" as its not a crazy amount of money....

Incidentally, that's the number George Soros had in mind when he decided to go into finance to support his dream of being a philosopher. He ended up making a little more than that, however.

If its good enough for George Soros, is good enough for me :-)
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