Measured in time at your current income, what would you consider a life-changing amount of money?

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cries in unemployed *

I’m turning 36 this year and it’s already happened in a way. In 2019 I was making $14 an hour working at a head shop, and now I’m making just shy of $100k and it finally feels like I can take care of myself (barely)

If you live in any major metro area, I really feel like you can’t break the true comfort level unless your household income is $200k. $100k just doesn’t cut it anymore if you want to own a decent house, pay crazy prices for healthcare, have saving/retirement.

124,594 hours (14 years) would be enough to retire right now, anything less than that wouldn't be immediately "life changing" since I'd still have to hold down a job.

Do you mean the income of 14 years, or the income you would get working 14 while years (which with a 40hour work week is more like 60 years of work)?
- I took the amount I estimate I would need to retire right now at my current age and divided that by my current hourly rate. So it's 124,594 working "man-hours", as you say like 60 years of working. But that value goes down every year I do actually work and as my retirement investments grow.
  
  I assume OP asked it that way to normalize and anonymize it a little.

I'm in my mid 40s, married with three kids (teenagers and one in his twenties) and we're right in the middle of middle class.

$100K I could pay off both our cars, and put a nice down payment on a house and enjoy a lower cost mortgage.

$500K I could buy and furnish a house, no more rent or mortgage (but still taxes, which are pretty reasonable where I live).

$1 Million same, but a nice nest egg for the future and help my kids get set up.

$2 Million or more I could seriously consider retirement.

$5 Million or more, I'm definitely retiring.

$3M. I could retire immediately with a comfortable stream of investment income. Anything less would be helpful, but I would still have to work.

Maybe a quarter of a million. Enough to retire in the third world.

Two-three years, to quit job, buy materials and needed machinery, little cushion and make the same work I do for other people and make money for myself instead as others.

$500 would get all my bills caught back up

Lots of student loans and no money saved, so unless it's enough money to pay off all the student loans, buy a house, and have a self sustaining retirement fund, my life wouldn't change today. Any amount would certainly help in the future, but if it doesn't reach all those goals, I'll still have to a similar day-to-day for the time being.

I don't think money would change my life. I make enough to pay my bills and eat. I have plenty of friends, and that doesn't cost money.

100k would be enough to get a pool. That would a pretty nice life change. Above that, it would need to be enough to pay off my house

I'm probably going to need a year's worth of my time, in part because I would use that to take a year off.

With about 300k€ I could live debt free in a location of my choosing and with about 800k€ I could retire

Enough to cover my student loan balance and come up with a 20% downpayment for one of Canada's many, many overpriced homes.

I just want to stop owing the government money (my fault for owing it at all, I know) and getting fucked by landlords (not my fault, but feels impossible to escape).

Two years worth would be enough down payment for the mortgage on a nice, non-starter home in my area affordable. Anything less would just go towards that future goal.

20 years. Mortgage + interest paid off. I'd still have to work of course, but to be mortgage free would be a game changer.

Including not needing to work, maybe another 20 years on top of that.

Kinda depressing huh

Man 6 months just to buy a better car that doesn't cost so much to mantain and fill up. That would be amazing.

$5000 would let me pay off all of our credit card debt and a few medical bills. That would free up about $400 a month just from minimum payments and take off a massive stress load from worrying about all this interest. It would take me around 200 hours to save that up at my current rate.

Instead I feel trapped with what is a comparatively small amount of debt that I’ll be paying off for years if I don’t accrue any other debts.

£100k I guess.

I think 10 years would be enough to buy a nice flat and be 100% Independent :) But I think even 1 Monty would change life somehow (even if it is only vacation break)

24/7 for a decade would be dope.

2 years. That would be enough to pay debts and try a different lifestyle in another city.

I'm impressed that would be only a year. I have so many debt I thought it would be 3 to 5 years.

As of now, 2 years would be enough. I would have enough money to get out of my parents house without them giving me money for a year so that I could study without working before I (hopefully) get my scholarship next year.

Depends how life changing we're talking. $1k could do up my garden and furnish my house. $10k would mean I wouldn't need to worry about mortgage repayments for a year.

$1.00

About $500k would put my family at a total relax stage. House, cars, student loans, credit cards, everything would be paid off and we would have money left over. Then we could just work part time and spend more quality time together.

11+ years

Anything more than $30 000 I guess

1 year of salary extra would be unbelievably life-changing. Like.....every single stress in life would be eliminated. Shoot, even $10k extra would be HUGELY beneficial.

Been thinking about starting to drive Door dash or another side gig to supplement income.

$40,000 would be enough to allow my wife to stay home with our baby for a year without worrying about getting a second job.