How much money is "enough"?

[gwb72tii]

Think family of four...enough to save, live modestly yet comfortably, retire, send kids to school, etc etc. What number do you have in mind - or what is your goal?

To clarify, we're talking minimum threshold here. What's the smallest amount that meets that criteria.

here's a rule of thumb
you can take 4.25% of your financial savings (stocks, bonds, cash, etc) as income for the rest of your life if you're invested moderately (40% stock)
so you can do the math
$1mill will generate about $43k/yr
add other sources of income and you can get the total

[02stu]

I struggle to support myself on 75k, I don't know how I would support a family on that.

[ck_taft325is]

I supported (not well or by any means comfortably) a family of 3 (my wife, my boy and myself) on $14,000 last year. Factor in cash jobs it's roughly $18,000.

For my now family of 4 we're going to bring in between $34,000 and $40,000 next year. Given this is also in a unkind to less than $100,000 a year families/people state. So, I'd say you can do it on $50,000. But, that depends on (if we're totally honest) how selfish you are or extravagant your lifestyle.

[slammin.e28]

God damn this thread pull things into perspective for me.

I'm pulling down $24k a year now, just me, and never seem to have ANY money. I'm going to take a serious look at my finances now when I get home, but keeping three BMWs together all at once is probably part of the problem.

[z31maniac]

I'm pulling down $24k a year now, just me, and never seem to have ANY money. I'm going to take a serious look at my finances now when I get home, but keeping three BMWs together all at once is probably part of the problem.

Possibly, but still likely cheaper than the payment/insurance on something newer.

Also look at things like your cell phone, cable/internet, etc. As the wife and I have continued to grow our income, we still constantly look for ways to save more money.

Last year alone, cutting our cable/HD package and going solely to NetFlix/Hulu and switching from iPhones to Sprint is saving us nearly $250/month combined.

And eating out, most young guys (myself included when I was living alone) go out to eat for nearly every meal. And that adds up quick. Learn to make yourself some decent meals to have leftovers for lunch the next day or dinner.

[VinniE30]

What i've gotten from this thread:
The question has no right answer. Depending on what your definition of "comfortable" is and where you live the income could be really anything.

50K can feed a family of four, and provide basic necessities, and transportation, and a roof with change to spare. A good chunk of it too.

Family of two here, living on 17k a year. No handouts. No welfare. No food stamps. No unemployment. Just doing what we do. Also, no debt. None. Zip. Zilch. Nada. No credit card. No loans. Nothing.
I wouldn't know what to do with 50k a year.

With my current lifestyle and obligations to the landlord, power company, internet, and cell phone. I can survive off of 203 dollars a week to pay my bills, provide gas, and food.

I'm going to edit this after consideration.
Those of you in california. You should be exempt from this. Your costs and costs of living are so rediculously high.
And I'm also going to state. I do not live in a trailer. I rent my place.
I have a 2 car garage to work on my cars, and tear them down to sell the parts, to live.
And I pay 445 a month for this place. No utilities. It's nothing special. It's nothing terrible. I'm very comfortable in it.

Dude I honestly feel really bad for you and respect that you responsibly didin't have any children because you can't support them. I guess this has a lot to do with where you live but still... A lot of things don't change price based on where you live. What do you do for a living?

I make more than that and i'm still in college. I already have a job lined up for when I graduate starting at more than most of what people have said in this thread. Not trying to brag or anything, just puttings things in perspective. It has everything to do with where and live and your field.

I have no intention on having children and neither does my girlfriend. I can see why people do and that it's human nature, but there is no reason to put more burden on yourself and this already very overcrowded world just to fulfill your instincts and emotions. People do it because it's what our society sees as a normal life and what you are taught by your parents and grow up to believe is a successful life.

[T Verdier]

live in cali need 1 million!

[Wh33lhop]

Well, I'm in Cali, and right now I'm at about ~42. After taxes, that's about $2400/mo. It is hard to find a decent room around here for less than $800/month or so. If you've got kids and want to be comfortable, you're looking at $2k/month at least. And that's just to rent. No way I'd be able to support a family in my current state--although if I was married to someone with equal income, I can see it happening.

That said, even if I should be making more, $2400/month after living on $1300/month or so for years is like a godsend.

[imsotyerred]

4 million for me. I'm 22 and I could just have 4 million tomorrow and have plenty of money to support my lifestyle now and future life, as well as kids/wife.

4 million one time is not gonna last you terribly long

[Mlarsen]

I struggle to support myself on 75k, I don't know how I would support a family on that.

What. That's called living beyond your means.

[mccor023]

I agree w ^! im right near 75 also in Richmond and Im feeling ok. I would love a bigger house w big ole garage, but Ive also been at that 17k a year. So i can be patient.
Also I have a coworker near same income as I, supporting wife and 3 little people. I dont know how He does it, but he does and lives pretty well.

[joshh]

You're not doing all that even on 250k a year. Unless you're a huge saver...than saving would kill sending the kids to college.

[Jorgen]

I supported (not well or by any means comfortably) a family of 3 (my wife, my boy and myself) on $14,000 last year. Factor in cash jobs it's roughly $18,000.

Crap I pay my kids nanny more than that cash in a year. I can't imagine getting by on that with a wife and kid. Hats off to you for making that work.


As for getting by, while my wife was pregnant and for the first 6 months after my kid was born my wife didn't work. We lived on my income and accumulated a small amount of debt (like 4-6k but that was also partly because I re-roofed my house in that time) which we paid off right away when she started working. I can't imagine trying to do that with 2 kids as well so I would say you need more than what a mid level engineer in the auto industry makes in a year. My wife and I live comfortably and basically buy what we want on y salary and hers (which matches mine with 1 kid, we could likely do it still with 2. You can roughly estimate what those numbers on based on my noted job. The only thing we need to do more is save for college for the kid. she is 2 with 2k but that isn't going to cut it, considering the nanny costs we will actually reduce expenses even sending her to private school (if we do decide to do that) so in the next few years we will be able to put away much more for that. I would be nice to not have to cash flow college and just be able to take it from savings. That will make the empty nest vacations a little more common.

[joshh]

How long could you live off of one million dollars and do all of the above?

$1,000,000/10=$100,000 per year for 10 years. That isn't shit if you include family, college, retirement, lifestyle etc.

And at what age do you retire? How long do you live after retirement? You retire at 65 maybe you live another 25-30 years. At 100k a year you're going to need at least 2.5-3 million in savings minimally.

[nando]

hopefully you'd have that $1-4 million in an account that earned interest.. if you had a decent job, between your job and the interest income you'd do just fine.

how do you think wealthy people do it? they don't make money from their jobs. they make it from their interest income.