What is the minimum amount of money you'd need to feel extremely financially secure?

[Epinephrine]

Read a cool article in the New York Times today:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/ma...l?ref=magazine

The article itself was about philanthropy, but part of it mentioned that a survey done in 1998 of Americans found that $20 million was the the average amount of money needed for people to feel extremely financially secure. The point of the article was really to talk about what to do once you had more than that, would you give it away.

Just for fun though, I wonder what everyone on this forum thinks? We're a different subset of society seeing as how we are all quite young with most of our lives still ahead of us, but with most of us having few if any real responsibilities right now to tend to.

I'll change around the question a bit:

If you could receive a lump sum today, what is the minimum amount of money you would need to feel completely financially secure for the rest of your life?


For me I'd say probably $30 million. I'd probably immediately (in the next few years) spend $2-3 million, give away $5-10 million to family and then invest the rest and save it for purchases and expenses as more responsibilities come my way. Of course this money would also be good for me to give to worthwhile causes, and dabble in some business ideas that I'd never try now because failing at those ideas would ruin me.

[Jerome Scuggs]

null question, if i wanted financial security i would probably ask for gold

[Zerzera]

6 million Euro. (without taxes) I can do with an annual 100.000 (excl. revenues) on top of whatever salary I am going to make for the next 60 years. I probably will buy a little house as soon as I get the money.

If I were to get any amount of money I would ask for, I would of course ask for an infinite amount.

[Facetious]

20 mil would be good

i dont get including the money youd give away in your total

[Displaced]

interesting...

1 million € would be more than enough to buy a decent house and whatever else id need to go along with that (furnishing + equiptment etc) and a sweet ass motherfucking car.

after which id do just fine on my normal salary + whatever else was left over.

that said, if I were given 1 lump sum, and didnt have to work ever again, id opt for something like 5 million (realisitically).

obviously sums like 20-30mil would be "nice", but that just feels like overkill.

[Bioture]

agreed with jerome.

but let's assume that the following were true:

- there is no inflation for the rest of my life
- the value of the US dollar does not decrease for the rest of my life

the lump sum would be good for me at 20-30mil USD.



Now that I think about it, real "financial" security in the real world hinges on your ability to provide some sort of usefulness (in a progressive way) to society. Basically you're trading that in for a lump sum of cash - which is probably a horrible idea that would completely undermine your contributions to humanity.

[SEAL]

IMO, the problem is when you have more, the higher you put your standards. So in that way, the minimun would be 60 billion. But realisticly:

In my perspective, ughm, let's sum it up:
- have 5 houses in a good location to rent out to have a steady income. (5x 400.000 = 2.000.000)
- Initial needs for new house where i would be happy for a long time? lets say 1.500.000? (incl new kitchen, floor, bathroom, furniture, 2 normal cars)

So i would say with a 3.5 million, you will have an above average income for the rest of your live (from the renters) and you will have the luxery of waking up without an alarm. And to maintain that life foreever. Therefor you can generate more money.

When you say completely done, i'd do it for 5 million, then you can easely generate more and more. With the extra 1.5 you can start businesses (and have the luxery to fail and start a new one).

In short: minimum 3.5, happy seal: 5.
right now i have to settle being a loan-slave

[SEAL]

However, my dream is to build my own medieval castle (with all modern luxeries in it) so perhaps i should add another 70 million.

[Zerzera]

6 million Euro.

Or 12 million USD

[Burzum]

2000 EUR (3000 USD) a month is more than respectable in my country. It would cover all expenses, and adds up to about 1,5 million EUR (2,3 million USD) for lifetime expenses. Add 100-200.000 EUR for an above average house and 1.7 million EUR (2,5 million USD) should be more than enough to get me through to age 80 and above.

Of course you'd have to somehow factor in the inflation rates, while ignoring any future financial instabilities and stuff like that.

Where you get figures like 30 million from I'd rather not know.

[Galleleo]

2000 euro a month is why our police force is on strike right now. You live in a poor country burz.

I would prob go for say 15m. First 2 years I would spend about 2 - 3 million on house, furniture, cars, etc. Then I would use what is left to invest and live of the interest. With the occasional huge exspense on a really luxurous vacation or whatever, new car, etc.

[HeavenSent]

Oh it's a mystery to me.
We have a greed, with which we have agreed...
and you think you have to want more than you need...
until you have it all, you won't be free.

Society, you're a crazy breed.
I hope you're not lonely, without me.

When you want more than you have, you think you need...
and when you think more then you want, your thoughts begin to bleed.
I think I need to find a bigger place...
cause when you have more than you think, you need more space.

Society, you're a crazy breed.
I hope you're not lonely, without me.
Society, crazy indeed...
I hope you're not lonely, without me.

There's those thinkin' more or less, less is more,
but if less is more, how you keepin' score?
It means for every point you make, your level drops.
Kinda like you're startin' from the top...
and you can't do that.

[Noah]

2000 EUR (3000 USD) a month is more than respectable in my country. It would cover all expenses, and adds up to about 1,5 million EUR (2,3 million USD) for lifetime expenses. Add 100-200.000 EUR for an above average house and 1.7 million EUR (2,5 million USD) should be more than enough to get me through to age 80 and above.

Of course you'd have to somehow factor in the inflation rates, while ignoring any future financial instabilities and stuff like that.

Where you get figures like 30 million from I'd rather not know.

I'd feel financially secure in that situation with that, yes.

However, this thread is more about being extremely, which should be as secure as you get. That's where those figures comes from. I wouldn't feel extremely financially secure with the same.

I'd go for somewhere around $15 million.

[Mantra-Slider]

after some calculations:

3 705 188,87 USD

[JacKieChan>]

whatever

Oh it's a mystery to me.
, crazy indeed...

So if you ever hit the big bucks Heaven, there's no doubt you'd

1. Buy a 3 mill bong that's 8 stories high and doubles as huge water slide.

2. Hire a horde of columbians to grow and bring up yer pot to America.

3. Pay off as many people as it took so you could legally ride your Segway on the street.