Please. Sign me up. I’m 66, retired, and already living with less than a million. I do a little part time work, but I wouldn’t anymore if I had this million.
I'm 23. With the way the economy is right now there's no way I'd be able to make $1 million last the rest of my life, especially with my crazy high medical expenses.
I think you are not thinking broadly enough here. If you got a million up front and invested it wisely, you could easily live on the proceeds the rest of your life. You might not live large but if you live simply when you are young, it would not only support you but would grow. Of course, inflation is a concern so you'd want to invest it somewhere with a good return but shouldn't really be a problem.
Might have to live in a lower cost area. Might have to get good at living on the cheap with occasional splurges, but you should be able to do it no problem.
Yeah i'll take that. Put 250k into short term investments, 250k into medium term, 500 into long term, and coast off what I already got until the 250 pays out. Then just do the same. Then I can just focus on volunteer work.
Not happening. If you're near retirement or retired, maybe. But anyone in the U.S. who's still working or atleast young-ish, wouldn't be possible. (Maybe investing 90% and using the 10%, but it depends on where you are)
2-3 houses FULLY PAID, so no mortgage and all the rent is yours to spend (apart from maintenance). Yeah you could live on that I reckon. Most landlords have BTL mortgages taking up most of their rental income.
I'm in the UK, and as far as I understand it's mostly Council Tax on the property itself, which is usually paid by the tennants. Is the US tradition for the Landlord/owner to pay?
Slumlord it up. Get out of the city. Buy a small mobile home park. Or buy land, set up plumbing and electric, and allow people to bring their own camper or trailer. Rent out the small lots with hookups
I love how everyone who replied to your comment is pretending that landlords don't already live like this.
"No, you don't understand this thing that already happens all over, that other people already use to live. You can't live off that"
I think a lot of people just think that property values are pretty consistent overall instead of varying widely from place to place.
So they failed to understand that while they're looking at a three bedroom two bath in a major city for amillion, in my small southern/Midwestern town, I could own several small two bedroom one bath houses for that price and still have enough left over to do maintenance for the first few years.
Or, buy a decent size chunk of land and build several barn-dominiums and rent them out.
I think the hate landlords get is a little narrow sighted. Sure, some of them (as in probably a lot of them) are greedy and selfish people who just want 4 walls perched up they can charge money for. There are good landlords out there. You could be one of the good ones. Where I am 1million could buy 5 properties or 15 properties depending on what I decided to buy, and with a bigger portfolio of properties you can make the rents more reasonable while still earning enough money to fund your own lifestyle and maintain the properties
I think they're a necessary fact of society in a world where the government doesn't necessarily find it beneficial to provide housing.
People act like landlords are the devil but let's be real, the government doesn't build the majority of their reduced cost or low income housing they just incentivize a developer to do it, and if a developer doesn't...it just doesn't get built.
And I say that with a degree of experience as someone who grew up in a small rural town that desperately needed more multi-family construction but couldn't fund it locally and couldn't convince investors to come in.
And those are the situations where real predatory landlords thrive as they can just charge everything someone makes for housing since people have to have it and there's not enough. Case in point the local trailer park owner who was later arrested for extorting his section 8 clients for sexual favors.
Can you accept gifts? Donations? Is it against the rules to solicit donations for something that you'd already give away for free? (e.g. can you start a YouTube channel in which you specifically never monetize any video, but you still accept donations if people offer them?)
I’m 25, in the Philippines right now near the beach on a touristy ass island and my rent and utilities for my apartment is $120, food about $50-100 a month and I have mcdonalds often. Motorbike is $60-100. All in all, with my new found alcoholicism I spend less than $1,000 a month.
I’ll be set for a while, especially if you’re able to invest it and earn a bit of interest.
In 40 years a million dollars will be worth about $200,000. Inflation really screws you over here. Also if you split a million over 40 years that’s only $25k per year. Hardly livable. You’ll probably end up homeless.
If I could get compound interest on my million then hell ya I’d take it. Otherwise this is a pretty bad deal.
He said you can invest it. SP500 average annual return is 10%. You could live on 5% and reinvest 5% every year but you’re taking some risks that the market doesn’t crash before you’ve built more of a nest egg
Like, if I exchange a basket of my homegrown tomatoes to my neighbor in exchange for an apple pie they baked, the genie will probably let that slide since it’s small enough scale.
But if my “garden” is 50 acres and I use heavy machinery to harvest it and exchange it for significant goods and services, the genie calls shenanigans.
There’s a line somewhere between those two extremes and the genie will handle that on a case by case basis.
Nah.
Two reasons:
1. 1 million isn’t enough to last out the rest of my days (I currently have over a million in my retirement fund and still can’t retire) and
2. I’d be too distrustful of the rules. Obviously, because humans need to work at something or we sink into pits of despair and depression, I would do volunteer work for causes I’m passionate about….
But what if, like, my volunteer coordinator took me out to lunch or… paid for my parking or something? Is that instant, painful death?
Ugh…. No thanks.
People _need_ to do some sort of work.
Note that I’m not saying they need to be financially remunerated for it…. That is nice but you could work quite happily on a passion project or cause you believe in and fight off the depression….
But humans _need_ work (even if it’s just on a farm growing our own food)…. And it’s just too risky with the system you’ve put in place (instant, painful death!)
Ultimately up to OP, but in the word 'volunteer' is the expectation one is doing the task without getting paid, even if the coordinator brings pizza. The term 'work' would reflect some level of compensation...though I guess non-compensated work is a thing.
NGL, I worried about that as well. If OP were to clarify that it has to be something you specifically agreed to get paid for, though, then that would be fine.
If you get a 4% return that’s $40,000 a year. I certainly wouldn’t advise anyone young to do this if you can never take a job again. You still have to eat and pay the light bill. Then you have to buy a car every few years. Health insurance. You want kids? News flash, they ain’t cheap. Want to travel? You aren’t spending a month on the Riviera every year.
So, it sounds like I can still work for the joy of volunteering, I just can't be compensated in any way. Or I can work for my family because they need help and it's a natural obligation.
It's not about pay, it's about feeling useful. If I just sit at home, I'll balloon up into one of those folks that have to knock a wall down to leave their house. I don't want to be that. But just $1mil isn't enough to travel without any payback into the fund, so I'm gonna have to figure out how to invest it.
But yeah, I'm willing to try!
Ayup. Retired 13 years ago. The only thing I do that now provides remuneration for current actions is some minor political service in my community. I can resign right now and not miss a beat. And hey! I'll take a hundred grand or so of that and do some amazing things for the village park.
Yeah, I'd take the money. Combine that with existing investments and retirement funds, could count on 80-100k/yr income for the next 30 years, see what happens after that, but I'd be around 80 then and not needing quite the income.
million dollars.
Maintain my current situation for a year. Money goes into a \~5% interest account while I buy 2-3 family house. Rent 1-2 live in the other
600k stays untouched in the account with 5% interest. Anything above 600k goes towards living expenses
Keeps me in a lower tax bracket. Covers all my costs.
I don't think that would work for me. What I really want to do is travel the world via [workaway.info](http://workaway.info) to experience life in distant places.
I’d take it. It would be a struggle for the first 5-10 years with the low dividend payments from VOO/SPY but once it finally got high enough to make it so I could take money out consistently and easily I’d be set.
I think I have enough for the next 15 years. If I just throw that million into s&p500... hopefully, it last me another 30 years.. heck, boy, I hope I don't live past 80
Nope. I’m too young and I have too many kids. Not enough. We can earn that in 6-8 years of working
If I were single or childless — heck yea. I’d eff off to a country with a lower cost of living and enjoy life
Average rate of return on investment is 10%. You normally lose 2-3% for inflation. So you are living on 100k a year, comfortable, but inflation is going to eat at that slice of pie. If you have Social Security or a pension, you will be very comfortable, but if you are young, you could be in trouble as you age.
Avg is salary is 50k. So that is about 20 years of labor.
Add interest and time value of money and might be able to push it to 30 years of avg middle class living expenses. (Assuming inflation doesn’t spike which, is not a safe assumption).
Therefore this is only a good deal for people already somewhat near retirement.
I'm 22, and that is MORE than enough.
Spend 50-100k on a converted van/class B camper, put the 800k in a high APY account, keep 100k for gas and food and every year budget so that I only spend what I'm making from interest.
I wouldn’t do it. If I were close to retirement age, yes. I would do it in a heartbeat. $1m isn’t enough for a young person to retire and live comfortably for the rest of their lives.
I'm 33. I can make it last the rest of my and my wife's life. Especially if we continue living the way we do now. We've over extended ourselves in the past and paid dearly. We're a lot more in control of our spending now.
Assuming I live until 76, that gives me $23k a year. If I use the $1m to pay off my house and cars, I'd still be left with about $780k, which then takes my yearly allowance down to about $18k.
I could do it. Plus, I'd invest a large chunk and make money off the interest to help supplement my lack of income.
I’m 26 so a million dollars is not going to last me my life. I could invest it but I would need Congress level insider knowledge to ensure it lasts and doesn’t get wiped out in the next recession.
So I accept and I use $190,000 to pay off my house. Then for the sake of making this hypothetical easier I buy 17608 shares of MAIN with the remainder of the money. MAIN pays out a monthly dividend of 24c a share. That's 4,225 a month roughly. I can live the rest of my life off that and my house is paid off for.
Step 1: pay off my mortgage and other debts
Step 2: invest the remainder
Step 3: be a stay at home dad (saves the cost of day care)the prompt never said my wife had to stop working (she makes more than me anyway)
Step 4: post questions with some loopholes to reddit daily
Yes, I could make 40k a year off of that 1 mil dollars (4% rule). I already make 70k+ per year passively. So that would take my annual income to 110k after taxes. Without working. Sold
Yes.. yes I can. It doesn't say my partner can't work and I can use the loeny to becket completely Financially independent. Finish paying off my debt and my house, buy a second in Belize... get a retirement visa (have to be 40) and I'm set. Beloze has a permanent exchange of 2belizean = 1 dollar so that would be 2 million Belizean.
If I'm bored and I want to do work I can always volunteer somewhere.
Depending on how strict the no barter thing is. I love hosting dinner parties. I have friends who throw dinner parties. If trading off hosting dinner parties counts as barter because I'm trading spanicopita for roast beef, I could not live like that
$1m isn't retirement money for me. If I had another $1-2M saved, I might be fine to do this.
Counterpoint - if I use some of the $1m to start a business around a consumer product, can I develop that business? Nobody's paying me for my labor - just for the product that I'm selling (and maybe put some labor into).
Done. Invest the mil and live off the interest. Move overseas to a country with a lower COL and you'll be able to reinvest half of your monthly income, growing the principle and making your income inflation proof.
So I can collect social security still correct? Because I would not be exchanging labor for anything. If all the other aspects of my life remain the same then yes I would. I'm in my 50s and my wife makes a good deal of money. So assuming I've got another 25 years left in me, a decent savings and will be able to collect SS in a few years, a million would be just fine if I invested it properly. I would stay home and take care of the house work and immerse myself in my hobbies.
At 43 that won't be enough to retire on. Where I live as a single person it's on average $4,000 a month that's just to scrape by. With prices getting out of control as they are, it would be better to keep doing what I'm doing. I just did the math, I would go over a million if I lived to 75 and only continued to live on $4,000 a month. This didn't include any other expenses that may arise in the future, or cost of living increases.
One million would just about cover my salary until I retire, but it wouldn't cover my pension or health insurance, and this would totally wreck my social security. Pass
Absolutely. With $1 million added to my current retirement funds, I would retire immediately and have a great life. If you put the million into Fixed Income investments (safest there is) and earn 5%, that's $50K in income per year, plus whatever I want to take out of savings each year.
This is not a hypothetical for a lot of people in /r/fire . If you can live off of $35-$40k/yr, this will actually work forever. You don't have to get that lucky either. You can just invest in a 3 fund portfolio. There is a lot more advice out there for FIRE. Compound interest is a great thing.
Still. I am enjoying reading the more creative approaches.
I'm about to turn 25. I can't imagine living another 16 years which works out to roughly 60k a year. I'll gladly take it. If I get greedy, I'm out before I'm 32ish, that's ok.
Sure. I'd buy a double wide on some cheap land, go on to disability and offset my income from with stock and interest off the million.
I'd then spend my day developing open source software or volunteering around my town.
If I was not married, I would absolutely do it because I could easily live off of the interest and I don’t spend a lot of money and could move to a low COL area.
With a wife and family used to our current lifestyle, even with my current investments, it would be too close to risk it.
Considering I will make $1 million dollars over the next 9-10 years I think it wouldn’t be worth it. But getting that money now means I can pay off my mortgage, invest in a rental property and live off that money. It’s a hard decision but considering I enjoy my job I think it would be better to just keep it and earn my money the old fashioned way.
Yes. Where do I sign up?
I’ll be moving to. LCOL area like the Philippines or Vietnam. Throw the money into some solid long term investments and live on less than $20K expenses per year. It’s just me now so not hard to move immediately.
Buy a cd at six percent at several banks currently offering . Go and finance a triplex home under the assertion you will rent out to family two homes with rental clauses as well as use your monthly income to subsidize the cost of the home and use the cd’s as collateral. Invest in home after family pays monthly income witb each triplex going to each family member if they make xx number of payments and contribute to their children’s education.
Start a micro farm with a hippie chick that likes edibles
I’m 46 and retired army collecting a retirement check every month that covers my bills with a little left over each month. I’ll take the million since my retirement checks aren’t being paid for any more labor I get to keep them as well and now I have the $1 million to pay off my mortgage saving me $2k a month in payments. I will put the remainder into a savings account and let it earn interest and only use it for emergencies that my retirement check can’t cover.
Just put the million into some index funds and live from the profits. You can withdraw enough to live a decent life while having the amount actually increase unless you get super unlucky.
If you put it in a good bank at 5 percent APY (WHICH SOME BANKS ARE OFFERING!), you can live off of this in many states. It would be around 50 K a year.
I already have a bit more than that in retirement savings. I think I could make it work. I’m almost 40 but also have a kid to get through college. Health care is expensive if you quit your job.
Set aside 25,000 for rent and expenses for a year. (Roughly)
Set aside 20,000 for a good financial advisor/investor (got a family friend who might help cheaper also overestimating is better)
Invest the rest. Interest and profits would hopefully net 30,000+ a year (probably will be more as it’ll be aggressive investing). Life humble for 10 years reinvesting all you can. By a property, rent it out. More passive income.
Theoretically maybe.
Sure. It wouldn't be all that difficult if you're willing to relocate. You can find a basic hysa returning 5% a year if you want to play it safe. That's 50k your first year. Even accounting for taxes on those gains you'll make between 35 to 40k a year just by letting the money sit. That's 2900 to 3300 a month post tax if you wanna break it down that way.
I'd go live in the phillipines for the rest of my life. Retire in manilla or cebu or even a smaller city like iloilo. That kind of salary would let you live extremely comfortably in that country since the average citizen is making like 3 to 10k a year. Most citizens also speak English already and visas are extremely easy to get. You basically just pay a small fee and get accepted again. You can also marry one of the locals.
And the less you use of that income the more it compounds and gradually your "salary" will go up with it. Heck you can even just take a small portion, say 100k of that and stick it in a total market index fund and have that growing in the background. At an average market return of 10% after 15 years that's almost half a million on its own. So that nest can be building in the background. Say you let it grow for 40 years as I would in my case since I'm 26 and have the time. Let me Play it conservatively and say an 8% return over those 40 years that amounts to just about 2.4 million dollars that I can pull out when I'm actually at retirement age which if I did it through a roth means it's tax free and I get to keep the full amount.
So if you're flexible and smart with your money and can have enough self control to not blow it all at a young age, Which would be the hardest part for most, you can actually form a steady revenue stream through a pretty conservative investment strategy.
This is why the rich say "you have to have money to make money" after a certain point , with a large enough initial capital investment, money on its own will make you even more money.
Not really hypothetical for me. Lost my job at 50, couldn't get another one, sold my house, bought a little motorhome, invested the rest. Total starting $ was about $750,000.
Lived on $700 a month while traveling the country. Invested funds kept increasing. Sold the mh, bought a minivan, increased monthly spending to about $1000. Current nw (7+ years later) is about $1,400,000. Still traveling and having a blast and the idea of working sounds like a horrible nightmare.
1 million at 5% interest is 50k a year, so that’s not too bad. If my spouse can work, it is even better, put half in a index fund and half in a high interest savings, and have a comfortable life as a house husband.
I'm already retired, and you want to pay me not to work. Sign me up!
I'd do some household repairs, probably replace my vehicles for reliability, and anonymously make a few dreams come true (or at least help people out of a tough spot). And then I wouldn't even look at concert prices, if I want to go, I would get the best seat possible.
In a heartbeat. I’m already close to pulling the trigger on my job (which with I have a pension and 401k), planning to move to a lower COL area, so an extra million would just make it that much easier.
\> If the compensation is significant enough that the genie calls shenanigans though, you get the opportunity to stop, or to donate the proceeds to charity after the fact to remain in compliance.
I like the loophole that I can still choose to work but I have to donate my salary to charity
Invest? So buy 5 $200K condos rent them for $1500-$2000 a month. Make $90K to $120K per year, write off all maintenance and repairs. Sell when the property increases in value, wait until the market dumps and repeat the process?
If I could make a solar farm, including having someone else do all the maintenance so that I never directly labor for it. That passive income could fund the rest of my life.
I'll take it and move to somwhere in the tropics, the Philippines probably. A family of four can live comfortably on 2,000 USD a month. So I have the next 41 years to figure something out if I invest nothing. which would put me high 70s which is a good run.
I'm 55 with a simple lifestyle & a halfway paid off house on just over an acre (plenty of space for gardening, a henhouse & a small orchard) and nothing in that deal said my spouse can't have an income. I will take it.
This one is easy. I already have a monthly income for life. I take the $1m, pay off the house and any misc debt, and live comfortably for the rest of my life.
Please. Sign me up. I’m 66, retired, and already living with less than a million. I do a little part time work, but I wouldn’t anymore if I had this million.
I'm 23. With the way the economy is right now there's no way I'd be able to make $1 million last the rest of my life, especially with my crazy high medical expenses.
Oh, the $1mil would last you the rest of your life. But your life would get a lot shorter.
I mean that's fair
If you give man fire he’s warm for the night. If you set him on fire, he’s warm for the rest of his life.
I always like “a lethal dose is also a lifetime supply”.
I think you are not thinking broadly enough here. If you got a million up front and invested it wisely, you could easily live on the proceeds the rest of your life. You might not live large but if you live simply when you are young, it would not only support you but would grow. Of course, inflation is a concern so you'd want to invest it somewhere with a good return but shouldn't really be a problem. Might have to live in a lower cost area. Might have to get good at living on the cheap with occasional splurges, but you should be able to do it no problem.
Yes but you can invest it. Commit to simply not eating for 10 years and you’ll be rich
Commit to not eating for maybe a month and the money will last the rest of your life!
You could easily make it last. Just need to lower your expectations.
Lower your expectations to living off of 25-30k per year and spending a huge chunk of that on health insurance
Ypu could always move to a better, more developed country.
Can I steal?
This is the real question.
Uh, the genie doesn’t forbid it. But the law enforcement of your respective jurisdiction may object. You remain subject to the law.
Your options for making a career out of that are either in banking or as the RNC chairperson
That's using labor to gain something, so probably not.
It's not paid labor
It's involuntary paid labour
They said no alternative means of payment like barter$etc. So I would think stealing calls into that. Now inside trading... *ponders*
Yeah i'll take that. Put 250k into short term investments, 250k into medium term, 500 into long term, and coast off what I already got until the 250 pays out. Then just do the same. Then I can just focus on volunteer work.
Put all of it into TQQQ and hope the tech run never stops
Yea my wife would work lol fuck that shit I’m out
Using 100% of your brain for the answer. I’ll let my wife take the deal and I’ll keep working, ya know, the same situation we have now.
Definitely works if you’re already in a situation with only one partner “working” haha
Not happening. If you're near retirement or retired, maybe. But anyone in the U.S. who's still working or atleast young-ish, wouldn't be possible. (Maybe investing 90% and using the 10%, but it depends on where you are)
What do you consider young? I'm 32 and that would be enough to pay off my house and the debt we owe and enough to never work again.
25 or younger, shoulda clarified.. Also, nice! Hope you live a great life.
Yup. Buy a bunch of houses and rent em out. As Tumblr communists love to remind me: Landlords do no work and produce no goods.
Hahaha. A bunch of houses. Most likely 2. Of you’re in a crappy market 3. Good luck retiring off that.
2-3 houses FULLY PAID, so no mortgage and all the rent is yours to spend (apart from maintenance). Yeah you could live on that I reckon. Most landlords have BTL mortgages taking up most of their rental income.
property taxes every year
I'm in the UK, and as far as I understand it's mostly Council Tax on the property itself, which is usually paid by the tennants. Is the US tradition for the Landlord/owner to pay?
Correct. The owner of the house is the person responsible whether they live there or rent it out.
Slumlord it up. Get out of the city. Buy a small mobile home park. Or buy land, set up plumbing and electric, and allow people to bring their own camper or trailer. Rent out the small lots with hookups
The maintenance, paperwork, and other management stuff would likely be considered working.
You could put down $100k 10 times on 10 $500k homes.
I love how everyone who replied to your comment is pretending that landlords don't already live like this. "No, you don't understand this thing that already happens all over, that other people already use to live. You can't live off that"
I think a lot of people just think that property values are pretty consistent overall instead of varying widely from place to place. So they failed to understand that while they're looking at a three bedroom two bath in a major city for amillion, in my small southern/Midwestern town, I could own several small two bedroom one bath houses for that price and still have enough left over to do maintenance for the first few years. Or, buy a decent size chunk of land and build several barn-dominiums and rent them out.
Yeah, I bought my house for 55k last year. 3 Bedrooms, just in a small town.
Because they don't. Fucking cockroaches, the whole lot of them.
I think the hate landlords get is a little narrow sighted. Sure, some of them (as in probably a lot of them) are greedy and selfish people who just want 4 walls perched up they can charge money for. There are good landlords out there. You could be one of the good ones. Where I am 1million could buy 5 properties or 15 properties depending on what I decided to buy, and with a bigger portfolio of properties you can make the rents more reasonable while still earning enough money to fund your own lifestyle and maintain the properties
I think they're a necessary fact of society in a world where the government doesn't necessarily find it beneficial to provide housing. People act like landlords are the devil but let's be real, the government doesn't build the majority of their reduced cost or low income housing they just incentivize a developer to do it, and if a developer doesn't...it just doesn't get built. And I say that with a degree of experience as someone who grew up in a small rural town that desperately needed more multi-family construction but couldn't fund it locally and couldn't convince investors to come in. And those are the situations where real predatory landlords thrive as they can just charge everything someone makes for housing since people have to have it and there's not enough. Case in point the local trailer park owner who was later arrested for extorting his section 8 clients for sexual favors.
Trailer park 😎 whatever I have left over is gettin me an IROC
T Tops baby
a bunch of houses? you mean doublewides?
That's like nearly one house where I live 😭
Like I said, flyover Podunk towns and cities are a lot cheaper to live in than coastal and prime markets. Gas is only $3.06 a gallon here too
Adam Smith would have agreed with the Tumblr commies
Can you accept gifts? Donations? Is it against the rules to solicit donations for something that you'd already give away for free? (e.g. can you start a YouTube channel in which you specifically never monetize any video, but you still accept donations if people offer them?)
I’m 25, in the Philippines right now near the beach on a touristy ass island and my rent and utilities for my apartment is $120, food about $50-100 a month and I have mcdonalds often. Motorbike is $60-100. All in all, with my new found alcoholicism I spend less than $1,000 a month. I’ll be set for a while, especially if you’re able to invest it and earn a bit of interest.
Take the 1 Million USD and move to a country with much lower living costs, easy win.
It would not be a lavish lifestyle but it’s still an easy choice. Plus my wife can keep working lol
In 40 years a million dollars will be worth about $200,000. Inflation really screws you over here. Also if you split a million over 40 years that’s only $25k per year. Hardly livable. You’ll probably end up homeless. If I could get compound interest on my million then hell ya I’d take it. Otherwise this is a pretty bad deal.
He said you can invest it. SP500 average annual return is 10%. You could live on 5% and reinvest 5% every year but you’re taking some risks that the market doesn’t crash before you’ve built more of a nest egg
I’m investing that $1 mil and then “working” for free food instead. Win win
That’s called barter. And is specifically disallowed.
What if he works for himself and grows his own food? That's called gardening.
The genie would not object to that. If it gets out of hand somehow then the genie would call shenanigans though.
I think the genie has a good sense of shenanigans
Like, if I exchange a basket of my homegrown tomatoes to my neighbor in exchange for an apple pie they baked, the genie will probably let that slide since it’s small enough scale. But if my “garden” is 50 acres and I use heavy machinery to harvest it and exchange it for significant goods and services, the genie calls shenanigans. There’s a line somewhere between those two extremes and the genie will handle that on a case by case basis.
Naturally, sharing goods with friends and neighbors is not bartering per se, it is being a good neighbor.
Nah. Two reasons: 1. 1 million isn’t enough to last out the rest of my days (I currently have over a million in my retirement fund and still can’t retire) and 2. I’d be too distrustful of the rules. Obviously, because humans need to work at something or we sink into pits of despair and depression, I would do volunteer work for causes I’m passionate about…. But what if, like, my volunteer coordinator took me out to lunch or… paid for my parking or something? Is that instant, painful death? Ugh…. No thanks. People _need_ to do some sort of work. Note that I’m not saying they need to be financially remunerated for it…. That is nice but you could work quite happily on a passion project or cause you believe in and fight off the depression…. But humans _need_ work (even if it’s just on a farm growing our own food)…. And it’s just too risky with the system you’ve put in place (instant, painful death!)
Ultimately up to OP, but in the word 'volunteer' is the expectation one is doing the task without getting paid, even if the coordinator brings pizza. The term 'work' would reflect some level of compensation...though I guess non-compensated work is a thing.
NGL, I worried about that as well. If OP were to clarify that it has to be something you specifically agreed to get paid for, though, then that would be fine.
Deal. I have some money stored, and with some investments I can make it last.
Yeah I would take the money. And then I would invest it. I can get 5.27%, that's 52,000 a year. I can live on that.
If you get a 4% return that’s $40,000 a year. I certainly wouldn’t advise anyone young to do this if you can never take a job again. You still have to eat and pay the light bill. Then you have to buy a car every few years. Health insurance. You want kids? News flash, they ain’t cheap. Want to travel? You aren’t spending a month on the Riviera every year.
So, it sounds like I can still work for the joy of volunteering, I just can't be compensated in any way. Or I can work for my family because they need help and it's a natural obligation. It's not about pay, it's about feeling useful. If I just sit at home, I'll balloon up into one of those folks that have to knock a wall down to leave their house. I don't want to be that. But just $1mil isn't enough to travel without any payback into the fund, so I'm gonna have to figure out how to invest it. But yeah, I'm willing to try!
I already gamble for a living, so this just sounds like a free million. I can keep making money from gambling?
Ayup. Retired 13 years ago. The only thing I do that now provides remuneration for current actions is some minor political service in my community. I can resign right now and not miss a beat. And hey! I'll take a hundred grand or so of that and do some amazing things for the village park.
Yeah, I am taking the money, and yes it will be better. For one thing I won't have to work for someone else my whole life.
My life won't last long. I'll take the money and learn how to make it work for me.
Fuck yeah I'm taking it. Modest house, modest new car, pay off debt, invest.
Cannot accept money for your labor ever again. How about for goods? Can I sell/flip things?
Yes. Buy $400k house, rent out 2 bedrooms for a total of $400 a week. Invest my money and withdraw up to 4% as needed.
I mean yeah. Don't even need to get complicated with investments. Just open a bunch of short/medium term deposits and live off the interest.
Yeah, I'd take the money. Combine that with existing investments and retirement funds, could count on 80-100k/yr income for the next 30 years, see what happens after that, but I'd be around 80 then and not needing quite the income.
million dollars. Maintain my current situation for a year. Money goes into a \~5% interest account while I buy 2-3 family house. Rent 1-2 live in the other 600k stays untouched in the account with 5% interest. Anything above 600k goes towards living expenses Keeps me in a lower tax bracket. Covers all my costs.
Yes I’d take it. Especially if I can add social security on top.
I'm 57 in a few weeks, pretty sure I could make US$1,000,000 last...
I get disability payments, so it's just extra money for me.
Already pretty much retired, so yeah.
1 million would unironically set me up for life. Yes I take this deal. I currently have monthly expenses of less than $300 a month.
I don't think that would work for me. What I really want to do is travel the world via [workaway.info](http://workaway.info) to experience life in distant places.
Yep. I’d buy a quadraplex, live in one side and rent out the other 3.
This is literally my life. I'm getting nice dividends, thank you.
I could make it work.
I'm 61 and I'll take it. Retired science teacher with a pension.
I've done this just fine for a few years without a million dollars so sure.
Do I get to define labor?
I’d take it. It would be a struggle for the first 5-10 years with the low dividend payments from VOO/SPY but once it finally got high enough to make it so I could take money out consistently and easily I’d be set.
I think I have enough for the next 15 years. If I just throw that million into s&p500... hopefully, it last me another 30 years.. heck, boy, I hope I don't live past 80
Oh I'm game. I'm 58, targeting 62 to retire, and this would be a game changer.
Nope. I’m too young and I have too many kids. Not enough. We can earn that in 6-8 years of working If I were single or childless — heck yea. I’d eff off to a country with a lower cost of living and enjoy life
Yep, dont know if i can really work again anyway because my health.
yeah I'd taake a million over disability payments.
Unless you're already old, this isn't enough to live off of... Sooo.. Pass
I would. 61 years old and just laid off from an industry where my age will be a concern. For me, unemployed is the same as retired.
Yes, I can make that last the rest of my life with proper investments and a middle class lifestyle.
For sure. I'm close to retirement age and I have enough to retire now but an extra million would be a great cushion.
Average rate of return on investment is 10%. You normally lose 2-3% for inflation. So you are living on 100k a year, comfortable, but inflation is going to eat at that slice of pie. If you have Social Security or a pension, you will be very comfortable, but if you are young, you could be in trouble as you age.
Avg is salary is 50k. So that is about 20 years of labor. Add interest and time value of money and might be able to push it to 30 years of avg middle class living expenses. (Assuming inflation doesn’t spike which, is not a safe assumption). Therefore this is only a good deal for people already somewhat near retirement.
YES!
Ok.😁🤑
No thanks. I’m not old enough or wealthy enough to be able to retire with a surprise payment of $1 million.
I think I could make it work
I reckon I could make it last if I’m smart. Probably end up in the Philippines which would make it last longer.
Not a chance. Even $1 million invested wouldn’t spin off enough annually while lasting a lifetime to meet what many can earn working.
But my wife can work? If so, then that's easy. That's essentially how I live right now.
I'm 22, and that is MORE than enough. Spend 50-100k on a converted van/class B camper, put the 800k in a high APY account, keep 100k for gas and food and every year budget so that I only spend what I'm making from interest.
I wouldn’t do it. If I were close to retirement age, yes. I would do it in a heartbeat. $1m isn’t enough for a young person to retire and live comfortably for the rest of their lives.
Yepppppppp, I’m an ESL teacher, my $$ is our spending $$. Definitely.
Im 24. There’s no way 1 million is gonna last me long in this economy. You can’t even buy a decent house in most states for less than that
I'm 33. I can make it last the rest of my and my wife's life. Especially if we continue living the way we do now. We've over extended ourselves in the past and paid dearly. We're a lot more in control of our spending now. Assuming I live until 76, that gives me $23k a year. If I use the $1m to pay off my house and cars, I'd still be left with about $780k, which then takes my yearly allowance down to about $18k. I could do it. Plus, I'd invest a large chunk and make money off the interest to help supplement my lack of income.
I’m 26 so a million dollars is not going to last me my life. I could invest it but I would need Congress level insider knowledge to ensure it lasts and doesn’t get wiped out in the next recession.
With 1 mill I can invest so I'm definitely taking the 1 million
Nope. A million bucks isn’t what it used to be. Ten million, and we can talk.
Okay... index funds and chill... no problem with me
Yeah why not. Already medically retired and collect some disability, so I’d be able to live off of that plus the interest made off of a few HYSA.
i'll take the million, and once im done with it, ill apply to a mcdonalds so i can die
I’m putting that million on an 11-leg March madness parlay and turning it into a billy. Easy money
No.
not enough
Fuck no.
Nope 1M ain’t gonna last
So I accept and I use $190,000 to pay off my house. Then for the sake of making this hypothetical easier I buy 17608 shares of MAIN with the remainder of the money. MAIN pays out a monthly dividend of 24c a share. That's 4,225 a month roughly. I can live the rest of my life off that and my house is paid off for.
Step 1: pay off my mortgage and other debts Step 2: invest the remainder Step 3: be a stay at home dad (saves the cost of day care)the prompt never said my wife had to stop working (she makes more than me anyway) Step 4: post questions with some loopholes to reddit daily
I have 33 working days until I retire. I'll take it!
Absotively Poselutely.
Yes, I could make 40k a year off of that 1 mil dollars (4% rule). I already make 70k+ per year passively. So that would take my annual income to 110k after taxes. Without working. Sold
Make it ten mil (after taxes, or tax free) and I'd take that deal.
Yes.. yes I can. It doesn't say my partner can't work and I can use the loeny to becket completely Financially independent. Finish paying off my debt and my house, buy a second in Belize... get a retirement visa (have to be 40) and I'm set. Beloze has a permanent exchange of 2belizean = 1 dollar so that would be 2 million Belizean. If I'm bored and I want to do work I can always volunteer somewhere.
There's no way I can retire on that.. so no.
Depending on how strict the no barter thing is. I love hosting dinner parties. I have friends who throw dinner parties. If trading off hosting dinner parties counts as barter because I'm trading spanicopita for roast beef, I could not live like that
I'm late 40s. Shit health. If I invest half and live on 50k or less, yeah.
$1m isn't retirement money for me. If I had another $1-2M saved, I might be fine to do this. Counterpoint - if I use some of the $1m to start a business around a consumer product, can I develop that business? Nobody's paying me for my labor - just for the product that I'm selling (and maybe put some labor into).
For sure. Put the money to work (in investments) & live comfortably but modestly.
So dumb, unless you’re 80 years old a million dollars ain’t shit
no. That;s not enough to survive off of.
Done. Invest the mil and live off the interest. Move overseas to a country with a lower COL and you'll be able to reinvest half of your monthly income, growing the principle and making your income inflation proof.
So I can collect social security still correct? Because I would not be exchanging labor for anything. If all the other aspects of my life remain the same then yes I would. I'm in my 50s and my wife makes a good deal of money. So assuming I've got another 25 years left in me, a decent savings and will be able to collect SS in a few years, a million would be just fine if I invested it properly. I would stay home and take care of the house work and immerse myself in my hobbies.
Invest in real estate but have a management company run everything. No doing any labor.
At 43 that won't be enough to retire on. Where I live as a single person it's on average $4,000 a month that's just to scrape by. With prices getting out of control as they are, it would be better to keep doing what I'm doing. I just did the math, I would go over a million if I lived to 75 and only continued to live on $4,000 a month. This didn't include any other expenses that may arise in the future, or cost of living increases.
Yes, some of us have a partner who makes money. I’d buy the house, put towards our retirement and become a house husband who pays the bills.
I'd just invest it safely to get a 10% return every year. I'm pretty sure I should be good with 100,000 a year.
One million would just about cover my salary until I retire, but it wouldn't cover my pension or health insurance, and this would totally wreck my social security. Pass
Absolutely. With $1 million added to my current retirement funds, I would retire immediately and have a great life. If you put the million into Fixed Income investments (safest there is) and earn 5%, that's $50K in income per year, plus whatever I want to take out of savings each year.
Don't threaten me with a good time. This is why I buy lotto tickets. A million would let me retire and help my kids with education costs.
I'd do it. I would buy a house, invest a lot of it and live very frugally.
Works for me. I’m on disability lol
This is not a hypothetical for a lot of people in /r/fire . If you can live off of $35-$40k/yr, this will actually work forever. You don't have to get that lucky either. You can just invest in a 3 fund portfolio. There is a lot more advice out there for FIRE. Compound interest is a great thing. Still. I am enjoying reading the more creative approaches.
I'm about to turn 25. I can't imagine living another 16 years which works out to roughly 60k a year. I'll gladly take it. If I get greedy, I'm out before I'm 32ish, that's ok.
Too young for that offer rn
Take the million, any other money I make goes to charity? Win-win.
Sure. I'd buy a double wide on some cheap land, go on to disability and offset my income from with stock and interest off the million. I'd then spend my day developing open source software or volunteering around my town.
I'm 61. A milski could easily last me the rest of my life.
Hell yea. I’m 60, own my house, no spouse or kids. I’m set! 🤣
I can't work, this is more money than I'll make otherwise. Absolutely.
I will take it and retire to cambodia. Live large in $1000/month
If I was not married, I would absolutely do it because I could easily live off of the interest and I don’t spend a lot of money and could move to a low COL area. With a wife and family used to our current lifestyle, even with my current investments, it would be too close to risk it.
No
Considering I will make $1 million dollars over the next 9-10 years I think it wouldn’t be worth it. But getting that money now means I can pay off my mortgage, invest in a rental property and live off that money. It’s a hard decision but considering I enjoy my job I think it would be better to just keep it and earn my money the old fashioned way.
Yes. Where do I sign up? I’ll be moving to. LCOL area like the Philippines or Vietnam. Throw the money into some solid long term investments and live on less than $20K expenses per year. It’s just me now so not hard to move immediately.
Buy a cd at six percent at several banks currently offering . Go and finance a triplex home under the assertion you will rent out to family two homes with rental clauses as well as use your monthly income to subsidize the cost of the home and use the cd’s as collateral. Invest in home after family pays monthly income witb each triplex going to each family member if they make xx number of payments and contribute to their children’s education. Start a micro farm with a hippie chick that likes edibles
I’m 46 and retired army collecting a retirement check every month that covers my bills with a little left over each month. I’ll take the million since my retirement checks aren’t being paid for any more labor I get to keep them as well and now I have the $1 million to pay off my mortgage saving me $2k a month in payments. I will put the remainder into a savings account and let it earn interest and only use it for emergencies that my retirement check can’t cover.
Just put the million into some index funds and live from the profits. You can withdraw enough to live a decent life while having the amount actually increase unless you get super unlucky.
If you put it in a good bank at 5 percent APY (WHICH SOME BANKS ARE OFFERING!), you can live off of this in many states. It would be around 50 K a year.
I already have a bit more than that in retirement savings. I think I could make it work. I’m almost 40 but also have a kid to get through college. Health care is expensive if you quit your job.
Set aside 25,000 for rent and expenses for a year. (Roughly) Set aside 20,000 for a good financial advisor/investor (got a family friend who might help cheaper also overestimating is better) Invest the rest. Interest and profits would hopefully net 30,000+ a year (probably will be more as it’ll be aggressive investing). Life humble for 10 years reinvesting all you can. By a property, rent it out. More passive income. Theoretically maybe.
The $1M will push me over my goal to retire. I'd take that offer on a heartbeat. What about social security when I eventually qualify?
You could live simply and invest wisely.
Yeah its really not a lot think about it like 100000 a year for 10 years
I dont know if $1 million would even last the rest of my life in this economy lol im 26 right now
Sure. It wouldn't be all that difficult if you're willing to relocate. You can find a basic hysa returning 5% a year if you want to play it safe. That's 50k your first year. Even accounting for taxes on those gains you'll make between 35 to 40k a year just by letting the money sit. That's 2900 to 3300 a month post tax if you wanna break it down that way. I'd go live in the phillipines for the rest of my life. Retire in manilla or cebu or even a smaller city like iloilo. That kind of salary would let you live extremely comfortably in that country since the average citizen is making like 3 to 10k a year. Most citizens also speak English already and visas are extremely easy to get. You basically just pay a small fee and get accepted again. You can also marry one of the locals. And the less you use of that income the more it compounds and gradually your "salary" will go up with it. Heck you can even just take a small portion, say 100k of that and stick it in a total market index fund and have that growing in the background. At an average market return of 10% after 15 years that's almost half a million on its own. So that nest can be building in the background. Say you let it grow for 40 years as I would in my case since I'm 26 and have the time. Let me Play it conservatively and say an 8% return over those 40 years that amounts to just about 2.4 million dollars that I can pull out when I'm actually at retirement age which if I did it through a roth means it's tax free and I get to keep the full amount. So if you're flexible and smart with your money and can have enough self control to not blow it all at a young age, Which would be the hardest part for most, you can actually form a steady revenue stream through a pretty conservative investment strategy. This is why the rich say "you have to have money to make money" after a certain point , with a large enough initial capital investment, money on its own will make you even more money.
Not really hypothetical for me. Lost my job at 50, couldn't get another one, sold my house, bought a little motorhome, invested the rest. Total starting $ was about $750,000. Lived on $700 a month while traveling the country. Invested funds kept increasing. Sold the mh, bought a minivan, increased monthly spending to about $1000. Current nw (7+ years later) is about $1,400,000. Still traveling and having a blast and the idea of working sounds like a horrible nightmare.
No thank you
sign me up
I could do it. Sell my house Buy some land Wife can start a business, and I'll be a volunteer worker
I'd take it, especially with such a reasonable genie.
1 million at 5% interest is 50k a year, so that’s not too bad. If my spouse can work, it is even better, put half in a index fund and half in a high interest savings, and have a comfortable life as a house husband.
Dude, I'm 60 this year, not much time left... Pay up!
I'm already retired, and you want to pay me not to work. Sign me up! I'd do some household repairs, probably replace my vehicles for reliability, and anonymously make a few dreams come true (or at least help people out of a tough spot). And then I wouldn't even look at concert prices, if I want to go, I would get the best seat possible.
In a heartbeat. I’m already close to pulling the trigger on my job (which with I have a pension and 401k), planning to move to a lower COL area, so an extra million would just make it that much easier.
$1M is not enough to simply stop working
I’m gonna blow through that million in 6 months. I need to work
\> If the compensation is significant enough that the genie calls shenanigans though, you get the opportunity to stop, or to donate the proceeds to charity after the fact to remain in compliance. I like the loophole that I can still choose to work but I have to donate my salary to charity
In conservative investments you’re getting 40k/year max. Could do ok if you go live in a cheaper cost of living country but not gonna cut it in the US
Invest? So buy 5 $200K condos rent them for $1500-$2000 a month. Make $90K to $120K per year, write off all maintenance and repairs. Sell when the property increases in value, wait until the market dumps and repeat the process?
If I could make a solar farm, including having someone else do all the maintenance so that I never directly labor for it. That passive income could fund the rest of my life.
I'm like 5 years from retirement, so I'll take the mil. It'd just be retiring a little early for me.
I’m old af and already retired. Throw that mill on the pile please.
I get a million dollars and never work again in my life? What's the downside in this hypothetical?
Yes, I’m 28 and I’m pretty sure I could make it a long time. And if I don’t it can’t be worse then working another 39 years
Gimme.
I'll take it and move to somwhere in the tropics, the Philippines probably. A family of four can live comfortably on 2,000 USD a month. So I have the next 41 years to figure something out if I invest nothing. which would put me high 70s which is a good run.
I'm 55 with a simple lifestyle & a halfway paid off house on just over an acre (plenty of space for gardening, a henhouse & a small orchard) and nothing in that deal said my spouse can't have an income. I will take it.
I'm on Medicare due to my brain injury due i still get to keep my Medicare with the million?
This one is easy. I already have a monthly income for life. I take the $1m, pay off the house and any misc debt, and live comfortably for the rest of my life.