You are given 1,000,000 USD tax free and adjusted for inflation in order to survive for the rest of your life. You are not allowed any extra income, but can spend the money as you please. Could you survive with only 1,000,000 dollars? What would be your way of life?
Edit: added adjusted for inflation.
Edit 2: there’s no loop holes, you cannot gamble the money and accept the winnings, and you can’t invest.
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I dont know, depends on how long I live.
No
calculated with 50 years left to live, i’d have 1.666,66 a month.
doable witouth inflation. … but with i don’t think I could.
I feel like there need to at least be interest payments equal to inflation for that to work. At my age that amount of money would barely be minimum wage today, which people can’t survive on, so if the money was worth even less in 20 years then no I couldn’t.
Given I don’t intend to see my next birthday, this would give me a hell of a great final year!
Nope, unless you live on the bare minimum and exist only to eat and sleep. I guess if you already own a house that helps though.
$50K/yr. probably. but i’ll pass on that.
No for a few years left, not 60 more years
is that on top of what i already have saved for retirement? if so, then hell yes. if it’s just the 1MM, then no way
no
Based on the 4 percent rule, that gives you $40,000 a year to spend. My living expenses are higher.
No, if I live until I’m 96 and keep my lifestyle the same I’d need $4.2m.
…
Yes…
Because you said I can spend it however I please.
I put it in a 5% savings account.
That’s 50k a year.
This is not rocket science.
The only people who can’t live on a million dollars are people who just wont fucking leave a high school of living area.
Not EVEN go to a low cost of living area. just stay out of the 12 or so really high cost areas.
I happily make 45k a year now. One million, no problem..
nope. My mortgage costs more than $1m divided by 55 years. Sure, I only have it for the next 25, but that means I’m using double the money. Also this is assuming I live to be 90.
No. I have several chronic health conditions and my medications cost over $2500 a month. Then there’s my regular living expenses, and my husband’s $900 a month medications.
Easily
But I’m 70
I probably could.
I’m 31m, I think $1m would be enough but not comfortable. But then again, most of the time I just want to chill, play video games, and watch TV.
I would take an oceangate to titanic to answer this yes
No
Very easily. $1m in ZA Rands would give me an income, from interest alone, of around R116,000 per month. I would never need all that to live very comfortably, so my capital would grow every month. My kids could look forward to a nice inheritance. Where do I sign up?
For the things I want, it’s quite close, but not quite it. Just getting a house, a car and travelling would diminish a considerable amount. And that’s money for myself, not for my future (or present) family!
Do you still have to pay for healthcare and stuff like that?
Nah. I plan in living at least 65 more years
Of course I could
Nope. Too much uncertainty
A million bucks isn’t what it used to be.
I would find a way to survive with that.
First, live in a cheap home. Something that costs less than $2000 a month in all costs (rent, electricity, water, etc.)
Second, use my money sparingly as if I were poor (I wouldn’t be poor, obviously, but It’s so I could conserve my money the longest possible.)
Third, don’t go out spending it on luxury airliners and cars. You don’t need those material possessions to survive.
That would be my plan to survive if I had $1,000,000.
(edit: removed the fourth point)
No way. I have soon to be college age kids. They won’t be able to find a job that pays a livable wage in a third world country, so moving is not an option. Plus, some opportunist will latch on to them for the GC. God forbid they pop out an anchor baby.
As for staying in the US with $1M, everything is so expensive from home maintenance to our $1k/month utility bills.
$1M today isn’t what it was five years ago. I need at least $3M-$5M before I can retire. I need to live in a large city with large hospitals and a comprehensive network of PCPs and specialists. At least one with a stroke unit.
This is a nonsense question…. unless i only have a couple years left to live or something
Cant work or invest, but it has to last your whole life? Impossible
No.
Do I live in a country with universal medical care?
That’s roughly 25 years of my current salary. The CoL/inflation adjustment would help, but I seriously doubt it’d work out for me.
I’ve probably got 15 yrs left. So… around 5,500 a month? Sure, ok.
How do I apply for this money?
Not a chance
In addition to my existing assets? I would say yes. $1,000,000 all by itself? Probably not.
If I can’t invest or gamble with it to get more money then no absolutely not.
No, unless I get rid of all my amenities…
I could. Find a place in SE Asia to stretch the money as far as possible.
Yes, I would have to move countries though.
If I live another 50 years, I’m 31 in 3 weeks, I reckon so. I’ve never made more than 20k a year and I have a comfortably modest life, Mortgage, go abroad once a year with wife and kid, so yeah. Sign me up 😅
Yes cause when I run out I’d likely die.
Different sources say different things but assume we are talking USA and let’s say the average person makes 50k a year and let’s pretend that’s enough to live on. You would hit that in 20 year
Alternatives: move somewhere much much cheaper.
Or wait for the apocalypse
Could I survive? Probably. Pay off the rest of my mortgage, cancel subscriptions and some extraneous monthly payments. Get rid of my car. I’m now only paying taxes and utilities and food. I could do that for 50 years.
Would I be living? Could I have kids and raise a family? Could I move to a nicer neighborhood eventually? Or go on vacation? Finally do that trip to Europe we have been wanting to do for years? No. Every extraneous expense eats at the pot. With no way to earn income every time I spend money on something I don’t need, I will worry about when the money runs out. God forbid I have a medical emergency or the garage floods or anything like that. My partner needed a medical procedure last year that costs us 10k. That is 1% of my entire funds for life in this situation. That’d give me so much more anxiety.
So it’s possible but I’d never take this.
Absolutely 👍. Just tuned 60, so it’s not like I have to make it last 50years
Yeah assuming I maintain the same living standards as now.
With my current debt? No. If I get to wipe the slate clean? Easily.
No.
put it in a HYSA. even with 3% APY, that’s still generating $30,000 a year.
Not if I have to pay for insurance. Medical, car, house, etc are killing mu budget
I’d have to move to a cheap country. But 1M is more than enough for a few generations in the right place.
Without investing or other money, the answer is no.
People think this is soooooooo much money. But it’s 50k for 20 years. And inflation will eat at it. (You say adjusted for inflation, but I don’t know how that would work. But….ok, somehow if it’s 50k a year, adjusted for inflation in future years. A single person could live alone on that, yes. But what about the years after that?
Survive? Yes, probably, like if it weren’t life or death. Would I want to? No. Even at my current salary and no annual raise or no promotion in my future I’d still make vastly more than this before I retire. Never mind passive income on my investments.
No. I don’t manage my money very well
Nope. Not at all.
That would be $50k a year for 20 years. Take out he mandatory expenses, food/housing/car, how much left would their be? Add in medical expenses? Hell no.
I’m 48. The average life expectancy in my country, US, is 74.8 so let’s round to 75. So that means I’d have to survive on $37k a year. Even if I had zero debt, house/cars paid off, absolutely not.
Now after decades and decades of working and living quite a frugal lifestyle, I’d say yes. In my 20s and 30s I’d said yes as well, but it would have been a lie 🥲 I probably would have freaked out and bought luxury travels around the world, stayed in famous luxury hotels, bought a nice house etc. The money would have been gone way too soon.
It’d really really suck, but I could do it. I’ve got at least a good 60 left in me.
It’s only worth €880k so probably not.
God no. I have two small kids and I’m 35. Even if I ditched my husband that isn’t enough
Yes but I’m already in my 60s do it’s doable.
Yeah I’m 50, live in the UK and that would easily see me out without any lifestyle changes
Almost. I could pull 40ish years with that
Oh wait USD? 60 ODD YEARS.
Of course not. Buying a house alone will shave a good part of that money, even if I move to a cheaper country.
A million dollars to me in my town is a 2 bedroom home without mold… hopefully. Everything else will need to be updated but atleast it won’t have mold
I want to say yes? But I normally live just with necessity, so if I had a huge bank to play with .. my lizard brain might get excited
I get about $1000 a month from Social Security. I may not live too many more years. $1,000,000 might make me live longer, but would be better.
I would just make sure I die when I spend my last penny so sure
Yes, but id live a fairly meager life
No, I have another ~20 years of working at $150k+/year. Even moving to a LCOL area wouldn’t be able to keep my lifestyle.
I’ve made a little over two million, but as a salary not from any passive income really.
If I don’t have more kids, and never get married and then subsequently divorced, I think I could live on 1 million for life.
You’d have to homestead somewhere that doesn’t tax your land heavy, and that’s a lot of middle of nowhere places.
Yes move to Costa Rico or Mexico. In the US no.
Yeah, probably.
I don’t understand what “adjusted for inflation” means in this case. It’s more than a million?
Anyway I can easily live off a million for the rest of my life with or without adjustments. This is a cheap place to live, and a million is more than most people retire on
By definition, we all survive until the end of our lives. But I suspect the end of my life would come sooner if I didn’t have the opportunity to earn more than a million dollars.
Well, my way of life without having to have a job would probably get me out of here early, so, yeah I could make that work.
So I could just buy my son’s drawing he drew when he was a kid for million from him and stop taking my breathing meds letting nature take it’s course and he can do with it as he pleases and invest it from there at will? Yea that works. 👍
Estimate of say 40 years left to live, $25k a year, so no. I could not without being able to invest it.
Absolutely
Depends on the country you live in.
Unlikely. Beyond the normal food/shelter expenses, I expect that as I get older my medical expenses will increase. Over decades, a million would go pretty fast, if I couldn’t invest it.
Yeah if i move to Mexico
Yes, I can. I just need to die by 70.
Yes
No a house where I live now costs 1 mil
Yep I sure could.
Yes I live on less than 20k a year now on disability. So this would be easy
Can i buy and flip things? Or just 1 mil in the bank. That’s it. Nothing else in, just out
I think I could make it work.
I would find a piece of bare coastal land in Oregon, 2 – 5 acres. I then would build a very very tinsy tiny a-frame (really it would be a glorified tent) to live in while I design and build my real home, which would be a much bigger A frame. I would try to use as much recycled material as possible to save on costs but also try to use the highest quality material I can. Once I finish the interior and make it pretty, I would then use some of the money to buy animals, setting up pens, a barn and a garden. Then, lastly, I would build a shop for car work, building projects, etc. If I do it right, depending on land price, I could get away with all of this for like, 250k. maybe 300k. Then that leaves 700k to have kids, get cars, the extra food I can’t grow/raise on my property and some money set aside for my growing movie collection of course.
That’s about 10 years salary and I have a few health issues where I probably won’t make it that long. Think I’d be able to manage
My property taxes went up 50% this year. It was shocking. I went to the tax office and no mistake was made. These kinds of surprises would kill this.
Also, the million is mine, can the spouse still work and pay for our shared expenses? I can live on it by myself probably not with a spouse.
Most of the time people receive a large sum of money it leads to overspending/bankruptcy..
Nope.
I live in the US where every individual has to hoard wealth for themselves in case of a health crisis.
If I was guaranteed to not have any health crisis and die peacefully in my sleep with no medical bills maybe.
At my current expenses, no.
Probably. Buy a modest house, put in a chicken coop and a garden and live off that
Dollar? That’s what, 500.000€? Easy, as long as I am in Europe.
Yes, very easily and I’d live exceedingly well. There are things you can invest in that aren’t directly financial but will net you a similar outcome. Buy a reasonable sized property with a small patch of land that you can farm. Doesn’t need to be much, just enough to grow crops for yourself, maybe keep chicken for food and eggs.
Invest in off-the-grid style HVAC and electric. Depending on where you settle you’ll have more than enough to lead a modest life, meet someone, start a family. Personally I had to do the math recently and being alive is more expensive than it’s ever been, but it’s food, shelter and service charges that will get you.
For 6 years I will live lavishly
Yes
I will live another 40 years at the very most, so $25k a year for me. I could make that work. Are you also saying that we cannot collect simple interest if this was in a savings account? That much more would let me survive on this with no problems.
Well, I’m 78, so the end of my life might be right around the corner, or 10+ years down the pike…. A million bucks? Easy.
Considering I wouldnt be saving since I cant, easily.
I’d do it.
I’m homeless so rent wouldn’t be an issue. Most bills wouldn’t. I’m also gonna be 40 in a few years, probably only make it to 60 or 70 if I’m lucky.
No. Not even if I kept a tight budget. The amount I’m making right now every year until retirement is far more than a million, after taxes.
I could set myself up so that I would be okay
And continue to make more money
Yes
I’d spend it all on hookers and blow and then when it’s all gone, take a swan dive off a high bridge. I’ll leave some spare change for you in my pocket, sweetheart.
What do you mean by “adjusted for inflation?” Does any unspent value increase in line with inflation each year?
And what’s the definition of “survive?”
The short answer is yes. Assuming pounds not dollars, but you can buy a perfectly serviceable house for about £120k in parts of the UK. That leaves 880k. Assume 40 years to live, that’s 22k a year, slightly more than tax home for a full time job on min wage, but with no mortgage / rental costs since the house is bought outright.
Is that “survivable” yes, it’ll pay bills and basic food.
Is it going to be particularly fun? No.
Sure, easily. Move to a country with a massively lower cost of living, take the enormous payout of converting dollars to the local currency, live happily ever after.
Weird that no one here considered moving from the US)
At 36, no way. If I was already retired, maybe.
i’d buy land and become a feral human uwu
No, I don’t think so.
I’ve only got a few more years so yeah easily.
Yes
Easily
If I could keep the money I already have, I could make it work. But if it was just $1M for the rest of my life, I could have no social security, and I could not invest it? No.
No way, i‘m only 27 yet and I live in Switzerland…
I can live off of $2000 a month comfortably currently. $2000 ÷$1,000,000 is 500 months. Which is about 41 years. I’m 35 now. So unless something drastically changes, which it very well could.
I think I could make it work.
I’m 55 and have AIDS. I think i can do it
After paying my house off, the rest would last me 23 years. I’ll be 65.5 and can collect social security and start collecting from my govt pension after that!
yes. super ez.
I would invest it and live off of the passive income. Pass the million on to my children tax free
Screw your rules, I have money!
I think so. Buy land and off-grid infrastructure but with grid. Never pay rent again and severely reduced utilities. Raise a lot of my own food. Probably.
No.
Tis a silly edit #2.
Throw 1mil in SCHD and live off the dividends either in the states or over seas somewhere cheaper.
I’m 68. I’d have a grand time spending it!
This makes no sense. If you give me $1 million, how are you going to adjust it for inflation? If you are adjusting for inflation by giving me more money later than you aren’t giving me $1 million.
I think you need to rethink the entire premise of your question here.
Easily
I welcome you to expats
Not without investing. Invested, you could withdraw about 40k/year (adjusting for inflation) and have it last “forever.” That, I could probably do if I owned my home outright or moved somewhere much cheaper. And assuming ACA subsidies don’t go away.
Nope.
Not unless I budgeted very tightly…
35 year old male here, I work multiple jobs to gross six figures, and if it weren’t for my SO (who owns the house, and is locked into a reasonable mortgage), I couldn’t afford to survive alone where I live.
It’s outrageous how my first apt here was $900/month for a single bedroom some 15 years ago, and it would increase about twice a year by a couple hundred…that same unit now costs $2,500/month.
Yes, my career and other sources of income have drastically increased since then, but I feel like I can’t catch a fucking break, every time I would start making more money, rent hikes weren’t far behind.
If I had a million dollars, and wanted to live in my town, relatively comfortably; it would last me maybe 10 years.
Yes. Did I win anything?
I’m 60 so yes I could but I would have to be careful and stuck to a budget
Yes! Definitely. Gimme that money now. I’m old enough that it’ll last me till i die, which should be soon enough
Absolutely
Dang I did the math and if I live to 90 then that’s only 1400 a month. Which is what I make now on on a bad month with my part time job paying little over minimum wage in nyc. Granted I’m not trying to do that until I’m 90 but sheesh. This feels like a wake up call but idk what I’m supposed to do with this information lmao
In this country probably, house and shit for like 150 or 200k and the rest i think you could live off of
If i can’t invest, then probably not. If I live another 40-50 years, then that’s only 25,000-20,000 a year
Absolutely without a doubt. I don’t have many expenses, and don’t live lavishly, so that would be very easy for me.
No probably not but I could have a great time with it and then kms
I guess if other people are paying my bills but at 5K in basic expenses a month 1 mil is lasting me mayyyyybe 15 years
I barely have this much right now and I still live with my parents. One million doesn’t mean much out in the bay area
I could survive, but I would be in poverty. And I’m not even from a rich country
No. Unless I move to a developing country with much lower cost of living.