Stupid Meme.

[ladysprite]

I always used to think that a million dollars was a lot of money. It still sounds like a lot, if you don't think about it, especially if you grew up with food stamps and free school lunches as a fact of life. I'm used to living on a rather severe budget; I could make that much money last for the rest of my life. Right?

But there's a meme going around right now - how would you spend a million dollars? Before taxes, so figure $500,000 after taxes. And everyone else can stretch it so far. So I thought, really thought, about how I would spend it. Let's see:

Pay off my student loans - $100,000.
Pay off husband's student loans - $100,000.
Buy car for husband - $15,000

Which leaves us with $285,000.

Which might buy us a house, if we're not too picky, and are willing to take something either in a rotten neighborhood or that has serious fixer-upper quality.

After that, we might be able to get lunch. At Wendy's, if we use the dollar menu.

Stupid higher education. Stupid me, not being able to stretch my funds longer than that. Stupid profession, not making enough for me to both go to a movie and pay the T fare there and back.

Stupid meme, leaving me all depressed and grumpy.

Comments

[braider.livejournal.com]

Don't pay off the loans immediately. Invest the money. Use the money to retire to some place less expensive than Boston. I have friends who bought a rather nice house in a very good neighborhood for something in the region of $128,000.

Really, if you got a million dollars, the first thing you should do is to hire on a financial wizard. ;-)

[umbran.livejournal.com]

There's a whole lot more to a place to live than how much the house costs. There's a price attached to any house not in the Boston area - that price is that it isn't in the Boston area!

If you had a million dollars....

[blaisepascal]

I was born in 1971. In 1989 I was 18 (that's 15 years ago.....). If someone gave me a million dollars night now in 1989 dollars, that would be about $1.5mil today. After paying off my debts ($25,000 student loans, $10,000 car, $35,000 for my SO's house, $60K for her student loans, $12K for combined credit card debt....) and half of it for taxes, that would leave $620K, which is a nice hefty chunk of change. I'd consider investing it in something that'll give me a nice guaranteed income (like municiple bonds or something).

But it would be significantly less if I didn't adjust for inflation from between now and when I thought a million dollars was a lot. When did you think a million dollars was a lot?

There are no more Millionaires.

[whiffert.livejournal.com]

A million is about the lifetime earning potential of a fairly average worker these days. The stakes have been raised. Now the elite are Billionaires, and eventually that monicker will pale.

For now, don't look too hard at the future. You have a great NOW to work on, and the future is unwritten. (yahoo!)

And who said you have to stay in Massachussetts? Boston is one of the most expensive cities to live in in the WORLD! Out here in Syracuse, you can get a reasonable house for $50,000.

As for the student loans.. yowie! Its a good thing you have 10 years to pay them off at fairly low interest.

Good luck, and be well, and stay away from memes written by silly people!

Re: There are no more Millionaires.

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

As for the student loans.. yowie! Its a good thing you have 10 years to pay them off at fairly low interest.

Ten? Try 30. I couldn't pay this off in ten years and still have enough money to stay alive and intact. I'll be paying this off when my sister's unborn children are in college, unless something drastic happens.

As for moving? Never. Not an option. I love it here, I belong here. It's worth the cost of living to me - living somewhere else might be cheaper, but it wouldn't be enjoyable. I'd rather be broke but at least happy with my surroundings than have money and spend all my time missing home.

Re: There are no more Millionaires.

[whiffert.livejournal.com]

Ten? Try 30. I couldn't pay this off in ten years and still have enough money to stay alive and intact. I'll be paying this off when my sister's unborn children are in college, unless something drastic happens.

Zounds!

Let me know when you burn the mortgage on your mind. I'll bring the champagne.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

It is scary how a million really isn't that much anymore!

[jadasc.livejournal.com]

Cool. Can you spare it? ;)

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

I wish!

[z-gryphon.livejournal.com]

That's one thing I'll say for living in the Podunk Valley - up here, with a quarter mill to spend on real estate, a person could just about live like a 19th-century captain of industry.

[jadasc.livejournal.com]

I think it's the lump-sumness of the spending that's getting you down. I mean, $500,000 means that you can live a $50,000/annum lifestyle for a decade without ever having to worry about diminished hours or intolerable bosses. If you happen to like where you work, and keep your job, that's even more comfort.

If you were guaranteed fifty thousand dollars a year for the next ten years before you even had to consider work, how would you live them?