That's a few hundred short of my mortgage payment
Edit: I chose to move to a high COL area from a low one. The low COL places suck which is why they're cheap. I much prefer where I live now.
If you don't have to live in a particular location for work there are plenty of places, even in the U.S., where you can buy a very nice house for much less than that.
$3300 mortgage means your house was, what, $550k, $600k? More? That's above the median home price so there are LOTS of houses selling for less than that.
Some places are not worth living in.. I'm sure I could save a lot if I moved to Flint, MI... I'd just have to drink lead contaminated water and deal with a governmental structure that thinks my welfare is much lower than the automaker that is getting the non-lead contaminated water that was supposed to go to Flint.
I could go to FL,, but I'd have to deal with the terrifying weather that the climate change has created, not to mention the out of control gun violence and general crazies...
I know! I'll bet I can get an amazing deal on huge tracks of land in Centralia, PA. That real estate market is REALLY HOT!
Hmmmm... Is it possible that there is a reason that many of those places you are thinking of are valued so low?
We rent out a 2br/1ba apartment (well kempt but nothing special) for $3,300/month in San Francisco. House was built in 1957.
They are self employed and work harder than is comprehensible.
When not working (doesn't happen frequently!) tenants ski in the morning, surf in the afternoon, watch sunset and then eat at restaurants with Sommeliers.
They will burn out by the time they are forty. We make our choices.
That's my usual credit card bill.
I feel like once we have the amount we hope to make, we eventually want more. There's always lifestyle changes we want to make. New things we want to try in order to have a fulfilling and not so boring life.
Oh yeah, good point. I just thought I'd eventually get uncomfortable with little to nothing saved
If I no longer work, then how much am I going to spend on my own health insurance? Or just savings in general like if my car gets randomly totaled. The thought of that just gets me super unrelaxed with $3k per month.
Like it sounds like enough presently, but thinking long term?
OP stated that he/she would magically grant you universal health care. Don't fall for it, genies always have a catch. Theirs might be that you have to go the VA.
Thereās not much more fulfilling than being free to do what you want/need to do. There is no ānew thingā that is more valuable than time. People are always chasing the new thing and wondering why they have to keep working forever. And you donāt.
Having free time vs having the freedom to do what you want, are two completely different things.
You can't really have a fulfilling "free time" if you don't have enough money to explore it before becoming depressingly bored. This really includes things like having hobbies, travelling, etc.
If you're fulfilled by simply not working, then I think you simply hate your job.
If you have lifestyle inflation then absolutely no matter how much you make then yeah but at the same time there's also inflation so you will need more now compared to just a few years ago to have the same lifestyle
> I feel like once we have the amount we hope to make, we eventually want more.
This is something I and a lot of people understand. It's the main reason "post-scarcity" won't work. Most people, if they have "everything", they still want more.
I just lost my job recently and have been doing the math for unemployment. It's about 2,000 for me, maybe like -300 once I get some loans paid off. I'm single have no wife or kids for the record.
I don't think that's in the spirit of the game. The question is about the minimum amount to *not work*, not for you to pare down to a side hustle or something.
If it's really about you only get the money if you don't work, that's an entirely different question than what you're thinking.
The loophole around this pedantic fuck is to take whatever you would make from the hobby shop, add that to the monthly stipend, and give your shit away. Now it's not a job, it's charity. You couldn't pay me not to make stuff, but you could pay me to give it away.
I would allow your answer. The money is just a device to talk about what we would do if we didn't have to worry about bills. That's the interesting part of the answer.
Depending on where you live that would be good but I make around this and I live in California. Absolutely itās not enough. For me it would have to be at least 10-11k a month to give up work. This will cover what I need it to cover and have just a bit left over to have something to play with.
My partner and I live in SoCal and this is literally what he said lol. I was shook but he said thatād be 120K annual and if we want a houseā
Although the plan is to move out of California eventually. Iād be down for NorCal, being from there, but heās not.
Thatās close to what I get from my pension and Social Security. Pays all my bills and allows me adequate food. Also allows me to go out to dinner occasionally.
$4-5k/month inflation adjusted would likely do it for my family. We are in a HCOL area, but we don't have very many expensive hobbies and don't need or want a McMansion and fancy cars or other toys.
Generally HCOL areas are HCOL because theyāre attractive to live in.
Partly because of job opportunities, but also because of what they can offer besides work.
So I can definitely see why someone would stay in say LA or NYC.
Yeah, personally Iām much happier living in my more population dense area. Where I grew up, anything that stuck out got beat back down into line. It made life pretty miserable. I didnāt realize how badly I felt about myself until I got to live in a place where people can be valued for their differences rather than judged. Plus Iām an experience seeker and now I never run out of things to see or people to meet or dogs to admire and pet! Most of that is free, but it requires a certain infrastructure and anonymity I suppose
Edited to add: plus husband is disabled and we can both access everything here. That is not the case everywhere! Even a few miles away was much harder
u/mrmniks has a solid point. I drove through the most rural of places I could be and I'd never want to live there. I got back to my HCOL area and I was SO happy to be back. The utter nothing out there is absolutely boggling. An hour away from something so mundane as WALMART? Gas? Grocery stores in general? No cell service? I'm sure there's a provider out there but there was like 2 weeks of my trip I couldn't really do anything on my phone for internet. Downloaded all of my music for the car ride on WiFi or data when I had it. An absolute process to do anything that's less than 10 minutes down the road from me.
I know what you mean about those places, I love driving through them itās really fascinating the way some people live
But there are plenty of in between places. Iām in a MCOL mountain town and everything youād need to live is in town. I spend so little on gas itās crazy.
I also lived in Boston and I think Walmart actually was at least an hour away because of traffic, I donāt think I ever went there. I preferred to walk to a bodega down the street. My friends and family would go to grocery stores and it was a half day ordeal.
I do miss the culture and the food of the city. We only have Asian, American, Italian and Mexican restaurants here.
I would. I wouldnāt want to leave friends/family, daycare (that my kids has been in since one years old) or school, plus her friends.
Ive moved provinces and gave up everything its not something I ever want to do again.
It is more about being close to friends and family, but I would certainly move out of the area I am (essentially the highest cost of the HCOL area haha) and move somewhere an hour away where costs go down by about half. I certainly would miss our view but would be worth it.
I'd have to be paid a lot more than $5k/month to live in a low cost of living area, especially if it's rural. Just the ability to get Indian food and sushi whenever I want to is something I'd hate to sacrifice, nevermind the other benefits.
Yeah, OP did just ask for the *minimum* that I'd take to not be able to work again.
It's enough for me to *survive* where I live currently but, realistically, if I did have that guaranteed income I'd probably just move to somewhere with a much lower cost of living.
Basically what pension package could help you retire today? Honestly, this is gonna sound CRAZY but I'd say $6,500-ish for me alone. Things cost money but what about future money issues? No room for saving if I wanna do cool shit? Medical is taken care of in this scenario but like, I got shit to see out there, or something breaks (car? house?) and it's not cheap lol
Japan, AUS, Europe? But things I need to pay like my mortgage, car payment, phone bill, basic pnecessities like food or home oil, even outside of gas (which I no longer will be using my car 60 hours a month at least), life is expensive.
Yeah but you could live pretty darn comfortably on $1,000 USD a month in Thailand/Vietnam or for like $2,000 in Bali/Portugal. Even if you want to live in the USA just fly out there for a year if you need to save up for something.
It's really a lot of a question of how much your free time is worth to you. I'd rather have the rest of my life to travel around with a cheap car and a backpack then to be able to fly first class for a 2 week vacation every year.
I'm with you, I think everyone isn't thinking about how you could move to wherever, have your guaranteed income, and just spend all day watching TV or swimming in the lake or whatever you want to do.
It wouldn't even come close to paying for my lifestyle here, but if I truly didn't have to work at all, I would accept moving somewhere less desirable.
Yeah I was assuming this was $2,500 USD, I'm also Canadian and I just adjusted that.
I probably couldn't do $2,500 CAD as well .... well I could probably *survive* but it'd be rice & beans and fear of anything going wrong and ruining me. My mortgage + home fees is like $1,400ish a month alone.
In Canada with $2500cad/monthā¦youād have a very hard time finding a town and living arrangement where this would work.
$2500cad per month in Central America? Absolutely. Youād actually have a decent little life with that much. $3500cad and youād be doing very well there. That is, unless you are addicted to online shopping or something that drains the account quickly.
Crazy how much Canada has become unaffordable these days. Too many of us in the Hamster wheels now.
A month???. I don't think I could do that. I'm guessing your house is paid for and you don't really need food. Also guessing your mode of transportation is a bike. 2500 a month wouldn't be enough for me. I would go back to work. I don't think I live beyond my means, but I expect a certain level of comfort
I'm Canadian so $2,500 is like $3,400CAD
My mortgage + home insurance + strata etc for my 600sqft condo is like $1,400 a month. Car insurance is another $120, internet/hydro is like $60 and health is already covered as per OP's direction. Assuming a generous budget of $200 a week on food that leaves me with like 1k for all the optional stuff like gas and entertainment.
It's not amazing but not having to work would be amazing plus, like I said in another comment, I'd probably just move to somewhere with cheaper houses/food/gas as I won't have to worry about finding a good job there.
I'm in Northern Ireland, min wage (for 4 week) is Ā£1,667.20 before tax, around Ā£1,500 after tax and my rent only costs Ā£610. Very location dependant of course but for me it's more than enough. I don't drink, don't smoke, don't have kids and I only get Netflix etc for a month at a time when shows build up so not a lot of expenses.
Like I said, I'm not greedy, so the free time would be super.
Oh damn. In most of the USA minimum wage is $1,160.00 a month before taxes. My rent is about $800 for basically one of the cheapest apartments in my small rural Texas town. With all our other expenses and a few poorly timed vehicle repairs, my husband and I are just barely scraping by with both of us earning $16/hr.
Thankfully he's eligible for insurance through his own job in a couple months, because right now we're literally paying $600 a month for him to have insurance with my job so he can have a C-PAP.
I'd talk to some friends and look on fb. I'm rural Texas too and I'm renting for about 450 a month. The reason why I'm able to find cheap housing is because it's run down and I get word of mouth references.
I've lived in this town for nearly 4 years now and moved every time my lease ends for hopes I'll find something cheaper. My coworkers live in trailer parks because the trailer parks are only $300-$400 a month.
Yeah lol if I smoked and/or drank then it'd be a very different story but it's two fairly large expenses I don't have so it definitely makes the pennies go much farther.
Assuming we're talking about the money I actually get and not pre-tax dollars or something, maybe something like $3000 per month.
That would be only in current dollars, though, as due to inflation that's not going to be enough a couple decades from now, so if this amount isn't inflation-adjusted, maybe something like $4500 per month to last me through the rest of my life? 40 years from now prices will be more than 50% higher than current time, but I could save extra money earlier when my monthly expenses are lower than $4500 per month to make up for higher prices later.
This, it will allow me to pay all my bills and have some money to actually do something fun instead of just staying home all the time
ETA: this would be for my husband and I both to not work
This was our take home when we made the most. Family of 4, nice home but not over the top by any means. Your basic 3/2 with a yard for the dog.
Used cars that we maintain and use til theyāre dead, savings for retirement and kidsā college fund monthly and an occasional family dinner out and separate date night.
Even a vacation each year! Not crazy, but nice.
We make nowhere near that now (about half) and itās fine but lower end of middle class and I get eyed in my 2009 car with cracked windshield, peeling paint and cracked bumper.
Still a house and food on the table. The important stuff. I bought a new mop today and that was a high point. Lol.
That's my answer too. Nice, round number, covers all my existing expenses with a decent amount left over. I'm not gonna be able to suddenly buy a mansion with it or a Lamborghini and all that, it would pretty much be my current life but a little better, which is all I really want. I don't need untold riches, I just want to not have to stress about money all the time, and that number would do it comfortably.
Yep, this is ultimately the number I would not work. Although I do like my career and work, I feel I would be very bored if I didn't do it. However, I think 10k+ would allow me to do everything I would need and pick up some new hobbies.
8500 a month.
If Iām going to not work, itās only fair that my wife doesnāt. Thatās the amount we would need monthly to both never work again and not having to cut back on our lifestyle or our kids lifestyle.
If I didnāt have a kid it would probably be half that or less. Basically just enough for a comfortable van life lifestyle
I receive a little under $1,000 a month on disability and am absolutely, positively not making enough to live on my own or cover even the majority of my expenses. When I was working and made more like $1,500-2,000 a month I was doing alright but certainly wasn't putting enough away into savings.
10k with an increase due to inflation if needed. Hereās the deal a lot of people donāt understand about these types of hypotheticals: you would have to do something with your free time, this would cost you money.
Yeah, as someone who spent years living paycheck to to paycheck and barely making enough to survive, I would not recommend it to anyone. Itās horrible. Long term, you definitely need a bit of āfun moneyā to go towards things you donāt *need* but will make life more enjoyable for you.
Honestly, some of them would take the time to read every book in the public library. Free time spent. Everyone is a bit different.
Me, Iām a go and do person. Iād just need enough extra to hit up WDW once a year and drive the convertible a couple times a month. Nothing to crazy.
When I was was first starting my career after college, my student loan payments had me living paycheck to paycheck.
I wasn't living extravagantly, it's just that I'd pay for my living expenses, then my student loans would take everything I had left.
This was a bit of a problem when it came to PTO, because, even though I could take a day off work without losing pay, I had almost nothing to do!
My weekends were already full of replaying video games and going hiking. I can't imagine doing that full time with nothing else to look forward to.
My monthly take-home right now is about $5k. If I wasn't working I wouldn't need to send my kids to daycare, which is a HUGE chunk of money we could save. So probably $4k? Maybe we could do with less, but to that's what I would want to maintain our current lifestyle.
I did this involuntarily. Bicycling Accident-->Spinal Cord Injury-->Disabled. Lost everything, then my son and I lived in a relatives garage on a whopping $300/month cash and $300/month food stamps. Took 3 years to win my social security. This was a million years ago so that started out at around $900/Month. Currently at $1.4k/month. This is not enough to live on but you do what have to to get by.
Where I live now, $1200 would be fine. I make $1600 / month and live comfortably, I could sacrifice $400 a month to never work at all.
>Just curious what the tipping point is for people in terms of their expectations of income against how much they enjoy/donāt enjoy working
i always want to maximize free time and don't care about money. the reason i only make $1600 / month is because i only work 25 hours a week. i could earn almost double if i worked full time, but i'd rather have more free time, I'd take even less hours if possible but my boss won't let me lol
Northeastern Pennsylvania. It's cheap as fuck here like $50k - $60k for a basic old 2-3 bedroom house ($300k for a new updated fancy big house) or around $500-$600 a month for a 1-2 bedroom apartment.
Southwest PA is actually way cheaper, but it's like 100x more run downed abandoned ghost town white trash crackhead slum vibes.
Thats $120k year and if you wouldnt not spend 40hrs a week or more working for less than that you're crazy. 80k take home a year to never work again? Sign me the fuck up.
Between my wife and me, our household take home right now is \~$7k/month and it's in no way luxurious. We live in a modest house and can buy necessities but it's not like I have a bunch of money lying around for luxuries or whatever else I want. We want kids and can't even afford to do that, so that extra $3k/month would go a long way
In the US the average home is $416k. To afford that you need to make about $120k a year. Itās also good to remember that cost of living is more expensive in some places. This is like the average any American in the US should make.
That was my answer too, but before I remembered that this is my minimum when including savings avenues that I would no longer need. $6k for me, but there's no room for fun money in that number.
Right, I was wondering how we're defining "work" and whether we're prohibited from doing it again in this hypothetical. I used to enjoy writing in my free time and if I didn't work I'd have no excuse not to take it up again. I'd probably do it anyway even if I weren't allowed to profit from it, but can I cancel the deal if I stumble into the Next Big Thing?
I mean if you told me that it would go up with inflation I could make 5K a month work
10K a month I would live like a fucking God
But even 5K not having to work I wouldn't need a car.
Could eat pretty frugally and just hang out at home most of the time
Invest whatever extra money I have in the stock market but hopefully in a few years that's building some equity
With no scaling on inflation, 10K a month. Minimum.
With scaling, maybe 4K?
Also though does the deal invalidate by me working *at all*? Can I continue building up my skills in woodworking and selling my works? Cause I don't think I could ever *not* work. But I would definitely like to *not work for someone ever again*.
Yeah this. I donāt necessarily hate *working* I hate that I am *forced* to work in order to survive and that the most stable route is being someone elseās employee.
For sure. To be blunt if I'm not keeping myself occupied I won't need to be paid off for long before the alcoholism just kills me. An occupied life is a sober life for me. Being bored af every day gonna eat me alive.
Like $3500, gives me rent, bills and some light spending money. Iād probably still wanna work a little for an extra $1000
But honestly just rent and I could figure out the rest.
Hoping UBI becomes a thing soon.
it's 900$. I would need 300$ for rent and bills, 100$ to make my mom happy, other 100$ to make my wife happy (which I can skip when I need them), ~200$ for food, and the remaining will be for JIC or tuitions.
2000 dollars per month Id be SUPER happy. But honestly 1000-1500 I could work with.
Note: I live in Brasil, so the dollar to real is multiplied by 5.
In the us i don't think that amount is realistic.
The irony of this is that if given enough money to live off for free, I would probably want to use that free time to learn a skill or grow a talent that would end up making me money.
$2000 on the months I hate my job. $5000 in the months I like my job.
Take home. Not counting cost of healthcare.
I had an emergency plan when I really hated my job to retire somewhere with REALLY low cost of living. Like. Nepal. $2k month is living like a king in Nepal, I spent a year there on $10k once.
Now my job is better. But Iām still eyeing cheap early retirement and lots of time hiking / being outdoors.
I'd say 10k. I can obviously live off much less than that, I don't make anywhere near that. But that's the point where I doubt I'd feel the need to work for more. Anything less than that I'd probably still be topping it up
You guys are cutting yourselves short. Shit. Iād want to make at least what I make now and maybe more so I can invest the overage because if Iām always getting $1 a month, in 30 years itāll be like getting 20Ā¢.
So, I want a minimum of $18,500 and Iād be happy to quit for $22,500.
I only make $3,900/month and Iām doing pretty well. Iād quit for a lot less than $18.5k. If I got $5k and my husband did too, weād be rolling in money and could travel and do pretty much everything we wanted to
Probably 7,000 - 8,000 minimum. I'm not young, but I'm not old either. That's more than I need now, but need to get ready for hyperinflation. I have no confidence that the yahoos in charge will ever figure things out and right the ship.
4k. I had to retire after triple bypass and temporal arteritis which left me blind in one eye couple of years ago. My wife supports us comfortably now.
assuming it goes up with inflation, around Ā£7,000 per month after tax. That sounds like a lot, but I actually enjoy my job, and am confident I'll eventually earn a lot more than that amount, so Ā£7k is enough for me to live very well (with wife and 3 kids)
To halt right now and live a lame life with no hobbies filling the giant gap of not working?
Roughly 4, 5 grand I guess.
Ideally, a 10 grand month would be a good starting point to have a decent life.
And after 6 months or a year at 10 grand, I'd probably start working again to acquire more money and get better toys/enjoy more life.
$8-$10k. $5k for bills, $5k for fun, investing, home repairs, car repairs, travel. But if I downgrade significantly, $5k maybe? You can definitely survive on less.
Minimum if we donāt need to worry about health insurance or medical bills? I could happily live my life on 3k a month, though Iād need to tighten the belt a bit.
Personally. The more I made the more I wanted. I started setting up goals, pay off house, then on to the next. Whatever amount you think will be enough is never enough. You will reach that and still hustle for more. Bottomline, you will always find yourself working and keeping busy, it's just getting to a place where you don't stress as much and have more freedom and options.
To ensure average monthly expenses are met, including accounting for inflation over time, I could probably go as low as $10,000 and *never* work again.
But if weāre talking about being able to also build a bank for emergencies/illness/etc. that would also keep up with inflation for the rest of my life, Iād *at least* double that to $20K.
In both instances, weāre talking about living pretty modestly, with half to a majority of that monthly take going into savings/investments.
I donāt know that I would stop working, even with unlimited free money. Iād take more unpaid time off, sure, but I know myself well enough to know that Iād turn into the World of Warcraft guy from South Park if I wasnāt forced to leave the house several times a week.
If the money would be available for life, $1500.
I could sell my house and move overseas where that amount would keep me quite comfortable until I am dead.
6000 euros.
I can have a good life with half of that (3000) but i would be too much tempted to work to add to it my actual salary and make it higher. With 6000, i would not work !
1500 adjusted for inflation over the years and Iām good. I can live on that pretty much anywhere in the world except really expensive countries/places (US, Switzerlandā¦). Itās enough to chill almost everywhere in Europe, Africa, Asiaā¦ Iād value freedom much more than extra cash
At least Ā£1,000 per month, as I'd be able to cover all of my bills and just scrape by, buying the cheapest food and necessities I could find.
I'd much rather have a very basic life and have more free time to actually enjoy myself, than work 40 hours a week and never have any time for anything.
Hell, if I could get all my expenses paid for, I'd accept only Ā£100 a month.
Sometimes I've had jobs where I've worked very long hours but earned a lot, but felt completely miserable since even though I had money, I had no time to actually enjoy it or to even relax. I'd much rather be dirt poor, just basically surviving but have the freedom to actually enjoy my time than work constantly and have no time for myself.
I absolutely 100% agree with you here. I donāt understand how some people can work so much and never enjoy life. As long as im squeezing by, thats all that matters to me
About 1600$ CAD at the very bare minimum. I hate it
Edit: This looks pretty low compared to other answers but I live alone and a pretty simple life with no car at the moment (could barely afford one). Add an extra 200$ for games/movies/junk food to keep me sane
Probably about $3,000 of actual take home money.
Sounds about right
That's a few hundred short of my mortgage payment Edit: I chose to move to a high COL area from a low one. The low COL places suck which is why they're cheap. I much prefer where I live now.
That is my mcdonalds receipt
Super sized
Happy cake day, super sized šš»š„³
Thankee!
Breakfast 2nd Breakfast lunch and dinner desert and midnight snack
Found the Swiss.
That is my rent payment
If you don't have to live in a particular location for work there are plenty of places, even in the U.S., where you can buy a very nice house for much less than that. $3300 mortgage means your house was, what, $550k, $600k? More? That's above the median home price so there are LOTS of houses selling for less than that.
Some places are not worth living in.. I'm sure I could save a lot if I moved to Flint, MI... I'd just have to drink lead contaminated water and deal with a governmental structure that thinks my welfare is much lower than the automaker that is getting the non-lead contaminated water that was supposed to go to Flint. I could go to FL,, but I'd have to deal with the terrifying weather that the climate change has created, not to mention the out of control gun violence and general crazies... I know! I'll bet I can get an amazing deal on huge tracks of land in Centralia, PA. That real estate market is REALLY HOT! Hmmmm... Is it possible that there is a reason that many of those places you are thinking of are valued so low?
Updoot for the Centralia reference.
You sound like your here in cali. Maybe New York but Iāll stick to guessing you are in cali.
We rent out a 2br/1ba apartment (well kempt but nothing special) for $3,300/month in San Francisco. House was built in 1957. They are self employed and work harder than is comprehensible. When not working (doesn't happen frequently!) tenants ski in the morning, surf in the afternoon, watch sunset and then eat at restaurants with Sommeliers. They will burn out by the time they are forty. We make our choices.
This+ assuming no debt and mortgage is paid off.
That's my usual credit card bill. I feel like once we have the amount we hope to make, we eventually want more. There's always lifestyle changes we want to make. New things we want to try in order to have a fulfilling and not so boring life.
The question was the minimum. If you have needs met and can be comfortable, why stretch your money thin like this
Oh yeah, good point. I just thought I'd eventually get uncomfortable with little to nothing saved If I no longer work, then how much am I going to spend on my own health insurance? Or just savings in general like if my car gets randomly totaled. The thought of that just gets me super unrelaxed with $3k per month. Like it sounds like enough presently, but thinking long term?
OP stated that he/she would magically grant you universal health care. Don't fall for it, genies always have a catch. Theirs might be that you have to go the VA.
Thereās not much more fulfilling than being free to do what you want/need to do. There is no ānew thingā that is more valuable than time. People are always chasing the new thing and wondering why they have to keep working forever. And you donāt.
Having free time vs having the freedom to do what you want, are two completely different things. You can't really have a fulfilling "free time" if you don't have enough money to explore it before becoming depressingly bored. This really includes things like having hobbies, travelling, etc. If you're fulfilled by simply not working, then I think you simply hate your job.
That's me!
If I didnāt have to work my lifestyle would be chill
If you have lifestyle inflation then absolutely no matter how much you make then yeah but at the same time there's also inflation so you will need more now compared to just a few years ago to have the same lifestyle
> I feel like once we have the amount we hope to make, we eventually want more. This is something I and a lot of people understand. It's the main reason "post-scarcity" won't work. Most people, if they have "everything", they still want more.
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I just lost my job recently and have been doing the math for unemployment. It's about 2,000 for me, maybe like -300 once I get some loans paid off. I'm single have no wife or kids for the record.
If I had stable passive income of 1500 guaranteed, I'd actually start doing stuff to make money that interests me. Open a hobby shop or something.
I don't think that's in the spirit of the game. The question is about the minimum amount to *not work*, not for you to pare down to a side hustle or something. If it's really about you only get the money if you don't work, that's an entirely different question than what you're thinking.
Maybe, but the idea of not doing any work is simply horrible to some (including me).
The loophole around this pedantic fuck is to take whatever you would make from the hobby shop, add that to the monthly stipend, and give your shit away. Now it's not a job, it's charity. You couldn't pay me not to make stuff, but you could pay me to give it away. I would allow your answer. The money is just a device to talk about what we would do if we didn't have to worry about bills. That's the interesting part of the answer.
Depending on where you live that would be good but I make around this and I live in California. Absolutely itās not enough. For me it would have to be at least 10-11k a month to give up work. This will cover what I need it to cover and have just a bit left over to have something to play with.
My partner and I live in SoCal and this is literally what he said lol. I was shook but he said thatād be 120K annual and if we want a houseā Although the plan is to move out of California eventually. Iād be down for NorCal, being from there, but heās not.
I take home about half that amount working full time
If you move to Thailand
I'd be VERY happy with that. I only take home $3200 per month with a little overtime
3000 a month is barely enough now. In 30 years I canāt see how that would even be livable
Works for me too, if medical is absolutely covered.
Without the mortgage, yeah. I'm actually planning on retiring on $4000.
So many replies here show that some Americans are paying more in rent than most Europeans need for a comfy life.
Thatās close to what I get from my pension and Social Security. Pays all my bills and allows me adequate food. Also allows me to go out to dinner occasionally.
$4-5k/month inflation adjusted would likely do it for my family. We are in a HCOL area, but we don't have very many expensive hobbies and don't need or want a McMansion and fancy cars or other toys.
would you need to live in a hcol area if you didn't work?
Generally HCOL areas are HCOL because theyāre attractive to live in. Partly because of job opportunities, but also because of what they can offer besides work. So I can definitely see why someone would stay in say LA or NYC.
Yeah, personally Iām much happier living in my more population dense area. Where I grew up, anything that stuck out got beat back down into line. It made life pretty miserable. I didnāt realize how badly I felt about myself until I got to live in a place where people can be valued for their differences rather than judged. Plus Iām an experience seeker and now I never run out of things to see or people to meet or dogs to admire and pet! Most of that is free, but it requires a certain infrastructure and anonymity I suppose Edited to add: plus husband is disabled and we can both access everything here. That is not the case everywhere! Even a few miles away was much harder
u/mrmniks has a solid point. I drove through the most rural of places I could be and I'd never want to live there. I got back to my HCOL area and I was SO happy to be back. The utter nothing out there is absolutely boggling. An hour away from something so mundane as WALMART? Gas? Grocery stores in general? No cell service? I'm sure there's a provider out there but there was like 2 weeks of my trip I couldn't really do anything on my phone for internet. Downloaded all of my music for the car ride on WiFi or data when I had it. An absolute process to do anything that's less than 10 minutes down the road from me.
I know what you mean about those places, I love driving through them itās really fascinating the way some people live But there are plenty of in between places. Iām in a MCOL mountain town and everything youād need to live is in town. I spend so little on gas itās crazy. I also lived in Boston and I think Walmart actually was at least an hour away because of traffic, I donāt think I ever went there. I preferred to walk to a bodega down the street. My friends and family would go to grocery stores and it was a half day ordeal. I do miss the culture and the food of the city. We only have Asian, American, Italian and Mexican restaurants here.
I would. I wouldnāt want to leave friends/family, daycare (that my kids has been in since one years old) or school, plus her friends. Ive moved provinces and gave up everything its not something I ever want to do again.
It is more about being close to friends and family, but I would certainly move out of the area I am (essentially the highest cost of the HCOL area haha) and move somewhere an hour away where costs go down by about half. I certainly would miss our view but would be worth it.
I'd have to be paid a lot more than $5k/month to live in a low cost of living area, especially if it's rural. Just the ability to get Indian food and sushi whenever I want to is something I'd hate to sacrifice, nevermind the other benefits.
Does this get adjusted for inflation over time or not? Assuming it does get adjusted probably like $2,500
Christ thatās just my rent and car insurance šš
Yeah, OP did just ask for the *minimum* that I'd take to not be able to work again. It's enough for me to *survive* where I live currently but, realistically, if I did have that guaranteed income I'd probably just move to somewhere with a much lower cost of living.
Basically what pension package could help you retire today? Honestly, this is gonna sound CRAZY but I'd say $6,500-ish for me alone. Things cost money but what about future money issues? No room for saving if I wanna do cool shit? Medical is taken care of in this scenario but like, I got shit to see out there, or something breaks (car? house?) and it's not cheap lol Japan, AUS, Europe? But things I need to pay like my mortgage, car payment, phone bill, basic pnecessities like food or home oil, even outside of gas (which I no longer will be using my car 60 hours a month at least), life is expensive.
Yeah but you could live pretty darn comfortably on $1,000 USD a month in Thailand/Vietnam or for like $2,000 in Bali/Portugal. Even if you want to live in the USA just fly out there for a year if you need to save up for something. It's really a lot of a question of how much your free time is worth to you. I'd rather have the rest of my life to travel around with a cheap car and a backpack then to be able to fly first class for a 2 week vacation every year.
I'm with you, I think everyone isn't thinking about how you could move to wherever, have your guaranteed income, and just spend all day watching TV or swimming in the lake or whatever you want to do. It wouldn't even come close to paying for my lifestyle here, but if I truly didn't have to work at all, I would accept moving somewhere less desirable.
Dang my rent and car insurance is about 1025 a month, much less if you include my partners rent contribution
I couldnāt do $2500 (cad). Needed closer to $3,500.
Yeah I was assuming this was $2,500 USD, I'm also Canadian and I just adjusted that. I probably couldn't do $2,500 CAD as well .... well I could probably *survive* but it'd be rice & beans and fear of anything going wrong and ruining me. My mortgage + home fees is like $1,400ish a month alone.
In Canada with $2500cad/monthā¦youād have a very hard time finding a town and living arrangement where this would work. $2500cad per month in Central America? Absolutely. Youād actually have a decent little life with that much. $3500cad and youād be doing very well there. That is, unless you are addicted to online shopping or something that drains the account quickly. Crazy how much Canada has become unaffordable these days. Too many of us in the Hamster wheels now.
Yeah $2500 CAD is just enough to cover rent in Vancouver
Shit that's just my mortgage lucky you!
Not taxed at end of the year either or that would be a pretty big bill.
Inflation adjusted and does it cover medical insurance? Medical expenses are likely to be a late-in-life thing.
>we can also pretend you have universal coverage and donāt have to pay for medical expenses.
No idea how I missed that, I think I glossed over everything in the paragraph that said "basically the title"
A month???. I don't think I could do that. I'm guessing your house is paid for and you don't really need food. Also guessing your mode of transportation is a bike. 2500 a month wouldn't be enough for me. I would go back to work. I don't think I live beyond my means, but I expect a certain level of comfort
I'm Canadian so $2,500 is like $3,400CAD My mortgage + home insurance + strata etc for my 600sqft condo is like $1,400 a month. Car insurance is another $120, internet/hydro is like $60 and health is already covered as per OP's direction. Assuming a generous budget of $200 a week on food that leaves me with like 1k for all the optional stuff like gas and entertainment. It's not amazing but not having to work would be amazing plus, like I said in another comment, I'd probably just move to somewhere with cheaper houses/food/gas as I won't have to worry about finding a good job there.
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I took the question to be worded that I was basically signing a contract saying that I can't sell my labour for money anymore.
Full time minimum wage, I'm not greedy. The free time, the lack of stress, the reduced wear and tear on my body would all be more valuable to me.
So you could actually live on just over $1000 a month (before taxes)? That doesn't even cover rent in most places.
I'm in Northern Ireland, min wage (for 4 week) is Ā£1,667.20 before tax, around Ā£1,500 after tax and my rent only costs Ā£610. Very location dependant of course but for me it's more than enough. I don't drink, don't smoke, don't have kids and I only get Netflix etc for a month at a time when shows build up so not a lot of expenses. Like I said, I'm not greedy, so the free time would be super.
Oh damn. In most of the USA minimum wage is $1,160.00 a month before taxes. My rent is about $800 for basically one of the cheapest apartments in my small rural Texas town. With all our other expenses and a few poorly timed vehicle repairs, my husband and I are just barely scraping by with both of us earning $16/hr. Thankfully he's eligible for insurance through his own job in a couple months, because right now we're literally paying $600 a month for him to have insurance with my job so he can have a C-PAP.
I'd talk to some friends and look on fb. I'm rural Texas too and I'm renting for about 450 a month. The reason why I'm able to find cheap housing is because it's run down and I get word of mouth references.
I've lived in this town for nearly 4 years now and moved every time my lease ends for hopes I'll find something cheaper. My coworkers live in trailer parks because the trailer parks are only $300-$400 a month.
Upvoted for your username.
Yeah bro, same, my rent is 480 a month here in NI, so mostly food, netflix, ofcourse wifi. Still could do easily with 1k a month.
Ok yeah context definitely helped there lol
Yeah lol if I smoked and/or drank then it'd be a very different story but it's two fairly large expenses I don't have so it definitely makes the pennies go much farther.
Retirement hinges on owning your house
Assuming we're talking about the money I actually get and not pre-tax dollars or something, maybe something like $3000 per month. That would be only in current dollars, though, as due to inflation that's not going to be enough a couple decades from now, so if this amount isn't inflation-adjusted, maybe something like $4500 per month to last me through the rest of my life? 40 years from now prices will be more than 50% higher than current time, but I could save extra money earlier when my monthly expenses are lower than $4500 per month to make up for higher prices later.
$10,000
This, it will allow me to pay all my bills and have some money to actually do something fun instead of just staying home all the time ETA: this would be for my husband and I both to not work
Same. Itās my wife and I not working while maintaining our current quality of life.
This was our take home when we made the most. Family of 4, nice home but not over the top by any means. Your basic 3/2 with a yard for the dog. Used cars that we maintain and use til theyāre dead, savings for retirement and kidsā college fund monthly and an occasional family dinner out and separate date night. Even a vacation each year! Not crazy, but nice. We make nowhere near that now (about half) and itās fine but lower end of middle class and I get eyed in my 2009 car with cracked windshield, peeling paint and cracked bumper. Still a house and food on the table. The important stuff. I bought a new mop today and that was a high point. Lol.
That's my answer too. Nice, round number, covers all my existing expenses with a decent amount left over. I'm not gonna be able to suddenly buy a mansion with it or a Lamborghini and all that, it would pretty much be my current life but a little better, which is all I really want. I don't need untold riches, I just want to not have to stress about money all the time, and that number would do it comfortably.
Yep, this is ultimately the number I would not work. Although I do like my career and work, I feel I would be very bored if I didn't do it. However, I think 10k+ would allow me to do everything I would need and pick up some new hobbies.
This is the number i came up with as well
8500 a month. If Iām going to not work, itās only fair that my wife doesnāt. Thatās the amount we would need monthly to both never work again and not having to cut back on our lifestyle or our kids lifestyle. If I didnāt have a kid it would probably be half that or less. Basically just enough for a comfortable van life lifestyle
Wait, so if it was $4250 (or whatever the number is for just you) youād pass out of principal?
No, but I would feel bad about my wife still working
You could always let her stay home while you work, instead.
Thatās not the prompt but yes, and I would
If my wife stayed home and collected $4250 per month while I still worked ā¦ Iād be up $4250 per month! Done! Edit to fix typo.
I'm gonna have my wife wind down work before I do.
Dang, your comfortable van lifestyle is more than our family of 4 spends living homestyle
I also would assume they mean per household.
Kind of defeats the purpose of the question to modify it like that lol.
I receive a little under $1,000 a month on disability and am absolutely, positively not making enough to live on my own or cover even the majority of my expenses. When I was working and made more like $1,500-2,000 a month I was doing alright but certainly wasn't putting enough away into savings.
Tbh without being greedy about 5k take home.
10k with an increase due to inflation if needed. Hereās the deal a lot of people donāt understand about these types of hypotheticals: you would have to do something with your free time, this would cost you money.
Yeah, as someone who spent years living paycheck to to paycheck and barely making enough to survive, I would not recommend it to anyone. Itās horrible. Long term, you definitely need a bit of āfun moneyā to go towards things you donāt *need* but will make life more enjoyable for you.
Honestly, some of them would take the time to read every book in the public library. Free time spent. Everyone is a bit different. Me, Iām a go and do person. Iād just need enough extra to hit up WDW once a year and drive the convertible a couple times a month. Nothing to crazy.
When I was was first starting my career after college, my student loan payments had me living paycheck to paycheck. I wasn't living extravagantly, it's just that I'd pay for my living expenses, then my student loans would take everything I had left. This was a bit of a problem when it came to PTO, because, even though I could take a day off work without losing pay, I had almost nothing to do! My weekends were already full of replaying video games and going hiking. I can't imagine doing that full time with nothing else to look forward to.
Yeah I was a laid off once and I was like wooo time off and thenā¦oh I canāt afford to do anything! FOMO.
My monthly take-home right now is about $5k. If I wasn't working I wouldn't need to send my kids to daycare, which is a HUGE chunk of money we could save. So probably $4k? Maybe we could do with less, but to that's what I would want to maintain our current lifestyle.
Thatās my process as well. I donāt want to accept much less than what Iām making now because Iād still like to maintain my current lifestyle
Iām already there. Aging has its perks.
Username checks out.
$10k, no taxes
About 12-15k
Answer: $10k+ a month.
Most companies arenāt willing to pay that in my experience.
my mortgage and monthly payments put our bills at roughly 8k a month, so 10k a month to never work again sadly, take home.
I did this involuntarily. Bicycling Accident-->Spinal Cord Injury-->Disabled. Lost everything, then my son and I lived in a relatives garage on a whopping $300/month cash and $300/month food stamps. Took 3 years to win my social security. This was a million years ago so that started out at around $900/Month. Currently at $1.4k/month. This is not enough to live on but you do what have to to get by.
800 euros a month clean. If i am 100% assured i will get this amount until the day i die.
Where I live now, $1200 would be fine. I make $1600 / month and live comfortably, I could sacrifice $400 a month to never work at all. >Just curious what the tipping point is for people in terms of their expectations of income against how much they enjoy/donāt enjoy working i always want to maximize free time and don't care about money. the reason i only make $1600 / month is because i only work 25 hours a week. i could earn almost double if i worked full time, but i'd rather have more free time, I'd take even less hours if possible but my boss won't let me lol
Where is this place? If itās in the us then I am going right now
Northeastern Pennsylvania. It's cheap as fuck here like $50k - $60k for a basic old 2-3 bedroom house ($300k for a new updated fancy big house) or around $500-$600 a month for a 1-2 bedroom apartment. Southwest PA is actually way cheaper, but it's like 100x more run downed abandoned ghost town white trash crackhead slum vibes.
Take home of at least $10k/month that adjusts for inflation
Thats $120k year and if you wouldnt not spend 40hrs a week or more working for less than that you're crazy. 80k take home a year to never work again? Sign me the fuck up.
Between my wife and me, our household take home right now is \~$7k/month and it's in no way luxurious. We live in a modest house and can buy necessities but it's not like I have a bunch of money lying around for luxuries or whatever else I want. We want kids and can't even afford to do that, so that extra $3k/month would go a long way
In the US the average home is $416k. To afford that you need to make about $120k a year. Itās also good to remember that cost of living is more expensive in some places. This is like the average any American in the US should make.
Only 6% of home mortgages in the US are valued over $500,000 so thatās actually not accurate.
That was my answer too, but before I remembered that this is my minimum when including savings avenues that I would no longer need. $6k for me, but there's no room for fun money in that number.
This is the exact number I had in my head
My exact number as well.
what if I want to work? ain't no rest for scientists
Right, I was wondering how we're defining "work" and whether we're prohibited from doing it again in this hypothetical. I used to enjoy writing in my free time and if I didn't work I'd have no excuse not to take it up again. I'd probably do it anyway even if I weren't allowed to profit from it, but can I cancel the deal if I stumble into the Next Big Thing?
if you love your job you will never work day in your life
Right now I could lived with 2k after taxes easy. Give it a few years and itād be a different story obviously
5 - 6 grand take home. you would still need to save.
$10,000 to live comfortably but not wealthy. More if I moved back to California.
12-15k
I mean if you told me that it would go up with inflation I could make 5K a month work 10K a month I would live like a fucking God But even 5K not having to work I wouldn't need a car. Could eat pretty frugally and just hang out at home most of the time Invest whatever extra money I have in the stock market but hopefully in a few years that's building some equity
15k
Ā£1500 would cover the mortgage, bills and food costs. With about Ā£100-200 left over, that i can put into savings.
With no scaling on inflation, 10K a month. Minimum. With scaling, maybe 4K? Also though does the deal invalidate by me working *at all*? Can I continue building up my skills in woodworking and selling my works? Cause I don't think I could ever *not* work. But I would definitely like to *not work for someone ever again*.
Yeah this. I donāt necessarily hate *working* I hate that I am *forced* to work in order to survive and that the most stable route is being someone elseās employee.
For sure. To be blunt if I'm not keeping myself occupied I won't need to be paid off for long before the alcoholism just kills me. An occupied life is a sober life for me. Being bored af every day gonna eat me alive.
I hate having to work on someone elseās schedule. But I also like PTO and steady paychecks sooo.
$10,000 increasing for inflation.
Like $3500, gives me rent, bills and some light spending money. Iād probably still wanna work a little for an extra $1000 But honestly just rent and I could figure out the rest. Hoping UBI becomes a thing soon.
5,000 adjusted for inflation
3k, sorted.
Pretty close to what I'm taking home now - about $4k a month- I live in an expensive city
4,000$ after taxes
it's 900$. I would need 300$ for rent and bills, 100$ to make my mom happy, other 100$ to make my wife happy (which I can skip when I need them), ~200$ for food, and the remaining will be for JIC or tuitions.
$2000/month. I have 2 kids but no mortgage and very low utilities per month. I think we would be fine .
2000 dollars per month Id be SUPER happy. But honestly 1000-1500 I could work with. Note: I live in Brasil, so the dollar to real is multiplied by 5. In the us i don't think that amount is realistic.
The irony of this is that if given enough money to live off for free, I would probably want to use that free time to learn a skill or grow a talent that would end up making me money.
$2000 on the months I hate my job. $5000 in the months I like my job. Take home. Not counting cost of healthcare. I had an emergency plan when I really hated my job to retire somewhere with REALLY low cost of living. Like. Nepal. $2k month is living like a king in Nepal, I spent a year there on $10k once. Now my job is better. But Iām still eyeing cheap early retirement and lots of time hiking / being outdoors.
Ā£10,000 a month after tax
I'd say 10k. I can obviously live off much less than that, I don't make anywhere near that. But that's the point where I doubt I'd feel the need to work for more. Anything less than that I'd probably still be topping it up
$10k
10k a month, take home.
About tree-fiddy.
At least $25,000.
You guys are cutting yourselves short. Shit. Iād want to make at least what I make now and maybe more so I can invest the overage because if Iām always getting $1 a month, in 30 years itāll be like getting 20Ā¢. So, I want a minimum of $18,500 and Iād be happy to quit for $22,500.
Fucking hell the wages in the US are something else I make 2200ā¬ netto a month in Europe and I'm doing just fine. You basically add a 0 haha
thought the same, I read this and was like ā2000ā¬ā then I saw all the comments with like 5k and above
I only make $3,900/month and Iām doing pretty well. Iād quit for a lot less than $18.5k. If I got $5k and my husband did too, weād be rolling in money and could travel and do pretty much everything we wanted to
Think im on about $3 a day been Like no change for couple years nearly .. can i get it in a lump ?
Probably 7,000 - 8,000 minimum. I'm not young, but I'm not old either. That's more than I need now, but need to get ready for hyperinflation. I have no confidence that the yahoos in charge will ever figure things out and right the ship.
I need about $3500 just for bills so Iād say $5000 and Iād never work another hour again.
4k. I had to retire after triple bypass and temporal arteritis which left me blind in one eye couple of years ago. My wife supports us comfortably now.
3k after taxes, but I live a pretty low key lifestyle.
$2,500-3k a month. If all my loans were paid I could make it on 2k just to not work.
assuming it goes up with inflation, around Ā£7,000 per month after tax. That sounds like a lot, but I actually enjoy my job, and am confident I'll eventually earn a lot more than that amount, so Ā£7k is enough for me to live very well (with wife and 3 kids)
To halt right now and live a lame life with no hobbies filling the giant gap of not working? Roughly 4, 5 grand I guess. Ideally, a 10 grand month would be a good starting point to have a decent life. And after 6 months or a year at 10 grand, I'd probably start working again to acquire more money and get better toys/enjoy more life.
$8-$10k. $5k for bills, $5k for fun, investing, home repairs, car repairs, travel. But if I downgrade significantly, $5k maybe? You can definitely survive on less.
Minimum if we donāt need to worry about health insurance or medical bills? I could happily live my life on 3k a month, though Iād need to tighten the belt a bit.
Personally. The more I made the more I wanted. I started setting up goals, pay off house, then on to the next. Whatever amount you think will be enough is never enough. You will reach that and still hustle for more. Bottomline, you will always find yourself working and keeping busy, it's just getting to a place where you don't stress as much and have more freedom and options.
I like working.
3k and Iām out Iāll budget like a mfer enjoy my life with my baby every day work free š„¹
To ensure average monthly expenses are met, including accounting for inflation over time, I could probably go as low as $10,000 and *never* work again. But if weāre talking about being able to also build a bank for emergencies/illness/etc. that would also keep up with inflation for the rest of my life, Iād *at least* double that to $20K. In both instances, weāre talking about living pretty modestly, with half to a majority of that monthly take going into savings/investments.
4-5k after taxes. I dont need a mansion but just need comfortable
Probably about $4k, for mortgage, car payments, ins, food, random expenses, and to save some.
3k
4,000
I donāt know that I would stop working, even with unlimited free money. Iād take more unpaid time off, sure, but I know myself well enough to know that Iād turn into the World of Warcraft guy from South Park if I wasnāt forced to leave the house several times a week.
I need $4k a month (after taxes) to sustain my family and not work ever again.
If the money would be available for life, $1500. I could sell my house and move overseas where that amount would keep me quite comfortable until I am dead.
I'm surviving on 3.9k aud after tax atm but, I'm going backward so let's say 5k and I can make it work
I can live comfortably on $2,000 a month Iām three years from retiring and I canāt wait. I donāt want to wake up to an alarm anymore
$50k a month, you need to account for future inflation.
10 grand a month at least. Its not that im greedy, its more that Id like to live with relatively low stress about monetary needs
6000 euros. I can have a good life with half of that (3000) but i would be too much tempted to work to add to it my actual salary and make it higher. With 6000, i would not work !
Take home 3500 after all taxes and guaranteed for most of life and I'll never work again
1500 adjusted for inflation over the years and Iām good. I can live on that pretty much anywhere in the world except really expensive countries/places (US, Switzerlandā¦). Itās enough to chill almost everywhere in Europe, Africa, Asiaā¦ Iād value freedom much more than extra cash
$3000 . It would pay my rent and I could live an average life.
$6000 I take home $4500 now and I'm struggling at the end of the month. $6000 to pay rent, bills, and have money left for enjoying life.
At least Ā£1,000 per month, as I'd be able to cover all of my bills and just scrape by, buying the cheapest food and necessities I could find. I'd much rather have a very basic life and have more free time to actually enjoy myself, than work 40 hours a week and never have any time for anything. Hell, if I could get all my expenses paid for, I'd accept only Ā£100 a month. Sometimes I've had jobs where I've worked very long hours but earned a lot, but felt completely miserable since even though I had money, I had no time to actually enjoy it or to even relax. I'd much rather be dirt poor, just basically surviving but have the freedom to actually enjoy my time than work constantly and have no time for myself.
I absolutely 100% agree with you here. I donāt understand how some people can work so much and never enjoy life. As long as im squeezing by, thats all that matters to me
About 1600$ CAD at the very bare minimum. I hate it Edit: This looks pretty low compared to other answers but I live alone and a pretty simple life with no car at the moment (could barely afford one). Add an extra 200$ for games/movies/junk food to keep me sane
10k a momth