$93,770 would be nice but not life changing.
this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2025
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$90k is absolutely life changing for most people. That's a down payment on a house plus moving costs and upgrading appliances and furniture. That's the difference between poverty and living comfortably. If that's not life changing for you, then I'm not sure you're familiar with the struggle, in which case I strangely both pity you and envy you.
Sure you're not gonna buy a mansion with $90k, but you could go from renting a shithole apartment in a shithole town to owning a home in a decent area with access to better employment to sustain a much higher quality of life. $90k is a ticket to escaping geographical and financial shackles.
90k? dollars? where i live thats a life of never having to work anymore if i manage it well.
Slow your roll buddy. I didn’t say it’s meaningless to everyone, only that it wouldn’t change my life.
To your example, I already own a house but $93k won’t pay off my mortgage, or let me retire early, or cover my kids’ college costs.
Paying that large of a chunk of a mortgage would absolutely reduce your future interest costs though.
...but wouldn't change your life.
That's completely relative. Literally anything will change your life, or nothing, it depends on your perspective.
Saying "it wouldn't change my life" means literally fuck all to the people whose lives it would change.
Like good for you, I guess?
Prepaying a mortgage is almost always a worse investment than anything else because mortgage interest is tax deductible.
Not always, but often, yes. It depends on what your alternative potential uses for the money are.
Not always but often. You could even say almost always. 😉
Isn't mortgage interest deductible only if you itemize your deductions?
Sure, but mortgage interest can easily be enough to make that worth it without any other deductions. With $300K principal and a 5% loan, that’s $15K - about the same as a single taxpayer’s standard deduction and roughly half of a married couple’s standard deduction.
That's huge amounts of money in most parts of the world. Westerners don't realise just how much more their currency is worth.
It's pretty huge in the west too, though obviously not to the same extent.
It would certainly accelerate some plans of mine instead of waiting potentially years.
I remember attending a trade convention in Toronto where they were showcasing this block of pure gold around the size of a loaf of bread. It was surrounded by Mounties but they welcomed me to come forward and even asked if I wanted to try and lift it. My God that thing was heavy!!
Then as I was about to leave, they said "Hold on sir, show us your hands." I did and they said I was good to go. I asked what that was about and they said some people try to scrape a bit off under their fingernails as a souvenir since gold is one of the softer metals.
Whelp, now I know what to do next time I touch one.
So like straight up several Dudley Do Rights?
Yeah pretty much! They were in full dress with the red coats and boots and the wide brimmed hats and all that. No horses though. There was also a fair bit more security that day than usual with swat team-looking guys around the exits and stuff.
About 90k Euros. Could almost get me an entry level Porsche Taycan in Germany. But that would be a pretty stupid decision as the upkeep and insurance would ruin me. Also with German entry level cars you can be lucky if it has windshield wipers.
Tell us more about the windshield wipers.
It was a joke obviously but German cars often start with just the absolute basics, almost forcing you to pay up for extras that should be standard, especially in higher classes.
I have seen 100g gold bars available for US$10k, so you would have US$100k worth of gold.
In the wealthiest countries that's about 4x the median annual income, so 4 years worth of wages. In the poorest countries it's about 250 years worth of wages. This is simplistic math that does not account for purchasing power parity or other variables. But it's safe to say this would be a massive amount of money for most of the people on earth. It would not only change the individual's life, but would give them the ability to alter the trajectory of their children's and grandchildren's lives for the better.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/median-income-by-country
According to the page, that's using an imaginary unit called "international dollars" (which I just learned exists), which is used for comparing countries' economies. It doesn't reflect the real amount in US dollars. In US dollars the median US salary is just under $60,000. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/wkyeng.pdf
That's really interesting. I saw the term "international dollar" but glossed right over it.
1kg of gold would fuck up so many of the world populations people, much like the lottery
A kilo of gold is worth about $193k currently, which depending on where you live and how old you are means different things. For example, if that was your whole net worth and you are a Baby Boomer in the US you’d be about $1.5M below the average family. If you’re under 35, though, you’d be slightly above average. (Via kiplinger)
FWIW because the top 1% have so much wealth they skew the average significantly - overall the median net wealth in the US is right around that $193k number, but the average is just over $1M, which is pretty amazing.
$200K in net wealth would just about put you into the global top 10% and into the top 1% if those were your earnings for the year.
You added $100k by typo.
Ah damnit so I did. The rest of the numbers are true, just not as close to the 1kg’s worth as noted.
the median net wealth in the US is right around that $193k number, but the average is just over $1M, which is pretty amazing.
I'd say that the median is the average in this case. The mean usually works as a mathematical average, but in this example, it's clearly skewed.
The difference isn't between median and average, but between median and mean.
Depends if you can sell it
I could be unemployed for a long long time. Years to care for myself and heal from all the hurt piled onto me from all the abusive employment.