What is a life changing amount of money for you?

Being instantly gifted $1-$10 million would be what I consider a retirement changing amount of money. The higher end would start bordering on life changing as it would allow for earlier retirement.

To get to the point of, instantly transform my life right now, I'd need $50+ million... Even then it would still be something that must be budgeted wisely to avoid exhausting it.

A million dollars may sound like a lot but when you can spend 2/3-3/4 for a nice suburban home, and the rest gets eaten up by ancillary costs with having something like that. You can see it quickly vanishes... You have a net negative change in your life.

This is why I have to think big numbers for immediate change. Small numbers are all about putting things in place for probable future life changes.

$10 million and I would feel comfortable knowing I wouldn't need a job again. Less is certainly doable but just doesn't "feel" like I'd be safe mainly because I'm in the US in San Francisco and healthcare (prior to Medicare age) and housing expenses can easily eat up your savings if you're not careful.

It's hard to pin that down exactly, but let me put in these terms... the dollar number I've long had in mind as "I could quit working, live on savings/interest, and do more or less whatever I want with the rest of my life, without living a lavish lifestyle" is $14 million.

If I, say, sold a company for enough to where I walked away with that much (after taxes, for the sake of argument) I'd buy a house (not a fancy house either), a car or two, a bass boat, and the rest would go in various mostly long-term investments. I think I'd be pretty settled at that point.

Depend so much where in the world you are . And your age.

In the US cities, say around 30 years old - most likely $5 million. Rural areas $2 million

$9 million