Maximum money you would like to have

[Kamban]

No, this is not a silly question. And not the same as how much is enough, which was the topic of PoF post today

The usual tendency to answer is as much as Jeff Bezos or Bill  Gates or Mark Zuckerberg. But at that level of wealth you lose all privacy. You cannot go to a grocery store or ball game without being recognized by people, or worse, paparazzi. Charities and families might come out of the woodwork for handouts. You might need security all the time. You or your family might be at risk for kidnapping, especially if you travel abroad.

But if you want to have luxurious lifestyle ( like travel first class, have a great home and eat at high end places and so on) while still preserving anonymity and not appear in Forbes wealthiest list, what would be maximum wealth that would do it. Maybe $500M. At that point you are well below a billionaire and not worth a mention in finance publications and yet you can easily hide the wealth and enjoy the lifestyle you dream of.

Thoughts.

[Eye3md]

Not that I will ever achieve it but I would feel absolutely comfortable at living the high life, for the rest of my life, at $50M+. To me, this is so much money that it would not change your luxury lifestyle, even with a downturn in the economy/market

[Hatton]

I think 500 mill would put you on the radar in my state.  I think I would rather win a small powerball lottery say 20-50Mill as opposed to some new record breaking amount that would guarantee coverage by national news media.  Enough is a figure that I am starting to really believe I have obtained.

[StarTrekDoc]

Parameters -  Anonymity

Net worth north of $20M will probably result in significant amount of donations as it would outpace any real luxury spend we'd do.

[AR]

I'll take Bezos money.  I think I can live with the sacrifices.

[wideopenspaces]

Huh. My 9 yo would say a billion dollars ;-) I honestly don't understand the point of having a crazy ton of money. I definitely would not want to deal with the invasion of privacy that celebrities deal with. I'm not even on social media for the privacy reason. I'd say 5 million? Not even sure what I'd do with that amount . . .

[VagabondMD]

I think that if the money is accumulated quietly and over time, the monetary capacity to live well and live anonymously is unlimited. Large charitable contributions would normally mark you as an elite, but this could be handled anonymously and or via a Foundation.

[Antares]

A friend of mine is worth somewhere between 500M and 1B, living in NYC. He is utterly anonymous in public, although perhaps not in financial circles. It would be unlikely anyone on this board would have heard of him.

Personally, I’m not sure anything north of 10M would substantially enhance my quality of life or sense of well-being. None of the things I enjoy most cost money.

[MPMD]

i agree that $10M would be the point at which I think I would probably find it nearly impossible to do anything more that I wanted to do and would start giving it away in handfuls.

i mean at this point i'm 36, i'm not going to develop a boating or aircraft hobby. there's places i'd like to go and things i'd like to do but i think i could absolutely destroy a bucket list for a few hundred grand let alone millions.

[DMFA]

Eleventy billion. But I think I'd feel a lot of pressure if I ended up in ten figures, tbh. I'd have a hard time figuring out how to utilize it appropriately for all the things I‘d want to do with it: where should I build a sewage system or hospital next, etc. But I don't think there's an upper bound. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it, I guess.

[AR]

I'm a little surprised at some of the answers here.  But I guess I might be interpreting it differently.  My interpretation is that we've basically got a genie coming out of a lamp and saying, "I'll give you as much money as you want.  So, how much?"  I can't imagine that anyone would answer that with 5 million or even 10 million. .

Or here's an alternative interpretation.  Let's say a friend gives you a lottery ticket.  You win, but it's a very weird lottery.  As winner you have two choices you can accept 10 million or 20 million.  I can't believe that anyone would take the 10.

Run the same experiment with 50 million or 100 million.  I would be really shocked if anyone took the 50.

But maybe I'm just really weird or I'm interpreting the question differently.   I guess if we tack on to the interpretation that you have to also start with the average amount of fame that someone with $X has (but after you receive it, you can take whatever steps you want to lower your profile), that changes things a little, but not a whole lot.

[Antares]

I wasn’t suggesting I would reject the higher genie offer. Just that I don’t believe the higher amount will have much impact on my life/happiness/sense of well-being.

[tex]

I'm imagining some level of wealth where you have the luxury of being paranoid - buy a remote island compound and install a secret bunker and then kill the guy who installs the bunker for you type situation - and wanting to have less money that. I want my zombie apocalypse plan to always be 1) eat a pizza 2) take some sleeping pills and 3) watch a favorite movie together as a family because adequately self insuring is outside of our budget.

Honestly though, not much beyond nice apartment in the city, nice house in the country, and ability to charter a jet whenever I like.

 

[hightower]

I really don't think I'd need that much.  5-10 million would be plenty honestly.  A paid off house in a reasonably priced area (in terms of property taxes, cost of living) and 5-10 mil in the bank would easily give me 300k to live on annually (assuming 4% withdraw rate on a 7.5 million portfolio).  With that kind of cash flow, no required payments other than taxes and insurance and no need to go to work every day, I could be very, very happy.  I don't need 100k sports cars or a private jet.  I don't even really need to fly first class.  I would just travel a lot.  Probably would grow vegetables on the in-laws farm during the summers and travel intermittently.  Then in the winter (after the holidays) I would live in Hawaii in my vacation property.  Again, it would be something small, reasonably priced.  My wife would rent it out as an airbnb the rest of the year so it wouldn't really cost us that much in terms of upkeep and taxes.

If I had the scenario described above, I can't imagine wanting anything else...other than wanting to get better at playing music (guitar, piano) and becoming fluent in at least one foreign language (probably french since I took so much of it already).  I would try to read a lot. Do a lot of photography while traveling. Play music and hang out with friends/family.

 

[hightower]

wideopenspaces wrote:

Huh. My 9 yo would say a billion dollars  I honestly don’t understand the point of having a crazy ton of money. I definitely would not want to deal with the invasion of privacy that celebrities deal with. I’m not even on social media for the privacy reason. I’d say 5 million? Not even sure what I’d do with that amount . . .

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Totally agree.  I don't think I'd be able to spend even a tiny fraction of it.  Even if I took care of everyone I've ever known on a close personal level (paid off all their debt and gave them all a million bucks?).  That would burn through like what maybe 200 million assuming I gave that much to everyone who attended our wedding?  If you're a billionaire you've still got at least another 800 million left over!  Just parking that in bonds and earning 4% on average would generate 32 million dollars a year.  That's what I call "WTF Money."

If I had that kind of cash I would end up like Warren Buffet just giving it all away.  I'd probably set up a fund to give all of my wealth to the National Park Service.  That would be my only "want" with that kind of wealth.  Keep 10 million for myself and give the rest away to preserving our National Parks.  I'd die a happy man knowing I did that.  I'll die a happy man anyway, but I'd be a REALLY happy man knowing I did that.