many Americans are the worst with money...this is a crisis in the US

A million in liquid assets is good if it doesn't include the primary residence.

 

Invested with a 5% gain per year a million dollars earns $50,000/yr in profit.

5% is a very conservative adjusted-for-inflation gain on an investment portfolio.

In reality, returns above 5% are normal and can be used to grow the principle of the investment. From January 1970 to December 2007, the average compounded rate of return for the S&P 500, including reinvestment of dividends, was approximately 11.4% per year.

The median annual household income in the United States in 2006 was $48,201.00.

Therefore, if you can manage to accumulate one million dollars without the &$%^&*%^&* socialists stealing it from you, you can quit your job and go surfing until you die.

 

I'm not too worried. I survived the Jimmy Carder presidency; I know how to invest in a period of runaway inflation.

 

yeah if you move to third world country, not too many places in the US you can live on the ocean for that amount, if your super frugal maybe.

Maybe somewhere on the gulf or northern florida

yeah and its sucking ass lately though, what year to date on that now like -9%

but on a side note, in the Florida before house prices started to crash there where million dollar houses everywhere, I used to think wow , you could buy that house or you could maybe never have to work again

of course right now there is the world sailfish tournament going and there are rows of multi-million dollar boats in the harbor. Some of those boats have gas tanks that hold like 1500 gallons of gas and they get like .3 miles to the gallon, lol

 

US will never ever come to thtat

 

I bet a million dollars is still a hell of a lot of money to everyone posting in this thread, including me.

 

A million dollars is a lot of money but you can't retire on it

 

Why not? Ensure a 7% return and live frugally. Besides, if you have one million, it's much easier to make the second million.

And if anyone doesn't think a million bucks is a lot of cash, please PayPal it to me and I'll concede your point.

 

You can't ensure a 7% return. Not while you are consuming the principal.

A million is only a lot of money to people who have never handled cash flow in excess of 5 figures.

 

I live in Orange County, Southern California, and almost everyone that owns a house here is a millionaire. It is becoming harder and harder to find housing that is not $600k or more anywhere in Southern California, even with the recent slump in real estate. A million dollars is not what it used to be. It used to be such an unattainable number, but now its really not that hard to achieve as a net worth.

 

give it a minute, the drop CA house prices are going to make florida look good

 

Here on my country with 1million dollars in the bank you get like 80k dollars every year.

Around 6k dollars/month doing NOTHING is like a dream for me, i'm like really crazy about trading market and money so if i have all the day to invest 1 million dollars i can get 30% a year easily, 30% of 1mi is like 300k(25k a month).

But if i had 1mi i would probably stay with the 6k and don't even invest(work), just play alot of videogame and get laid everynight lol

 

"Here on my country with 1million dollars in the bank you get like 80k dollars every year." In mine even more You can make it back within 6 years if you convert it to local currency. In USD....hmm...like 9.

"But if i had 1mi i would probably stay with the 6k and don't even invest(work), just play alot of videogame and get laid everynight lol" haha, probably will do the same but knowledgable people say it will become boring over time

Based on replies on this thread I see that typical ROI in USA much lower (about 2 times) than in developing world, am I mistaken ? But probably more stable. Anyway I saw sometimes that offline busineses sold for kinda 2 years income even in USA. Also people still want sometimes 3-4 and even more years of income for their websites

I really don't have 1 mil but live in flat which costs $350k in current market prices. May become lower however. Also saved some money as well as parents. Cars here are 2 times in costs than in USA. So practically you will not feel yourself fully like million dollar guy if you have $1m

"A million dollars is not what it used to be." Absolutely true.

"And if anyone doesn't think a million bucks is a lot of cash, please PayPal it to me and I'll concede your point." LOL, but will paypal make such transaction ?

"A million is only a lot of money to people who have never handled cash flow in excess of 5 figures." Hmm...maybe so, but I think it will be like $20-25k/month here. As I said $10k and even more easily can be done via bank.


And $1m question. Does the banks in USA give you a loan for car/house/business/whatever if you get web based income ? Let's say network of adsense/aff websites ?

 

30% easy??

 

30%?, mutual funds run by probably some of the smartest investors in the world in a good market often don't make 30%

 

A lot of people in this thread claiming that one million is "nothing". Hell, prove it. Send me the million and I'll tell you whether I feel rich now or not.

 

I don't think anyone said a million is nothing, but not that many years ago a million = set well for life

it could still mean set for life, if you live frugally but not like it used to mean

 

Emotionally, it's all about perspective.

When I was teaching, I was making $30k/yr. Now I make over $30k/mo.

Each step up is emotionally rewarding, but it only takes a few weeks to get used to any new level of income. Then, once you take it for granted, it just doesn't bring anywhere near that same level of joy and elation again.

Right now I have over a million dollars in cash and receivables (which are NOT offset by payables -- I have no outstanding payables). It doesn't "feel" like a lot of money. I "know" that it is a lot of money. It's a classic left-brain vs. right-brain argument.

Whatever you or I feel though, it is important to remember that $1M really really really still is a lot of money. It's enough to live on - until you die - with a passive income that is slightly higher than that of the average American. This is, to my mind, an excellent definition of "a lot of money."

 

This is probably the best explanation of what I am talking about.

Yes, it is a substantial amount of money. No, it won't last very long if you live off the principal. This means buying cars, boats, homes, jewelry etc.