If I was a rich man...

[D SQDRN 97th IOTC]

It used to be said when I was a child that being a millionnaire was "rich".

What does it take now to be rich?
And how much would you need to give up work now?

I would want a city pad, house in the country, nice car, and a couple of million in the bank.

Then I would give up work..........

Chances of that however are slim unless I win the lottery.

[IO540]

No need for a city pad (who actually wants to live in London?).
Got a country house (that's where I live).
Got the world's best girlfriend.
Currently in good health (the most important thing actually).
I suppose about £2M would make an adequate "DIY pension" pot, if one loses all income at 50 and wants to keep flying 150hrs/year in a SEP.
But one would give up work only if one does not enjoy one's work. No intelligent person wants to just suddenly retire and take up gardening.
Cars mean nothing; you can buy a used 250HP tyre burner with aircon for £2k (I drive a 1995 Toyota).

If you want to buy and fly a TBM850 then you need about £10M :)

[Genghis the Engineer]

Me? A workshop and lab next to an airfield, money enough to keep designing, building and researching aeroplanes, and running a couple of interesting ones. That and never have to go to another management or finance meeting again in my life.

G

[kevmusic]

At my club I actually overheard this, from one of the senior people:

"You can't exist on two million these days. You can rub along on five million but two million just goes nowhere".

:sad:

[Gertrude the Wombat]

Probably right. The assumption that you could live on £2m was with interest rates at 5% or so, they're now a tenth of that.

[Deeday]

You don't have to keep £2m in cash. There are plenty of options for investments (medium/long term) that will give you well above 5% and still be comfortably safe. Index tracking springs to mind.

As for me, I'd be far from "going nowhere" with £2m (but I'd keep my job regardless).

[IO540]

"You can't exist on two million these days. You can rub along on five million but two million just goes nowhere".

Obviously, it depends on your age and lifestyle, but it also depends massively on the cost of your ex wife / kids. If you keep your trousers zipped up, and avoid marriage, you can live (and fly, at a low PPL-type level of capability) on suprisingly little money. But while marriage is entirely avoidable, keeping one's trousers zipped up makes for a very dull life. PROB99, the biggest financial hit you will ever take is a terminated marriage, and PROB50 it will happen to you. And you cannot plan for it, short of concealing assets.

Investment returns are not so relevant. The historically higher returns were also matched by a higher inflation.

[Pilot DAR]

Good health considered, Genghis echos my thoughts!

[fernytickles]

If I was a rich man...

D SQDRN 97th IOTC - I'd be your new sugar babe and I would care for you tenderly until you (mysteriously) passed away in your sleep, having just signed all your wordly goods, especially the money and the aeroplanes, over to lil' ol' me :ok:

[thing]

Depends what you mean by rich, money rich, time rich? I'm not a millionaire but I only work 4 days a week 36 weeks of the year in a job I enjoy and I have no hassle from anyone. My wife and I have a good relationship where I do what I want, she does what she wants, and when the he/she wants are the same we do them together.

I've done the work your balls off for good loot and I thought it was a con TBH. You don't need a Porsche or three foreign holidays a year which is how they suck you in. The most important thing is time and health, and money can't buy that. I have a month in Oz every year, the odd weekend away with mrs thing, enough money to go flying and the rest is extra.

I have a couple of friends who you would consider wealthy. One is retired but goes nowhere without his laptop so that he can worry himself about his investments and the other doesn't spend any of the money he's salted away. The problem with being rich is that you can't go back to not being rich. If you've never had any money then you don't miss it, and more importantly you don't have to worry about it. (Providing of course that you have enough and you're not in debt.) Of course if I won the lottery I would be cock a hoop but then I don't need to be a millionaire, but I wouldn't turn the money down obviously.


To answer the OP if I could retire on an income of £5000 a month then I would consider myself pretty well off. I don't know what lump sum you would need to service that but I'm sure a million in the right places would probably do it.

[NigelOnDraft]

D SQDRN 97th IOTC - I'd be your new sugar babe and I would care for you tenderly You've clearly not actually met him :{

NoD

[The Fenland Flyer]

What job do you do, Thing? That sounds like a good work/life balance to me, I work 4 days a week which seems about right but I don't take holidays.

[Pace]

Heard on the radio that to be classified as rich nowadays you need £8 million.
Above £3 million and Below that and your not rich just comfortably well orf.
But whatever the tax man will get it :(
£3 million probably a bit light £4to£5 million a bit safer

Pace

[stickandrudderman]

A little while ago there was something like £70000000 jackpot on Euromilions.
MrsStick asks why i would want that much money and I replied that I would buy every airworthy spitfire in the world and instantly become the world's only spitfire dealer! Now that's a job and a half!:E

[thing]

Fenland: Peripatetic teacher. I teach music in schools.

[fernytickles]

Quote:
D SQDRN 97th IOTC - I'd be your new sugar babe and I would care for you tenderly

You've clearly not actually met him

NoD

NoD - you've clearly never met me :E:}:8

[AdamFrisch]

Rich?

That's when I can rock up to any job in the world in my own Piaggio P180 Avanti that I piloted there myself, not ever having to fly commercial again.

[echobeach]

I am certain as IO540 so correctly states the only really important thing in all of this is our health.

I would rather be healthy in an old spam can than grounded and have the requisite 10M in the bank. I would not say no to both however (health and 10M) !

[Pace]

I can remember a politician who loudly proclaimed that money wont bring you happiness. His opponent stated that of course the politician was correct but added that he would rather be miserable and rich rather than miserable and poor :E

I am certain as IO540 so correctly states the only really important thing in all of this is our health

But again I would rather be unhealthy and rich rather than unhealthy and poor at least you can afford private health care!!!


Pace

[AfricanEagle]

I will consider myself to be the richest man on earth when I'll have a green field, a hangar and a Piper Cub always full of fuel.

[IO540]

I will consider myself to be the richest man on earth when I'll have a green field, a hangar and a Piper Cub always full of fuel.

What... no girlfriend? That's a very lonely life :)

Otherwise, I get your drift. So many people value themselves according to how much junk they accumulate, on cash or credit.

[BackPacker]

So many people value themselves according to how much junk they accumulate, on cash or credit.

"He who dies with the most toys, wins."

(Bumper sticker on the back of a Porsche 911.)

Featuring in the book "Cross Dressing" by Bill Fitzhugh. Great book about someone who had it all, then lost it all. I'm not going to give away the plot but there's a lot of good humour in there.

[Pace]

Really it is all relative. If you are a multi millionaire you may own a private jet.Lower down the income scale you may own the Piper Cub or the microlight type aircraft but I bet you will have just ad much fun in the Piper Cub as the private jet . Just different

Pace

[Fuji Abound]

Anyone who has been pilot in command of an aircraft is a very rich man indeed.

[jez d]

As Pace says, it's all relative.

I recall the wonderful Mike & Mary from Heli Air telling me they'd been down to Monaco for the weekend, staying on a yacht belonging to one of their PPL students.

They're standing on the deck of his £2m yacht when said PPL student lets out a deep sigh.

"What's up?" asks Mary.

"See that" he replies, pointing to the super-yacht moored next to his. "How the other half live..."

[wingcdr]

On a quiet afternoon in the office, we started the age-old discussion about what the first thing we would do if we won the lottery.

Rather sad, I know, but my considered response was probably to build a spreadsheet to work out how to spend it.:8

That evening I thought - why wait until I win, I'll build the spreadsheet now. So I can tell you specifically:

I'd need £4.5million to give up my current job, change of life and all that.
I'd need £8.5million to fulfill all the dreams I listed.

I won a tenner about 5 weeks ago and we got take-away........:}

[TheChitterneFlyer]

I wouldn't be posting on PPrune!

[The Old Fat One]

Anyone who has been pilot in command of an aircraft is a very rich man indeed.


I've commanded an aircraft and I'm not even a pilot.....does that make me a wealthy, pathetic loser? :{:{

"He who dies with the most toys, wins."



backpacker...love it :ok:

[kms901]

I agree with AE. A Cub full of fuel, a small hangar and a grass strip would do for me.

Oh,and a big and always stocked barbecue/bar next to the hangar.

[Rwy in Sight]

If you ask how much it costs you can't afford.

Also let's not forget that most people build their needs around their income.

Rwy in Sight

[Rod1]

Genghis the Engineer

You would defiantly need an assistant…

Rod1

[nick ritter]

As far as I am concerned, London has just got out of control in terms of prices and costs. How the average family gets by is far beyond me

Working through some very high and optimistic numbers fills me with despair

I believe that in the UK only 60 basis points of people earn over £150k a yr. Does that make you rich?

Even if you take that number to say, £500k a yr, on an assumption that most people at that level only have 10yrs to maximize this, you are looking at £5m, or £2.5m after being run over by the tax in this country

Given that a modest house in a semi respectable part of London is £1.25m, an education for two kids another £500k, a pension contribution needed to try and achieve the maximum allowance at retirement of another £500k, this very well paid person would be left with 250k to spend over the 10yrs. Heaven forbid that person were to get divorced

It is utter madness. You would need to be earning in the very top few basis points of this countries pay band and you are still, as far as I can tell, not wealthy. Yes, you are cash rich, but lose your job, your wife, or anything else and you are ruined

It is a miracle anyone can get into the air as far as I can tell, especially when what little is left over is going into a £115 tank of petrol and another 50 for a mediocre pizza with your wife at strada

Where that leaves the majority of us is beyond me

[IO540]

I agree that London is not a place to live - unless you love the "London life" (which great many young exec types do) or have a really highly paid job there which you are happy to run along with for a few years.

Very few non massively rich people live in the nice parts of London long-term. Most get out into the countryside and away from the madness as soon as they have a bit of dosh behind them.

London is good for a shopping trip but just how much junk do you need to accumulate? :) "Stuff" is cheap these days, and most can be bought by mail order.

[Pace]

There is one thing we have all forgotten? OK in the UK you are now classified as Rich if your worth is £8 million plus but thats in the UK.

The UK now one of the most expensive and heavely taxed countries in the world and its getting worse (never mind London) We dont even get the level of services for all that tax.

Sub £8 million say £3 to £5 million take that somewhere else and you would indeed be rich.

With all thats going on in Europe, with EASA, the big brother states maybe you should think that you will never be RICH in the UK and clear off.

Canada here I come a nice float plane to cruise the lakes and mountains.
Maybe go east and follow my second passion scuba diving. You would be mega rich in some of those places on sub £5 million.

Any ideas on good places to fly and live and be rich?

Pace

[IO540]

Croatia would be a start, if you are looking for a flying base, a nice climate, and not a lot to do. I don't think you are quite old enough for that, Pace ;)