Kind of life changing money, good to see such rewards
Buy-vs-rent is nearly always monetarily in favor of rent.
250k down payment is ~20% of 1.3 million which at ~6.5% comes out to you paying ~2.4 million. This doesn't include maintenance, insurance, or taxes.
I have a bunch of calculators in this post (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44794529) but that thread also has a lot of other people explaining the same thing.
It was not a down payment on a house in LA/SF/NYC. it was not enough to start a company and hire people. If I’d changed my life style to be like a college student and live with roommates then it might have given me 2-3 years of student lifestyle but I was 34 and not prepared to go back to student lifestyle
To be honest it was super disappointing. Of course getting a $240k bonus is a privilege. My only point was it didn’t change my life like I thought it would.
And, that was 25 years ago. today, even a million ($600k after taxes) in those 3 cities won’t likely change your life. Maybe you could put a down payment on a house or pay for your kids college tho but it not the freedom I thought it would be
>>won’t likely change your life. Maybe you could put a down payment on a house or pay for your kids college tho but it not the freedom I thought it would be
How is being able to put a down paymenent on a house or being able to send your kids to collage debt-free not life changing?
Because neither of those are going to change your daily life that much? It simplifies a thing or two, but neither of those things are life-changing.
There's a lot of people who can't even imagine ever being able to put down a deposit on a house or to send their kids to collage debt-free. With an amount of money like that you can go from being trapped in a rent hell forever to actually purchasing your own house. Or you can give your kids the education you want to give them. They are major, life changing impacts. Again, to describe it as "simplifes a thing or two" to me implies that you could do them even without this money in which case yeah, it changes very little.
You’re sounding very out of touch to be honest.
I have a hard time seeing it as life changing for me, having a decent paying job (not silicon valley developer scale) in a expensive country. Ofc if I was having a low paying career without that many perspective my outlook might differ.
I dont live a place where you pay for your kids being in college so I cant speak for that part.
And, the bigger point is, even if you could afford a house, is that life changing? Would your life style change because you bought a house? Or, would it just basically be the same life style as before except you now own a house?
To me, life changing amount of money means an amount that changes my life style. That could mean, an amount that lets me retire and never work again. Or an amount that lets me quit and start my own company. Or quit and go back to school. Or quit and travel for a few years. Something alone those lines, having my "life change". Buying an apartment but having my life remain the same, same job, same hours, same activities, is not "life changing" to me.
I fully admit a $240k bonus ($140k after taxes) it could be life changing for others. If I'd been 19yrs old when my living expenses were $20k year, then $140k in the bank would have let me go ~7yrs without a job. Unfortunately my 19yr old self would have probably blown 30% on a car, 20% on travel or other things, 10-20% on random equipment like a new gaming rig or cameras and lens and then in a few months I'd be back where I was. And, even if I did manage to not blow it and do the 7 years, what else could I have done. Could I started a company and hired people? How many could I afford to hire and for how long? Would it be enough to not just lose the money or would have needed more than $140k?
>>Buying an apartment but having my life remain the same, same job, same hours, same activities, is not "life changing" to me.
That's a weird definition,most people would consider not having to worry about housing pretty life changing. But you know, you're free to have any definition you want. "Having enough money to retire and not work" isn't the goal for all of us. I'd rather keep working and making more money, but not having to worry about a mortgage would be pretty life changing(for me).
As for worry about housing - when renting the landlord can kick you out almost at any time - you live in a constant fear that due to someone's whim you might have to move. If you own a house(even with a mortgage) that is generally lot less likely to happen. But honestly, I don't know why I'm explaining this.
It is in Taiwan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia...
I think you probably know people who've gone though something like this via inheritance. A parent dies, leaves them $200-300k You don't see their life change at all. Of course most people don't inherit that much but enough do that you probably know some of them or your family knows some of them and yet nothing noticable changed in their life.
It's "I can probably stop worrying about money for a while" kind of money, not "life-changing" money. Not a whole lot you can buy for $250k. After taxes, that probably doesn't even buy a house.
Still cool that you can get a house so cheap in Sweden.
This price level won’t get you close to a major city, but being within a quick drive or a bus of a reasonably sized town should be doable. (And now I’ve just seen this slice of the late 60s, wow: https://www.hemnet.se/bostad/villa-5rum-centralt-hedemora-he...)
If you got a $240,000 bonus in the mid-2000s in tech, that very likely means you were living in one of the tech metros (SF, NYC) and you could expect nearly 50% of that to be paid in taxes (CA/Fed, NY/NYC/Fed). So you take home about $120,000.
It's a windfall of money to be sure. But being in an employment situation where even such a bonus is possible likely means you already have significantly higher costs than the average person. Maybe you'll pay down some student loans and bolster your savings. But this is far from being "rich". High-earners also tend to have high costs of living.
of course $140k would be life changing for most people. but OP, and i suspect most of the other commenters, are not in that situation.
It’s a fact that my life didn’t change so it wasn’t a life changing amount of money for me.
Maybe it would be life changing for others. tho at least in sf/nyc/la I suspect it wouldn’t for most people. If I had given it to my sister she’d have used it to pay down her mortgage. her life wouldn’t change. she’d have still had a mortgage and her day to day life wouldn’t have changed at all. My nephew could have used it to pay off his student loans. That would be great but again his daily life wouldn’t have changed
Definitely not going to quit my job.
Definitely not going to go back to school.
Sure, I could spend it on a vacations over the next decade but I could already do that so not life changing.
I like my car already.
Maybe a renovation?
At the end of the day, I'm already doing things I like to do so additional money mostly is just going to be saved which isn't life changing. It's nice but not life _changing_.