I could live on $20k/year easily, given I stay in the same place. A ROI of ~3%/year on an investment of $1,000,000 would sustain me for life, given that it remains constant at worst.
(Expenses: ~900USD in student loan payments, ~400USD food/utilities/internet/transit, = ~1300/month = ~15600/year. I’ll also note that I am not drawing even half that in SSI at the moment, but if not for the student debt, SSI would be livable. This relies on not paying rent/mortgage/whatever you pay for housing. If housing is an issue, location obviously matters--$30k/year in Silicon Valley isn’t worth much, but it might get you further in, say, St Louis. I specifically picked St Louis because it is both an excellent city for cheapskates and, at least some journalists there seem to think it’s becoming a tech town. I do not live there.)
Of course, if I had $1,000,000 to invest, I’d probably just spend the first $100k to wipe out most of the loans, and invest the rest. The interest drops a little, but the reduction in expenses more than makes up for it (expected gains are ~8k/year). In reality, the most likely reason that I wouldn’t win forever if someone handed me a million dollars is that I have no experience with financial shenanigans and probably would fail completely at making these payments/investments happen. That, and the no moving thing (but that’s a whole other can of worms).
I could live on $20k/year easily, given I stay in the same place. A ROI of ~3%/year on an investment of $1,000,000 would sustain me for life, given that it remains constant at worst.
(Expenses: ~900USD in student loan payments, ~400USD food/utilities/internet/transit, = ~1300/month = ~15600/year. I’ll also note that I am not drawing even half that in SSI at the moment, but if not for the student debt, SSI would be livable. This relies on not paying rent/mortgage/whatever you pay for housing. If housing is an issue, location obviously matters--$30k/year in Silicon Valley isn’t worth much, but it might get you further in, say, St Louis. I specifically picked St Louis because it is both an excellent city for cheapskates and, at least some journalists there seem to think it’s becoming a tech town. I do not live there.)
Of course, if I had $1,000,000 to invest, I’d probably just spend the first $100k to wipe out most of the loans, and invest the rest. The interest drops a little, but the reduction in expenses more than makes up for it (expected gains are ~8k/year). In reality, the most likely reason that I wouldn’t win forever if someone handed me a million dollars is that I have no experience with financial shenanigans and probably would fail completely at making these payments/investments happen. That, and the no moving thing (but that’s a whole other can of worms).