4 ms·

Kind of life changing money, good to see such rewards

socalgal2 1y ago
the first time I got a bonus that big, $240k, I thought it would be life changing. the gov took $100k in taxes. I paid off my car $20k. then when I really thought about it there wasn’t much I could do. 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
- jama211 1y ago
  For you maybe. For someone in debt or who has never ever had a financial safety net, the amount of stress relief from finally having a bit of safety money behind you is mental.
- gambiting 1y ago
  Depends where you live. Where I'm from $240k would buy you a really nice house with lots of land, and you'd have money left over. >>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?
  - sgjohnson 1y ago
    > 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.
    - gambiting 1y ago
      I can only assume you'd say so if you were able to do either of those things in the first place, so yeah, it doesn't feel life changing. It's like winning a car in a radio lottery when you already had a car - yeah pretty cool, but not 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.
      - bearl 1y ago
        Property taxes are very high thanks to prop 13. 250k in California is like 30k in states like Texas or Illinois, enough to make it a great year but not life changing.
        jama211 1y ago
        I think you’re exaggerating a few things, and forgetting that even if expenses like housing are higher, not every cost scales with income. The price of many standard goods are very similar. Not to mention that for example if you have x% of your income left over after expenses, that’s still way more money in one situation over another. You’re sounding very out of touch to be honest.
    - __d 1y ago
      Debt-free college is life-changing for your kid(s).
    - jama211 1y ago
      Your only definition of life changing is changing your day to day life? That’s an odd way of looking at it. Going from renting to a home owner is a BIG bucket list life changing item for most people
  - msh 1y ago
    I guess it perspective and where you are in life plus your location in the world, I would have to pay 50% tax on it so well a down payment could be it but I would still have to affort the house. 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.
  - socalgal2 1y ago
    You live in Poland? Country or City? Google estimated a 60 square meter 2br condo in Warsaw costs an average of $260k. So a $240k bonus, after paying taxes, leaves you with $145 in Poland, so no, you could not likely get a condo in Warsaw with a $240k bonus. I'm sure if you live well outside a major city that changes. 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?
    - gambiting 1y ago
      Why pick Warsaw? It's like using London as an example when someone lives in the UK - it's not representative of a country. I'm from the South of Poland, 145k after taxes gets you a big house with plenty of land, not a condo. >>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).
      - 1y ago
- defraudbah 1y ago
  why comments about taxes get gray here? is it bad behavior in US to discuss taxes?
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
- komali2 1y ago
  > it was not enough to start a company and hire people. It is in Taiwan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia...
- 1970-01-01 1y ago
  225k in 2025 dollars is life changing for anyone in the middle class of income. The reason you were unable to do anything with it is because you were already earning too much.
  - lostmsu 1y ago
    Presumably people discovering these bugs are not in the middle class of income.
  - socalgal2 1y ago
    $240k bonus was double my yearly salary. 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.
sgjohnson 1y ago
Depends on where in the world you are. I wouldn't call $250k life-changing-money anywhere developed. 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.
- robin_reala 1y ago
  In Sweden, assuming that $125k of that disappears in taxes, it’d leave you with 1.2M SEK. There are currently ~650 properties on Hemnet between 1M and 1.25M. I’d suggest maybe this one in Ödeshög at 1.1M SEK? https://www.hemnet.se/bostad/villa-3rum-odeshog-odeshogs-kommun-morlidsvagen-25-21531885 https://www.hemnet.se/bostad/villa-3rum-odeshog-odeshogs-kom... Not the biggest, but it’s reasonably well done up, comes with 2/3rds of an acre of land, is near a main motorway to get to places, and near the shore of the biggest lake in the country. If you want to take a train then it’s 30 minutes drive to the nearest station on the Stockholm-Copenhagen line.
  - dijit 1y ago
    Ödeshög is like “Abandoned Pile”, not inspiring. Still cool that you can get a house so cheap in Sweden.
    - robin_reala 1y ago
      I mean, take your pick! Here’s the listing page for all 1M-1.25M SEK houses: https://www.hemnet.se/bostader?price_max=1250000&price_min=1000000&item_types%5B%5D=villa https://www.hemnet.se/bostader?price_max=1250000&price_min=1... 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-hedemora-kommun-brunnsjogatan-27-21514808 https://www.hemnet.se/bostad/villa-5rum-centralt-hedemora-he...)
- handsclean 1y ago
  Can somebody help me understand why these obviously very stupid takes keep popping up on HN? Is it rich people who genuinely have no idea what anything costs? Is it rich people intentionally being cruel to everybody else? Is it people trying to appear rich by pretending they have no idea what anything costs? Is it a bay area thing, are people just blowing through a literal fortune every year and unaware of their spending problems? Is it children whose ideas about money come from “influencers”?
msh 1y ago
Where I live (Denmark) even if it was tax free you would more or less be unable to purchase an one bedroom apartment in the capital for this amount.
- dmix 1y ago
  Getting enough for a good down payment on a house is life changing for many people. You'll make it back not paying rent into a void.
  - Foobar8568 1y ago
    I rather pay a rent than putting 250k on a down payment and still have to pay a rent amount for 15-25 years.
    - mavhc 1y ago
      But you're then left with owning something probably worth more than you paid in total
      - lesuorac 1y ago
        It's not. 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 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44794529) but that thread also has a lot of other people explaining the same thing.
        hu3 1y ago
        Exactly. Buy is more of a peace-of-mind than financial decision.

the first time I got a bonus that big, $240k, I thought it would be life changing. the gov took $100k in taxes. I paid off my car $20k. then when I really thought about it there wasn’t much I could do. 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

jama211 1y ago
For you maybe. For someone in debt or who has never ever had a financial safety net, the amount of stress relief from finally having a bit of safety money behind you is mental.
gambiting 1y ago
Depends where you live. Where I'm from $240k would buy you a really nice house with lots of land, and you'd have money left over. >>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?
- sgjohnson 1y ago
  > 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.
  - gambiting 1y ago
    I can only assume you'd say so if you were able to do either of those things in the first place, so yeah, it doesn't feel life changing. It's like winning a car in a radio lottery when you already had a car - yeah pretty cool, but not 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.
    - bearl 1y ago
      Property taxes are very high thanks to prop 13. 250k in California is like 30k in states like Texas or Illinois, enough to make it a great year but not life changing.
      - jama211 1y ago
        I think you’re exaggerating a few things, and forgetting that even if expenses like housing are higher, not every cost scales with income. The price of many standard goods are very similar. Not to mention that for example if you have x% of your income left over after expenses, that’s still way more money in one situation over another. You’re sounding very out of touch to be honest.
  - __d 1y ago
    Debt-free college is life-changing for your kid(s).
  - jama211 1y ago
    Your only definition of life changing is changing your day to day life? That’s an odd way of looking at it. Going from renting to a home owner is a BIG bucket list life changing item for most people
- msh 1y ago
  I guess it perspective and where you are in life plus your location in the world, I would have to pay 50% tax on it so well a down payment could be it but I would still have to affort the house. 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.
- socalgal2 1y ago
  You live in Poland? Country or City? Google estimated a 60 square meter 2br condo in Warsaw costs an average of $260k. So a $240k bonus, after paying taxes, leaves you with $145 in Poland, so no, you could not likely get a condo in Warsaw with a $240k bonus. I'm sure if you live well outside a major city that changes. 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?
  - gambiting 1y ago
    Why pick Warsaw? It's like using London as an example when someone lives in the UK - it's not representative of a country. I'm from the South of Poland, 145k after taxes gets you a big house with plenty of land, not a condo. >>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).
    - 1y ago
defraudbah 1y ago
why comments about taxes get gray here? is it bad behavior in US to discuss taxes?
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
komali2 1y ago
> it was not enough to start a company and hire people. It is in Taiwan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia...
1970-01-01 1y ago
225k in 2025 dollars is life changing for anyone in the middle class of income. The reason you were unable to do anything with it is because you were already earning too much.
- lostmsu 1y ago
  Presumably people discovering these bugs are not in the middle class of income.
- socalgal2 1y ago
  $240k bonus was double my yearly salary. 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.

sgjohnson 1y ago

Depends on where in the world you are. I wouldn't call $250k life-changing-money anywhere developed. 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.

robin_reala 1y ago
In Sweden, assuming that $125k of that disappears in taxes, it’d leave you with 1.2M SEK. There are currently ~650 properties on Hemnet between 1M and 1.25M. I’d suggest maybe this one in Ödeshög at 1.1M SEK? https://www.hemnet.se/bostad/villa-3rum-odeshog-odeshogs-kommun-morlidsvagen-25-21531885 https://www.hemnet.se/bostad/villa-3rum-odeshog-odeshogs-kom... Not the biggest, but it’s reasonably well done up, comes with 2/3rds of an acre of land, is near a main motorway to get to places, and near the shore of the biggest lake in the country. If you want to take a train then it’s 30 minutes drive to the nearest station on the Stockholm-Copenhagen line.
- dijit 1y ago
  Ödeshög is like “Abandoned Pile”, not inspiring. Still cool that you can get a house so cheap in Sweden.
  - robin_reala 1y ago
    I mean, take your pick! Here’s the listing page for all 1M-1.25M SEK houses: https://www.hemnet.se/bostader?price_max=1250000&price_min=1000000&item_types%5B%5D=villa https://www.hemnet.se/bostader?price_max=1250000&price_min=1... 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-hedemora-kommun-brunnsjogatan-27-21514808 https://www.hemnet.se/bostad/villa-5rum-centralt-hedemora-he...)
handsclean 1y ago
Can somebody help me understand why these obviously very stupid takes keep popping up on HN? Is it rich people who genuinely have no idea what anything costs? Is it rich people intentionally being cruel to everybody else? Is it people trying to appear rich by pretending they have no idea what anything costs? Is it a bay area thing, are people just blowing through a literal fortune every year and unaware of their spending problems? Is it children whose ideas about money come from “influencers”?

msh 1y ago

Where I live (Denmark) even if it was tax free you would more or less be unable to purchase an one bedroom apartment in the capital for this amount.

dmix 1y ago
Getting enough for a good down payment on a house is life changing for many people. You'll make it back not paying rent into a void.
- Foobar8568 1y ago
  I rather pay a rent than putting 250k on a down payment and still have to pay a rent amount for 15-25 years.
  - mavhc 1y ago
    But you're then left with owning something probably worth more than you paid in total
    - lesuorac 1y ago
      It's not. 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 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44794529) but that thread also has a lot of other people explaining the same thing.
      - hu3 1y ago
        Exactly. Buy is more of a peace-of-mind than financial decision.