"I don't see the purpose of this thread. Is there something I'm missing, or a point you wished to make??"

The other thread just made me think about the relative value of $100K. It could be spent on a lot of things - some necessary, some unncessary. $100K would pay for more than one round of IVF, definately. If I was still doing infertility treatments, that would mean a lot to me. I used to take a medication for my arthritis that was $1200 a month. $100K would be a little over 6 1/2 years of medication.

If I spent $100K on clothing for DD, since her birth, I could spend $493 a month on clothes for her. Okay, I'd split that between me, hubby and her so that would be about $154 a month over the course of her lifetime. I could do that. Heck, I'd like to spend alomost $500 a month just on our grocery bill for the three of us. We'd eat a lot more organic food and kosher meat at that level.

The one that surprised me was investing $100K at 6% interest and getting a MONTHLY income of $500 without ever touching the principal. When I look at our long term investments I see those numbers accumulating but I never really thought of it in terms of adding to my regular cash flow. They've always been numbers on paper that will be use 'one day' or 'some day'. I can't access it now. But right now I'm working parttime from home, pulling down about $200 twice a month so $500 a month income stream without having to work would be a nice chunk of change.

It's all relative value. Let's see $100K would buy 2222 fill-ups of my minivan's gas tank IF gasoline stays at approx $3 a gallon. I could go over 650,000 miles in my van with that kind of money - some road trip!

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"I've been rich and I've been poor but independently wealthy is where it is at."

It would buy some people peace of mind and the beginning of financial independence from the burden of debt. Thankfully, I have never had that problem, but I can see where it would be a godsend for those in that scenario. It would also buy a number of people the beginning of a nest egg to turn their financial troubles around. It could start a retirement fund. It could start (or even pay for) a college fund for your children. I really doubt most of us are considering a Mercedes.

You are not looking long term. That is where you are not getting it.

Chopey,

I would love to live where you do with higher incomes and such reasonable cost of living! When my daughter is grown, my dh and I may consider such moves. He's a chef, and can pretty much work anywhere.

SavinMommy,

Yes, Victoria is beautiful. It's a nice place, but for the wages and prices here - I'll trade it in! Do you know what BC stands for (besides British Columbia of course)? It stands for Bring Cash, lol.

It's not necessarily that the incomes are 'HIGHER', just that they are very reasonable with the cost of living! In other words, the math works well here. I'm PMing you a website, for our local area, and I want you to look at the 'real estate' tab. Select a single family house, for sale, and go! You will see all of the for sale by owner homes here! They very from town to town, school district to school district, as far as prices go, but you won't see very many houses above even $250K here. And the ones that are, are in the upscale, ritzy areas of our local towns! Some have photos some dont, but still. I think you might find it interesting to know what area prices are. Ok, PMing you now!

Man, if we got $100,000 out of the blue we could pay off our mortgage and my student loans (undergrad and grad school) - our only debts. Then we could really save, save, save. Well, I would probably talk to a financial expert to find out if that would give us the best outcome in the end (versus investing/saving it all in the beginning).

Anyway, all I know is, we would not pass it up - or spend it foolishly!

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I'd invest it and HOPE it gained enought to cover two college tuitions from 2019-2025.

It could way more than support my family for a year, even if dh or I were not working!!! It would definitely buy us peace of mind!

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~Happiness is a large family~

Now, Cookie2, can you please, oh pretty please, find someone willing to give us all that!?!?! (A girl can dream!!)

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Yah sure, piece of mind. I agree! Pay off my house? Nah, that would use up my $100K and there would still be about $3K left to pay on it. The cost of living in CT is up there, maybe not as high as Ca, or Canada apparently, but we are up there. My dh and I for CT are about middle middle class, but if we moved to say, Floriday or TX, we would be living REALLY high on the hog on his income alone. Its all relative apparently. And the housing market is so crazy here right now, we could probably never sell. There are 3 houses on my street alone that have been on the market for quite some time, 1 about a year. We paid $115K 6 years ago for this house, and last time we checked, FMV was about $210K. BUT, no one is buying, I'd never get that much right now.

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~Missy~Mommy
Meghan8.Samantha7,Cameron4

SAVE HANDMADE TOYS!!

http://www.change.org/ideas/view/sav...from_the_cpsia

That's the real thread! Who can give us this $100,000! Each, of course!