I have ten dollars in cash with me today, so $1 would make me feel "noticeably" better off.
What windfall would cause me to change my future plans? I guess five or ten million, after tax.
Is that what you are asking? Why?
Follow up:
A number of people have asked about the reason for this post and my response (
@Money Badger @norajean). I wanted to wait to respond for a bit to see how others would vote, as to no
I explained a bit on my OP, but the kernel of the idea is that most people (and particularly non-mustachians) seem to think a shockingly small amount of money would make a big difference in their financial situation, and that seems to scale with both their income and their net-worth. Talk radio games, scratchers, community raffles give out prizes of $500-$5k and I've been struck at how many recipients talk about what a huge difference it made in their lives (albeit typically much shorter lived than they might think).
I was curious how a community focused on early retirement might think about an unexpected windfall
Thoughts: Overall most people who responded said nothing less than 6-figures would noticeably improve their situation. This makes sense for those who are at or near RE, as $100,000 is just a small change in a WR if you've got a portfolio of >>$1MM. What's surprised me is how many respondents who are fairly early in their savings still chose very high dollar amounts. In a way it's comforting, as there is a focus on long-term planning. But the high dollar amoutn did surprise me. To use our own situation as an example, we are roughly halfway to your "FI-Number", yet I chose $25-100k, and my exact number would be somewhere around $60-75k. Why? Because with lower incomes we can manage to squirrel away roughly $15k per year. So even though such a windfall would just get invested according to our IPS, it would represent 4-5 years of savings, and shave even more years off our required working timeline. But even more importantly it would push us further into the wave where future contributions would start meaning less to us than market forces. Which in turn would mean we could re-think whether we both needed to work and pay childcare.
anyhow, thanks to all who have participated thus far.