Yesterday I had a conversation with a fellow manager at my company that went something like this:
Other person: Could you live on $2M for the rest of your entire life?
Me: Yeah, easily.
Other: Really? (look of shock), you really could live on that much for the entire rest of your life?
Me: Yup, pretty easily.
Other: How?
Me: Well, over long periods of time the stock market returns 9%, so the income alone would be 180k per year, that's more than I live on now (80% more than I make as well but he doesn't know that, I am an accountant so I now how much he makes, 125k salary plus about 40% in bonuses, or 175k total).
Other: Oh
He and another co worker then went on to share notes about a "gas buddy" app. You see, this colleague just bought a 45k extended cab pick up truck, which he commutes 20 miles to work with, each way, by himself. This is not a joke. This was a real (painful) conversation. It was too good not to share. For the record, it rained this AM and I biked my 3.5 miles into work with raincoat and dry pants in my backpack with my Nashbar purchased lights on. It was easy, my third month doing this and my legs are MUCH stronger and cardio MUCH better then when I began.
