Well, obviously, this is for some reasonable definition of have.
The numbers work for me. I'm married, and have a mortgage.
I guess I was blurring the line between being retired and semi-retired. Were I to earn such a lump sum, my daily activities would probably look the same. I just wouldn't be working for anyone else, and wouldn't have that mental burn-rate / countdown timer going.
Controlling expenses is a very powerful tool. For every after-tax dollar you save, you're saving like 2 pre-tax dollars. So, it's much more effective to save $1 than to earn an extra $1.
Here's my mental hierarchy of wealth. Each one represents a drastic change in quality of life, and options. It's somewhat logarithmic.
1) Stop living month-to-month. I.e. at the end of the month, you have enough to pay another month's expenses in the bank.
2) Pay of all debt, except mortgage.
3) Stop living year-to-year. I.e. at the end of the year, you have enough money to not work next year, possibly having to reduce your quality of life, but not to poverty.
4) Semi-retirement. If you didn't work for the next five years, you'd still have enough money to start a business at the end of the period.
5) Retirement. You can maintain your current lifestyle, or a slightly scaled-back one indefinitely. Mortgage is paid off.
6) Rich. Your kids could do (5), if you decided to fund the lazy brats.
Good points, but I'd urge paying off the mortgage before (4). Paying it off twenty years early saves a wad in the long run. And not having mortgage payments as a recurring monthly drain makes (4) easier.
Actually, you are wrong. Why pay off debt that is only costing you 6-odd percent a year (or less if you managed to refinance a few years ago) when you could invest that money and average 8-10 percent a year (or better). If you have enough money to pay off your mortgage, shove it all into the stock market. You'll come out ahead over the 30 years you're paying your mortgage.
Definitely yeah. That'll provide 50k/yr of risk-free interest to live off of while you work on something you really want to buy the house, etc. You won't have to work a side job to support yourself and can focus full time.
Sorry, no.