When I was growing up in the 70’s and 80’s being a millionaire was huge. I remember our neighbor won a million in the lottery and immediately quit his job and bought a 1500’ house with a 2 car garage 2 blocks up the street, and we looked at him in awe.
Wondering today what’s the equivalent now of a millionaire in 1980. Apparently its $3,650,000 in adjusted dollars. I was actually surprised that’s all it was.
Getting back to the point of the thread, a million bucks in liquidity isn't very much these days. I'm also a bit surprised that $3.6 million will let you live "like a millionaire" although that's compared to 1980, after the massive inflation of the 70's, so it's probably accurate enough.
I do remember when eccentric billionaire Mr. John Beresford Tipton gave away $1,000,000 to some person every week - all taxes paid. In the late 1950's and early 60's a million dollars really would set someone up to live high on the hog for life - if they didn't live
too long. $20,000 - $25,000 would buy a very nice house and $3,000 - $4,000 would get you a brand new Corvette. Even in 1970 a hot shot Hemi 'Cuda started at around $3,300.
At least until the mid-70's when home prices just about doubled. Even 15 years later in 1990 you could buy a new Ford F150 XLT Lariat for $14,000. Try that today.
Point is, unless you have liquidity coming out your ass you can't just sit on it (the liquidity or your ass) and expect to live well until some unknown age of death. You still need to keep that money diversified and protected against both inflation on the one hand and large stock market bears on the other.
