this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2025
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

About 90k Euros. Could almost get me an entry level Porsche Taycan in Germany. But that would be a pretty stupid decision as the upkeep and insurance would ruin me. Also with German entry level cars you can be lucky if it has windshield wipers.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

$93,770 would be nice but not life changing.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

$90k is absolutely life changing for most people. That's a down payment on a house plus moving costs and upgrading appliances and furniture. That's the difference between poverty and living comfortably. If that's not life changing for you, then I'm not sure you're familiar with the struggle, in which case I strangely both pity you and envy you.

Sure you're not gonna buy a mansion with $90k, but you could go from renting a shithole apartment in a shithole town to owning a home in a decent area with access to better employment to sustain a much higher quality of life. $90k is a ticket to escaping geographical and financial shackles.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 hours ago

That's huge amounts of money in most parts of the world. Westerners don't realise just how much more their currency is worth.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Slow your roll buddy. I didn’t say it’s meaningless to everyone, only that it wouldn’t change my life.

To your example, I already own a house but $93k won’t pay off my mortgage, or let me retire early, or cover my kids’ college costs.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Paying that large of a chunk of a mortgage would absolutely reduce your future interest costs though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (2 children)

Prepaying a mortgage is almost always a worse investment than anything else because mortgage interest is tax deductible.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 52 minutes ago

Isn't mortgage interest deductible only if you itemize your deductions?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Not always, but often, yes. It depends on what your alternative potential uses for the money are.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Not always but often. You could even say almost always. 😉

[–] NukedRat 6 points 9 hours ago

It would certainly accelerate some plans of mine instead of waiting potentially years.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

I remember attending a trade convention in Toronto where they were showcasing this block of pure gold around the size of a loaf of bread. It was surrounded by Mounties but they welcomed me to come forward and even asked if I wanted to try and lift it. My God that thing was heavy!!

Then as I was about to leave, they said "Hold on sir, show us your hands." I did and they said I was good to go. I asked what that was about and they said some people try to scrape a bit off under their fingernails as a souvenir since gold is one of the softer metals.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

So like straight up several Dudley Do Rights?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 hours ago

Yeah pretty much! They were in full dress with the red coats and boots and the wide brimmed hats and all that. No horses though. There was also a fair bit more security that day than usual with swat team-looking guys around the exits and stuff.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 hours ago

Whelp, now I know what to do next time I touch one.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

I have seen 100g gold bars available for US$10k, so you would have US$100k worth of gold.

In the wealthiest countries that's about 4x the median annual income, so 4 years worth of wages. In the poorest countries it's about 250 years worth of wages. This is simplistic math that does not account for purchasing power parity or other variables. But it's safe to say this would be a massive amount of money for most of the people on earth. It would not only change the individual's life, but would give them the ability to alter the trajectory of their children's and grandchildren's lives for the better.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/median-income-by-country

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 minutes ago

According to the page, that's using an imaginary unit called "international dollars" (which I just learned exists), which is used for comparing countries' economies. It doesn't reflect the real amount in US dollars. In US dollars the median US salary is just under $60,000. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/wkyeng.pdf

[–] DragonsInARoom 4 points 9 hours ago

Depends if you can sell it

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

A kilo of gold is worth about $193k currently, which depending on where you live and how old you are means different things. For example, if that was your whole net worth and you are a Baby Boomer in the US you’d be about $1.5M below the average family. If you’re under 35, though, you’d be slightly above average. (Via kiplinger)

FWIW because the top 1% have so much wealth they skew the average significantly - overall the median net wealth in the US is right around that $193k number, but the average is just over $1M, which is pretty amazing.

$200K in net wealth would just about put you into the global top 10% and into the top 1% if those were your earnings for the year.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago

the median net wealth in the US is right around that $193k number, but the average is just over $1M, which is pretty amazing.

I'd say that the median is the average in this case. The mean usually works as a mathematical average, but in this example, it's clearly skewed.

The difference isn't between median and average, but between median and mean.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 hours ago

Ah damnit so I did. The rest of the numbers are true, just not as close to the 1kg’s worth as noted.