If it were...hypothetically, $200k instead of $100k, there are places even in the US where you can buy houses for $80k. Buy a house, lose the car, have hobbies like playing computer games or writing books...yeah, even $200k doesn't seem like enough. But that's more than the vast majority of people have.
For what it's worth, the house I'm living in right now (three bedroom, one bath, alright back yard) is within fairly comfortable walking or definitely comfortable biking distance from one of the world-reknowned beaches in the states. Cost the owner $30k for the house and the lot it's on, plus maybe another four or five thousand in refurbishing and whatnot. Could use a few hundred more in varying touchups, but it's a pretty decent joint. If you're not aiming too high and you find the right seller, it can get relatively cheap.
Wouldn't personally retire here, because Florida is fucking miserable to live in, but if that's the thing you're looking for it can get pretty low. $100k isn't much to retire on at my age, though. It'd be a helluva help, and I'm fairly comfortable in saying I could probably stretch it for a decade or two (providing I end up inheriting at least one of the family's properties, anyway
), but not three or four. Now, enough of a nest egg to comfortably live off part time instead of full employment for a
long damn time? Yeah,
that it would be.
Which, with 100k flat, is probably what I'd do. Go somewhere colder that has seasons, find a comfortable part-time doing something more useful than retail, and do that for the next few dozen years. Honestly, with a slush fund to that degree, working for a relative pittance for something that's actually societally beneficial would be a lot more viable... and I'd rather be doing that than just bumming around. I mean, I
like bumming around, and I'm
really good at it, but being able to support myself while
doing something helpful would be considerably more... life affirming, I suppose? Like with a lot of things, I don't mind working, I just don't want to
have to work, ha, and working for most businesses is somewhat, hrn. Call it ethically troubling, yeah.
Ok. So let's expand the scope of the discussion then:
How much money would need? Where would go, and what would you do?
To this, hum. Give me... let's say 9.6k/year (figure 200/mo food [I actually eat about half that, but that's what food stamps pay out so it's a good baseline], triple that for everything else, almost definitely overestimating). No, halve that -- 4.8k/year, room, board, utilities, etc. Almost certainly (still) overstating, but still. I'd probably be able to make it another 50 years without too much trouble, so... 240k. Plus enough to buy a little land and housing... eyeball it at maybe 50-60k on the outside, so 300k total. M'not sure how taxes and whatnot would interact with overall budget, so overestimating a bit is likely a good idea, so say somewhere between that and 350k.
I'd go somewhere colder, away from this bigot-infested hellswamp. Washington's always been tempting (at least the coastal/near city stuff), but I'd shop around, I'm not terribly picky so long as the weather's more sane. Spend said 50 or so years playing, reading, and doing volunteer work for something particularly useful... I'd love to help out with research or whatev', but anything education related would likely be invigorating. I wouldn't have much trouble living the rest of my life like that.
) is some a guy with street-level connections?
Such as an utter lack of contacts. Jack may dress slick (note: He doesn't actually dress slick. All the formal wear in the world isn't going to make that troll pretty.), but there's a reason dude's Cha score is 1. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what that reason is, but it's there.