That would get me the hell out of my job in about 3.6 seconds. It's not enough to live high on the hog, but it's enough to live modestly and fairly well.
Now, I wouldn't quit working... I would train as a lion tamer, profession shooting competitor, fly fisherman, car painter, sculptor... I would work, but I wouldn't feel bad if a job didn't pan out. I would just move on to the next experience... Damn, I wish I could win that money...
PUBLIC OPINION > $1,000 a Week Can't Replace a Career
SodaHead Living
2012/06/15 20:59:02
An 18-year-old student from New York won the lottery this week, and it will earn him around $1,000 a week for the rest of his life. That's about $48,000 a year for absolutely nothing. It isn't exactly a high roller salary, and if he wants to move up the ladder he'll have to supplement his income, but technically he'll never need to work a day in his life. Good Morning America asked if that was enough to keep people from working.
A grand a week would be amazing, but there are a couple of reasons most people would still prefer to work. First of all, it's not an enormous amount of money. It's definitely enough to live on, but it would leave most people lacking. A Princeton study found that $75,000 a year is the "happiest income," which means you'd need another $27,000 to really live it up. Not only that, but careers are fulfilling. Without work, life can get pretty boring. And a $1,000-a-week cushion will cut down on the stress, too.
Young People Need Work
Naturally, there had to be an age limit. Work is important, but eventually people retire. Based on our results, that cut-off age is about 55 years old. After that, the desire to keep working unnecessarily dropped an average of 28%. However, more than half of people over the age of 55 still said they'd keep working. Maybe retirement's not that great after all.
Unemployed Are So Over It
We also anticipated some correlation based on employment status, and again, the results were somewhat predictable. Full-time workers seem to love work, while the unemployed were less than enthusiastic about continuing to job search after landing a grand a year. But students were actually the most eager to work. They're still figuring out what they want to do, and they're going to pursue it, whatever it is.
Drinkers Need Jobs
Let's move away from the obvious for a minute, and take a look at one statistic that surprised us. Would you believe drinkers were 11% more likely than nondrinkers to want to continue working? It could be that workaholics enjoy their drink -- see "Mad Men" -- or it could be that drinkers need a little more to fuel their fire. Either way, it seems that drinks and jobs go hand-in-hand.
If you'd like to vote on this question, dig deeper into the demographics, or engage in existing discussion about the topic, visit our poll about working unnecessarily. We'd love to hear from you!
Top Opinion
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Lord Emperor of Dune 2012/06/15 21:13:58
My Conservative view is, keep working and use the $1000 a week to fall back on if need be or invest it into something worthwhile such as a business venture or something similar. Stay busy and you'll enjoy life to it's fullest.
Even so, if I had a windfall of that amount, or any amount, I would still invest 100% of it in my Non-Partisan Campaign for the American People, the American People need it more than I do. http://www.myspace.com/dwight...
By the way, $1000 a week is more than I make now.
Could I continue to live in my current lifestyle without tapping into my savings? Probably not...
My S.O. and I have made around $150-200K per year for the last few years. $50K would be a significant pay cut... I'm pretty sure that she would not like to cut back that far...
But being able not to worry about monthly bills...
I haven't played the lottery in years. Maybe I should buy a ticket.