One Million Dollars Only

Actually how much is one million dollars worth nowadays? And with that, I mean how much is one million Benjamins or US dollars worth anyway? With prices of goods, services, properties and even basic amenities rising faster than our wages, that one million dollars that we so desire may not be worth as much as during our grandfathers’ time, when having a million dollars meant that you are not only set for life, you have basically laid the foundation for the next three generations.

I am not saying that one million dollars is worthless, far from it, many Americans still do not have their first million, and may not see it in their life time. However the amount of goods or security that one million dollars can buy has definitely and visibly dwindled. Take for example, the price of our homes. Home prices have risen about 300% over the last 20 years. That would mean that a million dollars used to be able to buy a home three times as big 20 years ago versus today. Taking that as a prime example would mean that one million dollars today is only worth three hundred thousand 20 years ago.

But the more important question that we should ask, when we ponder the worth of our money is whether we are able to grow our money as fast as the annual inflation so as to maintain the value of our cash. If you do not grow your value by the amount of inflation, you are effectively losing the value of your wealth. And in twenty years, the one million dollars underneath your bed would only be worth one third as much. So dun leave your money to fend for itself, it cannot do so within the confines of your cookie jar or even that of your saving accounts.

Invest your money into the stock market would help you grow your money fast but this also comes with lots of risk. The safer bet in the stock market would be to buy the index or others would call indexing. That would mean that you would need to buy into the stock market index. This would be relatively “safe” as the stock market tend to perform well over the long term.

To hedge against inflation, you could also procure real estate. As mentioned above, property prices had risen over 300% over the last 20 years. Buying a good piece real estate can mean staying in line with price increases and maintaining the value of your wealth. Do not let your cash sit idling; make sure your cash is working just as hard as you.

At the end of the day, many people will be asking whether they can retire with just 1 million dollars. It is definitely possible but the standards of living that one million dollars can buy will fall with each passing year. I would bet that one million dollars would not be sufficient in another 10 years time. So be prepared and do your sums right.