That was the subject line of a note I just got in response to yesterday’s net worth post, and the contents did not disappoint ;)
Here’s what my new favorite person shared:
J,
Sometimes I do this to get a new, fun perspective on money:
a.) Convert the length of your dollars (6”) to feet, $791,150 = 395,575 ft.
b.) Convert 395,575 feet to miles = 75 miles
c.) Google map a radius of 75 miles from your home and pick a location
d.) Imagine laying all those dollars end to end to that location and walking the pathJust a fun way to visualize you still have lots of cash even after the latest downturns.
Me? From my home in Littleton, Colorado I can make it all the way to Laramie, Wyoming. (137 miles).
Completely useless information but sometimes makes me feel better dreaming of a thin green line down the middle of the highway.
Haha… How fun is this??? How far would you be able to go?? Should it be added to our spreadsheet tracking for even more motivation?? ;)
I just spent 30 seconds mapping the distance from my home (thx for saving me the calculating, man!) and looks like I can make it all the way to York, Pennsylvania from DC:
Pretty neat! Home of the peppermint patties – woop woop.
And if I wanted to make it all the way out to L.A., it looks like I’d need an additional $23,453,150 ;) Which will never happen as I’m stopping closer to the New York City area when I hit my early retirement number, haha… ($1,700,000)
His follow up note put it in perspective even more:
I used to do this as a kid, when the path only stretched across my room and into the hall.
So looks like he basically went from around $70 net worth to $1,446,720 over the years – not too shabby! I bet from simply doing this calculation day in and day out… ;)
Here’s what you’ll need to know if you wanna play along:
- Number of dollars in a foot: 2
- Number of feet in a mile: 5,280
- Number of your net worth (You better know this!!)
- Directions on how to find the mileage between areas on Google Maps: 1) right-click on your starting point. 2) Choose “Measure distance.” 3) Click anywhere on the map to create a path to measure. (I couldn’t figure out how to do the *radius* per se, but by moving the dot thingie around I was able to find all the fun places I could build my Money Trail to ;))
Try it out and let us know how far it takes you! But make sure you’re okay with everyone knowing how much you have as we’re all nerds here and can easily reverse the calculations ;)
******
For more random, yet strongly alluring calculations, see:
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London to Versailles via Paris with a few dollars left to tour the palace. Very cool!
Fancy!
I can get to Waterbury, VT from Boston, MA and still have enough to enjoy a craft beer or two. And December’s losses were almost 10 miles.
Big baller!
Looks like I can make it from my home in Maryland to Cape Cod. I’ll wait till it gets warmer though! ;)
Holy $hit that’s far!! Good for you!
It looks like I would just be able to meet you in York, PA with my net worth from Harrisburg, PA!
Jeff Bezos’ money would be able to wrap around the Earth 545 times! I would appreciate it if he passed me just 1 loop… he probably wouldn’t miss it.
Haha… You should ask him ;)
Found a rad little radius tool: https://www.mapdevelopers.com/draw-circle-tool.php
I could make it to the Mason-Dixon line. And for a further iteration of useless-but-fun, https://www.freemaptools.com/find-population.htm suggests that more than 7.6 million people live in the area defined by the circle drawn above.
Good finds!!
That’s a lot of people to come snatching up all those dollars when you try it out one day ;)
Living in Texas this is a little depressing — I will never leave my state! *ROFL*
Of course, if I were living in Genoa, Italy I could cross a couple of countries, so it is all relative, yes?
Yeah – def. more fun for our foreign friends :)
Like Kate up above!
This is fun! I had no idea you had an early retirement #, J. Are you planning on retiring when you reach it?
Nah, not really.
More like a “financial freedom” number where I can work on passion projects 100% and not think about money ever ever again :)
26 miles. I can’t even get out of my city limits from my home. Womp womp… Keep hustlin’!
Can you make it to Walmart at least? :)
Wow this is pretty neat. I wonder if I’ll be able to make it to Portland from Vancouver with my “retirement” net worth target. :)
Tell me when you’re ready and I’ll start laying the dollars for you :)
Welcome to my childhood hometown of York!
Good mix of city, suburbia, and corn fields nearby. haha
Let me know if your money needs a guide while there!
Haha nice!!! It sure will – straight to the local pub, please!
York, PA huh? Welcome to my hometown! I live in Richmond now, but I still make it home once in a while. Cheers.
I think you, me, and Dillon all need to meet up one day there :)
What a fun idea! I could make it from Yankee Stadium to Cooperstown, NY to see all those Yankee Hall of Fame players. It’s been a while since I have been there, and I think a pilgrimage back there is in the cards for the next year.
I think that’s a most wonderful idea :)
Ha, after reading this I did the calculations and figured that my money can take me from SF to Watsonville, where their economy centers predominantly around the farming industry including strawberries, apples, lettuce and a host of other vegetables. And with that in mind, it is home of the strawberry festival. Whoohooo!! I may go down there for that now. Thanks for this fun exercise!!
It’s fun to read about so many new areas and their claims to fames! Thanks for playing along!
Hah! Thanks for the fun exercise. I think this is the first time I actually did something other than sighing deeply looking at my new (low) net worth. LOL
Haha… it gets better over time, don’t worry ;)
A bit of a disadvantage here in New Zealand. Our dollars are coins :(
HAH! Maybe you can see how *high* you can go instead by stacking them :)
Ooh I like that idea. A coin tower. I better make sure I have a BALANCED portfolio. Couldn’t help myself sorry. Dad jokes
luckily I’m a dad too so I 100% approve!
I think this will be a funny way of planning for retirement. How long can your dollar take you?
Make sure to bog about it so we can get this thing viral :)
Hey! Just saw this and want into that future York, PA meet up! That’s my town, and I don’t know any FIRE folks here. :(
Haha…
Maybe we can convince Vanguard to host one for us? Aren’t they headquartered somewhere around there too?
I love this exercise. I like to think how tall our money would be if stacked on top of each other. We’re about at a 16 story building! This website does an awesome job helping you visualize money. They have a “carpet” for surface areas as well as end to end and stacked. 1 trillion dollars will get you to the sun! https://www.ehd.org/science_technology_largenumbers.php
Haha…. my type of site right there, love it..