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What Is the Yearly Interest on 50 Million Dollars?

If you have $50 million and earn 3%, you'll make $1.5 million a year.
Derek Sall
Author: 
Derek Sall
Deepti Nickam
Fact Checker: 
Deepti Nickam
12 mins
March 20th, 2024
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What Is the Yearly Interest on 50 Million Dollars?

What if you had 50 million dollars? What is the interest on 50 million dollars? Is it just an insane amount of money? Or should it actually be your target for retirement? There are so many questions around the 50 million dollar amount, and we're going to answer as many of them as we can in this post. So without further ado, let's hit it. Everything you want to know about having $50 million.

If you like this article, check out the interest earnings within the posts listed below:

And take a serious look at our Best Investment Apps piece if you're looking to invest.

Is 50 million dollars rich?

Can you believe people ask this question? Seems a bit ludicrous. But regardless, they want to know if they are considered rich if they are worth 50 million dollars.

Per the chart below, if you were worth just $1 million, you’d be in the top 10% of the population. In other words, if you had a million bucks, I’d consider you rich.

And, if you were worth $50 million, you’d easily be in the top 1% of people in the United States (probably more like the top 0.1% honestly). Again, I’d definitely consider an individual rich if they had 50 million dollars.

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What does 50 million look like?

What does the number 50 million actually look like? And what is it like to have 50 million dollars?

The number $50 million looks like this: $50,000,000

And what does 50 million dollars look like all stacked up?

If you stack up $100 bills into a 1 million dollar pile, it would be roughly 3.5 feet tall.

Multiply this by fifty and you'd get your answer. A stack of 50 million dollars in $100 bills would be roughly 175 feet, as tall as an 18-story building.

What can you buy with 50 million dollars?

So, what if you had $50 million? What could you buy with 50 million dollars?

  • A private jet: $2 million

  • A private 60 foot yacht: $2.5 million

  • 4,600 square foot house on Long Beach: $4.5 million

  • Lamborghini Huracan: $291,000

  • Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT: $180,000

So that's pretty much anyone would need, right? (I say "need" in air quotes by the way.)

Well, everything above is still less than $10 million. You still have $40 million left to spend.

You could buy a bazillion acres of land, many businesses, heck—you could even buy your own island with what you have left. Fifty million dollars is a lot of money.

If you can amass $50,000,000, you'll certainly be set for life.

Can you live off 50 million dollars?

And that segues us perfectly into this category. Can you live off 50 million dollars? Of course you can.

I'm getting a little ahead of myself here, but if you invested that $50 million and earned just 1% interest per year, you could spend $500,000 and still not touch the principal. And pretty much no matter where you live, you could pretty easily survive on $500k a year.

What Should You Do With 50 million dollars?

We've talked about if having $50 million makes you rich (it does). We discussed what you could buy if you had 50 million dollars. And we even touched base on what living on 1% of $50 million would look like.

But what should you actually do with 50 million dollars? How can you have fun with it and make it last?

What to do with 50 million dollars

Wondering what to do with 50 million dollars? You should basically do two things:

  • Have fun with your dollars (go on trips, donate some money, buy some cool stuff).

  • Invest your money so you can live from the interest.

Related: What Is the Interest on 10 Million Dollars? (Is It Necessary?)

How to invest 50 million dollars

How much money would you like to live on per year? Does $500,000 sound good? Then all you need to earn is 1% per year. You can do this with a simple savings account.

Maybe you want $1.5 million per year. Then you'd need to earn 3% annual interest. You can probably do that with a US Treasury Bond.

Want to earn even more? What if you earned 10% on 50 million dollars? That would earn you $5 million per year.

Now that would be living large. How could you do it?

Well, on average, the S&P Index Fund has earned roughly 10% per year. If you're investing for the long term, this average may continue and earn you that average of 10% a year. (Just remember, the stock market is risky and there are no guarantees.)

Other ways to invest 50 million dollars

When you have a ton of money like this, the key is not to get carried away. Sure, maybe your buddy earns 20% per year buying and selling precious gems—but that doesn't mean you can. You know nothing about gems. Instead, stick with what you know.

If all you know how to do is put your money in savings, then start with that. If you earned your 50 million dollars by building and selling a business, then perhaps you should try to do that again (i.e., invest in start-ups and build them into something huge).

And here are some more ideas that you can invest in:

  • Rental property (maybe buy up many houses in one area and build up and improve that area)

  • Land

  • Commercial real estate

  • Artwork

  • Collectibles

Related: What is the Interest on 1 Million Dollars? (Is It Enough to Retire?)

What is the Interest on 50 million?

We already took a sneak peek into this one, but what could you earn from this wad of cash? What is the interest on 50 million dollars?

You first might be asking yourself the question, “How much will institutions pay you in interest on this money?” In other words, how much interest would a bank pay on 50 million dollars? It’s honestly still pretty lousy compared to what you could get years ago.

According to the Lake Michigan Credit Union site—

  • Their standard interest rate on a regular savings account is 0.10%.

  • If you have $100,000 or more, you could earn 0.50%.

  • And, if you have $250,000 or more, you could earn 0.65%.

Beyond the $250,000 amount, there are no more increases to the interest rate. So, let’s say you put all your money in the bank. What would the interest be on $50 million with a 0.65% interest rate?

The answer—$325,000 a year.

Meh. That's okay, but it sure seems like you could earn more with $50 million at your disposal. Couldn’t you earn a much higher interest rate and a much higher income with $50 million?

Absolutely you can. Keep reading and we’ll show you the options.

Related: What Is The Interest on 5 Million Dollars? (And Is It Overkill?)

How much interest does 50 million earn?

With 50 million dollars, you could earn big money, but it's really up to you.

The amount of interest you earn all depends on what you invest in. If you invest nothing and keep all the money in your house, your earnings would be $0.

If however, you invest in a thriving business that you understand, your earnings could be much more. (Perhaps 15% or more.)

How much interest does 50 million make if you earn 15%?

$7,500,000.

(Whoa. That's pretty impressive.)

Want to know more? See below for the yearly interest amounts on 50 million dollars—

What is the yearly interest on 50 million dollars?

The question about how much 50 million dollars can generate per year is a great one, but it’s not the easiest one to answer since there are so many investment options.

Based on my research and my experience, you can expect to get the below rates for the respective investments:

  • Savings: 0.65%

  • Corporate bond: 2-3%

  • Annuity: 3.5%

  • Certificate of Deposit: 5.0%

  • Real Estate: 7%

  • S&P 500 Index Fund: 10%

The real estate percentage is my estimate based on the crazy price of homes today (rental rates have not kept up with housing prices). And, the S&P 500 is based on the historical average when including dividend reinvestment.

So now to answer the question of “What is the yearly interest on 50 million dollars?”

  • With a 0.65% savings account: $325,000 a year

  • 3.5% annuity: $1,700,000 a year

  • 5% Certificate of Deposit: $2,500,000 a year

  • 7% real estate: $3,500,000 a year

  • And, 10% in S&P 500: $5,000,000 per year

What is the interest on 50 million dollars annually?

On average, about $1.5 million–$2 million a year.

The savings account earnings of $325,000 seems like a waste of time and the S&P 500 earnings looks crazy. I mean, earn $5,000,000 a year? Dang, that would be pretty nice.

Before you go with one option or the other, be sure to factor in the risk element.

A savings account is quite safe. The stock market is definitely less safe—and you could lose 40% of your money in a very short period of time (think 2020).

While you don’t want to be super safe and earn next-to-nothing in interest, you also don’t want to shoot for the moon and put your money at risk of a huge loss.

Be sure to mix it up with your investments to stay relatively safe, but earn more than 0.65% a year.

What is the monthly interest on 50 million dollars?

What do all these amounts equate to in the shorter term? Like, what is the interest on 50 million dollars per month?

Using the same investment figures as above, here’s how much you would earn each month on 50 million dollars:

  • 0.65% savings account: $27,083 a month

  • 3.5% annuity: $58,333 a month

  • 5% Certificate of Deposit: $208,333 a month

  • 7% real estate: $291,667 a month

  • And, 10% in S&P 500: $416,667 per month

What Would Be the Interest on 50 million pounds?

What if we get away from the US Dollar at the moment? How about British Pounds? What would the interest be on 50 million pounds?

Honestly, it's the same as the above, just in pounds instead of dollars.

If you had 50 million pounds and you earned 1% interest, you'd earn yourself 500,000 pounds a year.

If you earned 10% interest on 50 million pounds, you'd earn five million pounds per year.

I bet you could live on that—

What Would Be the Interest on 100 million dollars?

I might say you're crazy—but what if you thought 50 million dollars wasn't enough to live on? What if you wanted to target 100 million dollars?

How much is the interest on 100 million?

Again, based on research I’ve done in the past, these are the likely rates per investment type:

  • Savings: 0.5%

  • Short term government bond: 1%

  • Short term corporate bond: 2-3%

  • Annuity: 3%

  • Certificate of Deposit: 5.0%

  • Real Estate: 7%

  • S&P 500 Index Fund: 10%

Those are the interest percentages, so what does that mean in terms of dollars when investing $100 million?

What is the yearly interest on 100 million dollars?

What would the interest be on 100 million per year?

  • With 1% interest, you’d make $1 million a year. (That’s just for the money to sit there and collect.)

  • At 3% interest, you’d earn $3 million per year.

  • At the annual rate of return of 8%, that’s $8 million a year.

So what would the yearly interest on $100 million be? Could be anywhere in between $1 million and $8 million (or perhaps more if you an find a better investment). It all depends on how you invest your money.

Related: Wondering How Much Money You Need to Retire? (The Formula is Easy)

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What is the Interest on 50 Million Dollars? (In Summary)

So what do you think? Now that you know what the interest is on $50 million, do you think it's the right amount for you?

If you invested $50 million and earned 10% per year, you'd have $5 million coming in every year.

That's pretty insane to think about, honestly. You could buy a brand new jet every year and still have $3 million to live on.It's just an amazing amount of money.

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Contributors

Derek Sall
Derek has a Bachelor's degree in Finance and a Master's in Business. As a finance manager in the corporate world, he regularly identified and solved problems at the C-suite level. Today, Derek isn't interested in helping big companies. Instead, he's helping individuals win financially — one email, one article, one person at a time.
Deepti Nickam
Fact Checker
Deepti Nickam
Deepti is a content writing and marketing professional with 5+ years of experience in the B2B and B2C sectors. She has written about several subjects, including finance, project management, human resources, and more.
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