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Ask PG & other successful folks: how did your life change after FU money?

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Re: Ask PG & other successful folks: how did your life change after FU money?

#161
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where did you end up living? I'm facing a similar situation regarding my living situation. I live in the heart of Boston, but most of my close friends do not, and this does have an alienating effect. I've contemplated moving up north to andover (a rural town -- opposite of boston) to position myself closer to friends/family, but would have to give up the city life. This is one of my current issues that I'm mulling ov…

Live your life, not theirs.

The problem is that "their life" is so much a part of "youe life" (for the poster above you). Good relationships with other people are a huge part of what makes life better. I've always imagined that if I ever get FU money that it would allow me to live closer to people I have good realtionships with.

Re: Ask PG & other successful folks: how did your life change after FU money?

#162
post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing I genuinely want to know is how much money it takes to be "rich" in Silicon Valley. In my experience, $5M yields a slightly better but still basically middle-class life. I suspect a lot of people are underestimating how much they need to reach the FU level.

If you plan on staying on to live in the valley, $20-30M. I have many friends who are worth $3-5M and they do not consider themselves even close to rich in the valley. Housing and schooling in Palo Alto are very expensive. $5M is nowhere near enough to buy a really nice house and then take it easy for the rest of your life - sad to say, but true. At least in the valley, most people still live below their means. I fin…

Living in Socal for the last decade, I'd have to say it's the top area for living above your means. One phrase I've heard several times here is "car rich, house poor", for example.

Having said that, there are an extraordinary number of genuinely wealthy people in Socal. It's odd at times.

Re: Ask PG & other successful folks: how did your life change after FU money?

#163
post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$5M puts you in the top 1%. I'd say that fits the definition of "rich" for most of the other 99%. Maybe $5M wouldn't put you that high in the Silicon Valley but I'm sure it's close. Also, can I ask if you experience is first hand? If not, be careful with appearances. I just recently discovered that someone I've known for years has significantly more money than their lifestyle would indicate. Not everyone lives extrav…

Thanks kscaldef and detst for your replies. I do think a lot about moving out of Silicon Valley especially since the state of California is in such a financial mess. Theoretically, I could quit my job now, but it wouldn't make much financial sense, and I enjoy where I'm working. My experience with $5M is in fact firsthand, and it feels a lot closer to "middle class" than to "rich". Maybe it's because I live a non-ext…

"But seriously, what I'd like is to find out from people who actually know, if there's a financial level at which life changes qualitatively. E.g. is there a level at which it makes sense to stop working and spend your time managing your charitable foundation and hanging out at TED and Davos?"

Not that I know from personal experience, but my best guess on that level of wealth would be 100s of millions. That's a different level of existence.

I know plenty of people with millions, they seem more or less ordinary, though their leisure activities exceed the norm. The couple of people in the 10s of millions range that I'm somewhat acquainted with have very nice living environments (think estates), but don't have foundations. The one person I know with foundation/ted/davos is in a family with the 9 figure range.

Don't really know silicon valley folks, though.

Re: Ask PG & other successful folks: how did your life change after FU money?

#164
post #144
post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a lot of people who think the thing stopping them from writing that great novel they plan to write is the fact that their job takes up all their time. In fact what's stopping 99% of them is that writing novels is hard. When the job goes away, they see how hard. This resonates. I quit my dot-com job before the bubble burst and I had order 10^4 dollars in my bank account. I decided that rather than invest the…

10^4 dollars? 10^4 thousand dollars?

I got laid off in the dot com crash with a 10^5 dollars in 2001 (I know, I got lucky. Company out of money, but acquired by a bigcorp. Laid off the least senior folk with nice package).

It let me move across the country and not work for a couple years. Which was nice, and really it's ultimately been life changing what with a new environment, but it wasn't transformational or anything.

Re: Ask PG & other successful folks: how did your life change after FU money?

#165
post #133
post #65

I've been meaning to write about this one day. There are some things that change. For example, you learn to distinguish problems that can be solved with money from those that can't. You can buy your way out of a lot of schleps. Life doesn't get an order of magnitude more enjoyable, because you still can't buy your way out of the most serious types of problems, but a lot of annoyances are removed. The best part is wha…

I had a sister with a severe mental disability (Rett Syndrome) who died at the age of 17. A very wise, (and very broke) parent of another girl with Rett Syndrome explained to us that if you have a problem that money can solve, you don't really have a problem. While I do not posess a great deal of monetary wealth, this idea has helped me differentiate between fiscal problems and other, in many ways, more challenging p…

I'll second that. Had Hodgkin's Lymphoma when I was 19. Clearly having health insurance was the key, but no additional amount of money would have stopped me from having chemotherapy. That was the age that I realized money didn't matter, being alive did.

Re: Ask PG & other successful folks: how did your life change after FU money?

#166
post #65

I've been meaning to write about this one day. There are some things that change. For example, you learn to distinguish problems that can be solved with money from those that can't. You can buy your way out of a lot of schleps. Life doesn't get an order of magnitude more enjoyable, because you still can't buy your way out of the most serious types of problems, but a lot of annoyances are removed. The best part is wha…

One thing I genuinely want to know is how much money it takes to be "rich" in Silicon Valley. In my experience, $5M yields a slightly better but still basically middle-class life. I suspect a lot of people are underestimating how much they need to reach the FU level.

A data point:

I work with a lot of doctors that make $200 - $300k a year. And, I'd say that makes the comfortably upper middle class in the Bay Area. Couples where both are nurses can make $250 a year without working very hard.

Salaries at those levels make it very feasible to buy a house and take a nice vacation or two to Hawaii, Thailand or Europe. They drive nice cars and have lovely electronics to play with.

Re: Ask PG & other successful folks: how did your life change after FU money?

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Live your life, not theirs.

The problem is that "their life" is so much a part of "youe life" (for the poster above you). Good relationships with other people are a huge part of what makes life better. I've always imagined that if I ever get FU money that it would allow me to live closer to people I have good realtionships with.

I have near life long friends who I still see regularly enough but several of us live in different states / countries now. I wasn't implying that they should alienate themselves from their friends but they shouldn't make drastic changes to their life just to accommodate them. ( I consider changing your lifestyle + moving to a new location a 'drastic' change ) One the best things having FU money allows for is the ability to 99.9% of the time decide to travel to X at 1pm on Tuesday and be on a plane to X by 4pm the same day.

Re: Ask PG & other successful folks: how did your life change after FU money?

#168
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$3M would definitely be FU money to me. Not enough to live in opulence, but definitely enough to not have to work for a living.

Yes I would define FU as not having to rely on anyone else for financial security. I would say conserved and invested well FU money starts at 2M USD. It is different from the mega rich.

I also thought this before I made the first few million. Except it’s almost impossible to keep the exact same lifestyle you had before ( if it was an 'overnight' FU event like the sale of a large asset ) as you have a lot of new possibilities that you never really payed attention to. It is easy to double, and even triple, your monthly expenditures and still be /very/ conservative with your money. A lot of these new expenses will come from traveling more, socializing more, helping friends and family out ( trust me, not matter how hard you try it will happen more than once ) and this is not even taking into account you starting new projects or testing new ideas that will certainly burn through some cash.

Re: Ask PG & other successful folks: how did your life change after FU money?

#169
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here are some "trading money for time / convenience" options that I'd love to be able to afford: 1) Shopping. For a few extra bucks, most large grocery stores will deliver. 2) Laundry. Pay a service to pick up / clean / drop off your clothes. 3) Travel. For long distances, fly first class (far more comfortable), or charter a plane (no TSA experience!). For in-city, take a cab. 4) Dining. Not in the mood to cook? Eat…

Heh, here in NYC, even the debt-laden, paycheck-to-paycheck folks do 1-6 1.) FreshDirect - $99 a year for free grocery deliveries 2.) Any corner dry cleaner - $10 a week to drop off two loads of dirty laundry on the way to work. Your doorman will have it when you return that night. 3.) Your company buys you refundable tickets when you have to fly, which I argue is more stress-relieving than 1st class tickets (Dining…

The Sims taught me to keep my stats balanced. I'm hungry at the moment, I better eat something!

Re: Ask PG & other successful folks: how did your life change after FU money?

#170
Some points-

1. I laughed when the gentleman said that $3mm would be enough money for him. Anyone who says $3mm is enough will realize that whatever number they say is "enough" is not enough once they reach it.

2. Money doesn't make you happy. But if you're already happy and you have money, it can make you happier.

3. Money makes people pay more attention to you- especially people who didn't pay attention to you before. People will say, "well Barack Obama would never have shown up to your wedding before you sold your company for $1bb". Well no sh!t. Why would he? Charities will call you. "Well the University never paid attention to you back when you were poor". Universities and Charities are in the business of raising money from individuals.. Why would they? This will be tough for people without money to understand.

4. Those who have sold their companies find that money is sometimes harder to hold onto than it was to make in the first place. If you don't have enough money (to never work again), become complacent due to your original ability to make money (particularly those in tech world), you could find yourself broke.

5. Speaking of broke. Minimize your borrowing. The majority of very rich people who suddenly file for bankruptcy are over-leveraged and/or not diversified in their investments. An example: Let's say I have $20mm. I could go to a bank today and get a $40mm house. However, my taxes, upkeep, mortgage, and other lifestyle expenses would likely cause me to deplete my original 20mm within a few years.

6. When you're rich, its very difficult to deviate from an expected lifestyle. Once you spend 60k on a car, 90% of the time your next car will be more. This is true of houses and everything else you purchase. My advice is pace yourself.

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