Ask HN: How to stop my greed for money?

Also I have mixed feelings towards recommending the Mustachian community to OP. FI might help quench a thirst for money, but it also might just augment or exacerbate the obsession with accumulating money.

Personally, I see this problem as more of a philosophical one. I can't offer answers, but as someone who also has to consciously fight off obsession with money, practicing mindfulness, living in the moment, and finding joy in relationships and other "free", meaningful things helps. idk ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I come from a heavily Buddhist culture that preaches disconnect from materialism, and I can truly say that it hardly holds. Please LOVE money, because no matter what anyone says, wealth gives you:

1. Independence

2. Confidence

3. Ability to solve problems by throwing money at it. This one's super important as we're heading towards a world where medicine is advancing enough to cure most ailments, even cancer and aids are likely to be cured in the next 30 years with the advent of Gene therapy and genetically customized medicine

4. If you actually have #1,2,3, your chances of finding love are higher, as you can devote some concerted amount of time towards finding love that many poorer folks don't have. Plus confidence & independence are attractive characteristics.

The only thing you should learn to modulate is expectations on how quickly you can accrue wealth. For the 7 billion that are alive today, there are probably a thousand billionaires, tens of thousands with hundreds of millions, a few million with So, statically, you're more likely to be in that $10M net worth bracket. It's low, but happiness can also be found in planning and executing a life towards that goal, while being aware of the low probability of getting there.

So don't give up your "greed" for money, but do give up your unreasonable expectations of getting rich quick. Be pragmatic about how rich you can get (best case, median case, worst case) and plan towards getting there

I’m in a somewhat similar situation, though mine is “greed” towards a very specific goal (financial independence, as in being able to completely stop working for the rest of my life with a very low chance of running out of money, which requires amassing $4-5M in my circumstances). Having that goal in mind, it makes me significantly happy when I get a raise and are able to sock away $150k instead of $120k into my investments accounts this year while keeping my living expenses fixed.

Even if I already make more than enough to comfortably sustain my living expenses now (I’m also in a typical $300-400k range for software engineers in Bay Area), I can easily say making more makes me much happier, because my goal date is approaching faster and I can quantify it in my detailed spreadsheet where I track contributions/returns/inflation for the future. I can get the gratification of seeing the date shortening by X years at every raise. That’s how I easily dismiss all claims that “money doesn’t make you happier”. Once I reach my number, which is already a conservative estimate, I won’t give a damn about making one more penny.

So, your greed might not necessarily be a bad thing if you can phrase it as a proper goal.