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Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?

theatlantic.com

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Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?

#31

Post by catacombs »

cyberferret wrote: post #18
lisper wrote: post #17

A while back I noticed that my HN karma was rising at a rate that would put me on the leaderboard, so I decided to make an effort to submit content and post quality comments just to see if I could crack the top 100. After a few months I did it, and kept rising up to a high of 85 (today I'm #88). Then I realized I was spending way too much time on HN, and how easy it was to fall into this trap of thinking I was doing…

Did not even realise there was a leaderboard for HN karma. I stopped tracking my own karma score a while back. I was getting upset by even a handful of downvotes, and as soon as I decided to just publish my thoughts without caring about down (or up) votes, my happiness went up quite a few notches.

For the curious: https://news.ycombinator.com/leaders

Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?

#32

Post by antognini »

There was a well written comment on Reddit a few years back about how your life changes at different levels of wealth:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/2s9u0s/what_do_i...

The main gist was that in the $10-30 million range you can live a comfortable life without having to worry about finances again. In the $30-100 million range you can start doing "rich people" things like have a private jet (though this might be a stretch at the low end), have multiple residences in expensive parts around the globe, have personal staff, etc. After that level of wealth, more money doesn't really get you material things anymore, so much as influence and access to other important people.

Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?

#33

Post by tasty_freeze »

eigenvector wrote: post #27
lisper wrote: post #17

A while back I noticed that my HN karma was rising at a rate that would put me on the leaderboard, so I decided to make an effort to submit content and post quality comments just to see if I could crack the top 100. After a few months I did it, and kept rising up to a high of 85 (today I'm #88). Then I realized I was spending way too much time on HN, and how easy it was to fall into this trap of thinking I was doing…

I agree. We have been conditioned to use wealth - which is neatly expressed as a 1-dimensional value - as a proxy for merit. If we are asked to do something that in abstract we would consider stupid or pointless, but is now accompanied by a large amount of money, we accept with the presumption that no one would offer so much money if it weren't very important. Money provides a very simple, neat way of valuing every i…

> We have been conditioned to use wealth ... as a proxy for merit.

I imagine this is especially true for people who have a high score on this metric. It appeals to ego and vanity.

Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?

#34

Post by pmoriarty »

Some thoughts from Seneca:

"Let me share with you the saying which pleased me to-day. It, too, is culled from another man's Garden: "Poverty brought into conformity with the law of nature, is great wealth." Do you know what limits that law of nature ordains for us? Merely to avert hunger, thirst, and cold. In order to banish hunger and thirst, it is not necessary for you to pay court at the doors of the purse-proud, or to submit to the stern frown, or to the kindness that humiliates; nor is it necessary for you to scour the seas, or go campaigning; nature's needs are easily provided and ready to hand. It is the superfluous things for which men sweat, - the superfluous things that wear our togas threadbare, that force us to grow old in camp, that dash us upon foreign shores. That which is enough is ready to our hands. He who has made a fair compact with poverty is rich."[1]

"Do you ask what is the proper limit to wealth? It is, first, to have what is necessary, and, second, to have what is enough."[2]

"I do not regard a man as poor, if the little which remains is enough for him."[3]

[1] - https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/Let...

[2] - https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/Let...

[3] - https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/Let...

Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?

#35

Post by baroffoos »

lisper wrote: post #17

A while back I noticed that my HN karma was rising at a rate that would put me on the leaderboard, so I decided to make an effort to submit content and post quality comments just to see if I could crack the top 100. After a few months I did it, and kept rising up to a high of 85 (today I'm #88). Then I realized I was spending way too much time on HN, and how easy it was to fall into this trap of thinking I was doing…

I fell in to the karma trap on reddit years ago and I ended up trying to conform to trends to maximize my karma. Its a really boring way to use a website and I found myself not saying a lot of things because I know they will be downvoted and I will lose my internet points. These days I don't give a shit about karma and I say whatever I want. I feel better about sharing opinions and I say what I really think.

Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?

#37

Post by scottlegrand2 »

sytelus wrote: post #22

TLDR; Michael Norton did the survey of people with networth > $1M and most said they need 2 or 3 times more. People with networth > $100M also don't feel satisfied because they tend to answer the question "Am I better off than last year?" by comparing to other folks who did even better than them. It looks to me that if you are in $3M to $10M bucket, you have financial freedom to live low key upper-middle class life.…

This is very similar with what I tell people: that every time you put another zero on your net worth, your world changes.

The follow-up is that you probably shouldn't be taking life advice for your immediate situation from people who are more than one zero in either direction away from you because they're giving advice for their world, not yours.

my personal financial life goal is never to be worth more than $10M and I am knocking that go a lot of the park right now!

Life after $10M, from knowing people with that kind of money, just gets more and more complicated and no one seems truly happy, as they drown in first world problems.

Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?

#38

Post by marmaduke »

eigenvector wrote: post #27
lisper wrote: post #17

A while back I noticed that my HN karma was rising at a rate that would put me on the leaderboard, so I decided to make an effort to submit content and post quality comments just to see if I could crack the top 100. After a few months I did it, and kept rising up to a high of 85 (today I'm #88). Then I realized I was spending way too much time on HN, and how easy it was to fall into this trap of thinking I was doing…

I agree. We have been conditioned to use wealth - which is neatly expressed as a 1-dimensional value - as a proxy for merit. If we are asked to do something that in abstract we would consider stupid or pointless, but is now accompanied by a large amount of money, we accept with the presumption that no one would offer so much money if it weren't very important. Money provides a very simple, neat way of valuing every i…

> we accept with the presumption that no one would offer so much money if it weren't very important

oh boy I'd take a higher paying job to pay my mortgage or ease vacation with kids. No need to have a higher value than that.

Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?

#39

Post by eklavya »

eigenvector wrote: post #27
lisper wrote: post #17

A while back I noticed that my HN karma was rising at a rate that would put me on the leaderboard, so I decided to make an effort to submit content and post quality comments just to see if I could crack the top 100. After a few months I did it, and kept rising up to a high of 85 (today I'm #88). Then I realized I was spending way too much time on HN, and how easy it was to fall into this trap of thinking I was doing…

I agree. We have been conditioned to use wealth - which is neatly expressed as a 1-dimensional value - as a proxy for merit. If we are asked to do something that in abstract we would consider stupid or pointless, but is now accompanied by a large amount of money, we accept with the presumption that no one would offer so much money if it weren't very important. Money provides a very simple, neat way of valuing every i…

> neat way of valuing every item or service on Earth

Isn't that the very concept of money? :)

Edit: newlines

Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?

#40

Post by Nasrudith »

I had always assumed it was a matter of self-perpetuation given what I have seen at lower levels with thriftiness and it holding despite being amply able to afford it. Those who are in habits of saving and investing money will keep on doing as an end to itself well past the actual needs.

The biggest score cards show a bit of priorities. Many wealthy industrialists eventually turn to charities despite being ruthless out of concern for legacy,spirituality, or a sense of noblise oblige.

I would like to think that if I got 'buying additional mansions doesn't make a dent' - obscenely wealthy I'd start funding major biotech research projects both to do good and because lifespan is the limit anyway.

That is something that I've found a bit odd about the megarich - that we don't see more throwing their fortunes away at biotech research given lifespan is a limit far beyond - and most don't plan on giving full fortunes to their heirs anyway.

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