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

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

#61

Post by baroffoos »

gammateam wrote: post #49
baroffoos wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

HN will shadowban your account if you dont conform to popular opinion enough Aside from saying unpopular things, a net negative karma will also do it, which is a reflection of the same outcome Always check your post history from an incognito browser to see if others can see it

90% of the stuff I post is upvoted but I don't care if one opinion I stand behind is downvoted. I also create a new account every month so that probably wont affect me.

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

#62

Post by debatem1 »

10122018 wrote: post #46
antognini wrote: post #32

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 m…

> in the $10-30 million range you can live a comfortable life without having to worry about finances again This statement strikes me as very disconnected from the reality that the vast majority of people on this planet live in, and honestly, a little bit irritating. I'm well aware that many here on HN would be millionaires, but as somebody who grew up in poverty and is now a full-time uni student with no savings in t…

I would be very surprised if you could live worry-free with the investment proceeds of $100,000. You would have to earn 18% a year on that on average just to hit the poverty line in the US, and a more likely result would be living on 1/3rd of that. At just 6k/yr you would have food covered if you ate practically, or perhaps rent covered if you lived very modestly, but not both.

Assuming that you meant something closer to $1M than $100k I would start to agree. At that rate an initial investment into a home becomes realistic and more advantageous investment options open up. You are still not living high on the hog (60k/yr, ish), but you will probably only have significant problems if you are struck by disaster, illness takes you, or you have children.

At a further 10x that (roughly what the OP describes) you must really screw up to ever be one of the poor again. Many inefficient ways of living (eating out regularly, nice homes, expensive hobbies) open up. These are what most people consider comforts, and so I generally agree with the sense that this is the band where permanent comfortable living becomes possible.

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

#63

Post by mrpopo »

rgbrenner wrote: post #53
10122018 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in the $10-30 million range you can live a comfortable life without having to worry about finances again This statement strikes me as very disconnected from the reality that the vast majority of people on this planet live in, and honestly, a little bit irritating. I'm well aware that many here on HN would be millionaires, but as somebody who grew up in poverty and is now a full-time uni student with no savings in t…

100k * 10% = 10k/year. 10% is about the best return you can count on (very optimistically) I don't know what country you live in, but 10k in the US, even for a single person, would put you far below the poverty line. No way you could afford that dental work after you pay rent on that. And let's not even talk about all of the other huge expenses that will come up later in your life. $10m * 3% = $300k/year That's a hig…

Again, being able to live a life of leisure exclusively out of your fortune's interests reaches far higher than "living a comfortable line". You can live very comfortably with a part-time job, or even a full-time job that's not too demanding.

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

#64

Post by 10122018 »

rgbrenner wrote: post #53
10122018 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in the $10-30 million range you can live a comfortable life without having to worry about finances again This statement strikes me as very disconnected from the reality that the vast majority of people on this planet live in, and honestly, a little bit irritating. I'm well aware that many here on HN would be millionaires, but as somebody who grew up in poverty and is now a full-time uni student with no savings in t…

100k * 10% = 10k/year. 10% is about the best return you can count on (very optimistically) I don't know what country you live in, but 10k in the US, even for a single person, would put you far below the poverty line. No way you could afford that dental work after you pay rent on that. And let's not even talk about all of the other huge expenses that will come up later in your life. $10m * 3% = $300k/year That's a hig…

I feel disheartened that you read my entire comment and chose to focus on one number and the ineptitude of my hypothetical investment strategy instead of focusing on the overall point I was trying (and I guess failing) to make. I regret saying anything at all.

For the record, thousands of Australian university students live on less than US$10K per year. You seem to think we can't exist, but we do.

> No way you could afford that dental work after you pay rent on that.

And thanks, that is very helpful of you to remind me.

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

#65

Post by slededit »

hprotagonist wrote: post #3

I’m immediately reminded of the denouement of “This is Water”: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PhhC_N6Bm_s . It’s become/ perhaps always has been a little trite or on the nose, but it’s also not wrong. If you worship money and things-if they are where you tap real meaning in life-then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will…

It’s a nice thought, and gives a sense the world is fair. But it doesn’t ring true to me.

Some people are hot, and they know it. They do not feel ugly. Ditto for intelligence.

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

#66

Post by dingaling »

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

That seems to be overthinking motivation.

If a sponsor was offering $500k for someone to stand on a streetcorner and sing Weird Al songs most people wouldn't consider that was an important job but they'd still do it for the money. Because the money provides opportunity to buy or do things that are worthwhile.

Money is a simple way of valuing objective time vs opportunity.

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

#67

Post by lihaciudaniel »

baroffoos wrote: post #61
gammateam wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN will shadowban your account if you dont conform to popular opinion enough Aside from saying unpopular things, a net negative karma will also do it, which is a reflection of the same outcome Always check your post history from an incognito browser to see if others can see it

90% of the stuff I post is upvoted but I don't care if one opinion I stand behind is downvoted. I also create a new account every month so that probably wont affect me.

Isn't that against the rules, if not then I should do it, I just realised I was shadow banned 4 days ago and posted like an idiot

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

#68

Post by rgbrenner »

10122018 wrote: post #64
rgbrenner wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100k * 10% = 10k/year. 10% is about the best return you can count on (very optimistically) I don't know what country you live in, but 10k in the US, even for a single person, would put you far below the poverty line. No way you could afford that dental work after you pay rent on that. And let's not even talk about all of the other huge expenses that will come up later in your life. $10m * 3% = $300k/year That's a hig…

I feel disheartened that you read my entire comment and chose to focus on one number and the ineptitude of my hypothetical investment strategy instead of focusing on the overall point I was trying (and I guess failing) to make. I regret saying anything at all. For the record, thousands of Australian university students live on less than US$10K per year. You seem to think we can't exist, but we do. > No way you could…

The number says "a comfortable life". University life is not the entirety of a persons life. And these numbers are for the US anyway, where university isn't free, and that alone would cost you more than $10k/year... in fact, far more than $10k/year.

I think you need to revisit this in 10 or 20 years. I think you'll have a different opinion on this number.

$10k is not comfortable. That is poverty. And the question wasn't what is possible to survive on.

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

#69

Post by rgbrenner »

mrpopo wrote: post #63
rgbrenner wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100k * 10% = 10k/year. 10% is about the best return you can count on (very optimistically) I don't know what country you live in, but 10k in the US, even for a single person, would put you far below the poverty line. No way you could afford that dental work after you pay rent on that. And let's not even talk about all of the other huge expenses that will come up later in your life. $10m * 3% = $300k/year That's a hig…

Again, being able to live a life of leisure exclusively out of your fortune's interests reaches far higher than "living a comfortable line". You can live very comfortably with a part-time job, or even a full-time job that's not too demanding.

The question says "without thinking about finances again". It is true the number could be lower, but there does need to be some buffer here. Otherwise you're one mistake/accident/recession/layoff away from "thinking about finances again".

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

#70

Post by HighPlainsDrftr »

scottlegrand2 wrote: post #37
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 hope so - I have been saying for a while, once I get to 10m, I'm going to quit working and start focusing on doing things to help other people. I figure 4% = 400k, take 200k and reinvest it, and take the other 200k and use it.

Its christmas time, I'd like to go to my local box store and buy out the lay-aways. Donate some hams and turkeys to the poor.

As long as I've done what I can to take care of myself and family, I think its important to start helping other people.

One of our big flaws in society is we try to categorize people too much. That leads to the wealthy looking down on others. Middle class looking down on others. The poor looking down upon who they can. It is not necessary. Once you have food, home, and some basic luxuries, all you need is to save for the retirement days.

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