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Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?
81–90 of 358 posts
Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
The example I thinking of is the common counterargument to "this job/industry/company is total BS": it can't be BS, because if it was no one rational would pay someone to do it. This presupposes that everything operates in a perfectly efficient market where pay corresponds directly to utility to someone, somewhere. The 2008 financial crash, for instance, arguably demonstrated that a lot of practices in the finance in…
Not that this makes their messaging strategy any more coherent, but 200k is on the very low end of Google compensation; new grads have offers with total compensation north of that. But they're just new grads, so obviously they can't know much, right?
I've noticed this on multiple occasions but why do people often create new accounts just to spread propaganda regarding compensation at Google? Is this a recruiting strategy executed by paid schills?
Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?
#83Some people enjoy making money. It shouldn't be a surprise that very rich people got that way because they enjoy making money - and why should they stop?
The reason I enjoy making money is because I think of it as creating value for others. For some reason, I just enjoy creating value for others.
Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?
#84But isn't it the well oiled marketing and advertising industry that is keeping us constantly unhappy and forcing us to compare our own (projected) shortcomings against others? My hypothesis is that wealthier people are even deeper in this trap, as once you can afford nice clothes, accessories, cars, houses etc., you are immediately exposed to others in the same (or higher) wealth bracket, thus exacerbating these feel…
It is not advertisers who are all to blame. Pride and envy predate magazines and TV.
Pride and envy predate magazines and TV.
So does advertising.
Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?
#85There is a critical component in such motivation that is not even mentioned in this article. The more money you have, the more ability you have to change the world around you.
Among many, many financially successful people I know, there are a LOT who are motivated by money and competitiveness themselves. However, NONE of them are founders of new businesses. (Real new businesses, that intend to stay in the picture and actually do something for the customers, instead of ending up acquihired or otherwise melted back into some comfortable corporate structure. Most of tech start-ups are really far from this image, and are created people who know exactly what their exit strategy is). These founders are always motivated by their desire to change something in the world: they love the field they're working in, and they love the product they're creating, and they wouldn't miss it for the world. And yes, they want more money, because it's the universal resource out of which they build the things they so love building.
So, in other words, the headline of this article should have been "Why Aren't New York Finance Executives And Other Thin Subset of Rich People We Got A Hold Of Happy With The Money They Have".
Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 close…
> I would be very surprised if you could live worry-free with the investment proceeds of $100,000. I think you have made the assumption that I would stop working. That might be the goal of many people, but it's not mine, and it's not how I would define being comfortable. Aside from that, yes, I was using a fairly arbitrary number to make a point. I hadn't done the math. Which, here on HN, was probably a mistake. But…
Have you considered that you think 100k is comfortable because you don’t have it?
Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?
#87>“The sensation of ‘being well-off,’” [...] “is not about fulfilling a childhood dream of buying a sailboat or something; feeling wealthy is about comparison with others in your reference group
When there is a debate about increasing % of taxes further for higher income (often in the name of redistribution, reducing inequalities), I often hear the argument that it will reduce the motivation for the higher income people to keep working and keep contributing to society. I think the argument is wrong: it's a social game, and if the same rules apply to all, they all can keep playing the same game with the same motivation of outdoing their peers.
Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?
#88Some people enjoy making money. It shouldn't be a surprise that very rich people got that way because they enjoy making money - and why should they stop?
The reason I enjoy making money is because I think of it as creating value for others. For some reason, I just enjoy creating value for others.
In a free market, money is made by creating value for others.
Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?
#89A 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…
This might sound odd, but there is some real health benefits in perceiving oneself as having high social status. A few of those are better immune system, successful aging, lower stress hormones, lower risk for illness and depression, faster recovery, and just general higher energy and confidence. It can have a very strong positive effect on ones social network. It is a very powerful and deeply biological aspect of li…
I think it's generally assumed that more money equals better physical health, but the psychological aspects are very underrated.
Money equals certainty for a lot of people. It lets them count on certain things always being there. Having your own home, respect, clout totally builds your confidence and lets you face life with positivity. You can afford to be wrong more often, so you don't mind sticking your neck out - sometimes you lose, but often times you win big. In short, money removes a lot of anxieties.
A poor person simply doesn't have these luxuries, and the anxiety of poverty is a killer in its own right.
Our flavor of capitalism is also such that all the wealth ends up in a small number of hands. The winner takes all. I wished we could somehow enforce equality without negatively impacting innovation. Probably wishful thinking, but I wonder if society can be optimised so everyone can feel prosperous at the same time?!
Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?
#90Earlier 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…
Am I weird? I spent a year living somewhat frugally (still enjoyed myself, still took a trip now and then) in San Diego and spent about 20,000. That was only my share tbf, my wife covered her half of expenses. We had a flat in a nice neighbourhood, shared an old but decent-condition car, took one trip to New England that year..
We had obamacare which helped a lot.
I see people on HN talking about needing massive amounts of money to live and I just wonder where it all goes? What's it for?