Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have? • Hacker News Board

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

#201

Post by C1sc0cat » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 12:24 PM UTC

10122018 wrote: post #188

fabricexpert wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're presuming you can continue to work. $10M means you don't have to work, even when you can't.

I agree, that is an assumption built into my belief, and possibly a foolish one. I would still maintain that it is possible to live on much less than $10M, although some may not enjoy the change in lifestyle.

Not really that's about the level where you don't have to think to much at say the £1,000,000 - yes I would not really have to work - but buying a house would easily take 50% - 70% of that.

And I could spend 10% of the 1 million on just maxing out my unused pension allowance for the last three years, and probably I should do the same for my sisters.

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

#202

Post by C1sc0cat » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 12:25 PM UTC

lordnacho wrote: post #112

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…

This is a fairly interesting comment for me. I was exactly in your situation. I had no money in Uni. My parents were boat people with no money either. Not long after Uni, I had 100K in my account. Comfy, no mansion, no car. The first thing I spent more than a couple of grand on ever was dental work. Felt great to fix the crossbite. But here's the thing. You could just be alone your whole life, no wife, no kids. I've…

Depends a classic 911 is arguably a good investment.

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

#203

Post by eeZah7Ux » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 12:26 PM UTC

cyberferret wrote: post #20

But 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…

Of course, and that's why a lot of billionaires are obsessed with flaunting their wealth and earning even more.

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

#204

Post by antocv » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 12:32 PM UTC

simonh wrote: post #179

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Money is an insanely toxic mental, political, and social poison, for exactly these kinds of reasons. It's also a social reward function that privileges egotism and narcissism over empathy; exploitation, scamming, and rent-seeking over creativity, curiosity and invention; and short-term gain over long-term damage. Like the hardest of hard addictive drugs, it's an almost irresistible modifier of behaviour and attitude.

[flagged]

[flagged]

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

#205

Post by fouc » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 12:32 PM UTC

rv-de wrote: post #76

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…

In terms of machine learning money is the opposite of regularization. The more money the less regularization the more over-fitting to your specific self-chosen environment. A not rich person will have to learn to cope with obstacles. A rich person can remove obstacles. But it is impossible to remove all obstacles which will lead to increased hostility towards those remaining annoyances - like for example with SUVs in…

I would imagine the road rage comes more from insecurity. Feeling like a doofus for driving an SUV, and being triggered by someone that's clearly not as insecure.

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

#206

Post by throwaway1932 » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 12:34 PM UTC

MuffinFlavored wrote: post #50

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…

> I'd never own a Ferrari, but why would I need to? Because you were raised poor, you still are poor, so your views on life do not revolve around one of the finest and most exclusive automobiles money can buy. You've never been in a position to be even remotely close to owning a Ferrari, so your brain has ignored the value they offer. Yes. Driving a high speed status symbol can be rewarding. It can start conversation…

> Driving a high speed status symbol [...] can get you access to groups of people who would never have looked at you before

I grew up in a very wealthy area and learnt to stay away from that kind of people.

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

#207

Post by ThomPete » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 12:37 PM UTC

A rich man is just a poor man with a lot of money.

The biggest drug with having money is the opportunities that come with it. Financial freedom is freedom to chose what you want to do with your life and who you want to do it with.

That's one half of the drug. That your days suddenly can look like one long adventure without too much repetition besides what you choose.

The apple in paradise is that other people have more than you and thus you start comparing to richer people and make that the new standard.

Finding the balance between enjoying what you have and wanting more is such a fundamental struggle in humans and start with the poor person without the money.

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

#208

Post by eeZah7Ux » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 12:38 PM UTC

combatentropy wrote: post #55

cyberferret wrote: post #20

But 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.

So does cholera. But if you spend your work time trying to spread cholera you get a bit of blame.

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

#209

Post by rocannon » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 12:46 PM UTC

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.…

Regarding "freedom of will": I quit my job when I accumulated about $500K in net worth. (Needless to say, I did not live in SV. However, my rent was about $1200/mo.)

The day after I quit my job and I didn't have to go in to work anymore, I felt such an extreme sense of joy that I don't think I ever felt in my life. At the time, my feeling was that "the exercise of free will" was the cause of this bliss - similar to what you're saying about freedom of will.

I didn't have to report to anyone, there was literally nothing that I had to do which did not come from within me.

This feeling lasted for about a year. I moved to a cheaper rental. My cash runway lasted about 5 years, and I felt really pretty good about life for the first 2-3 years. After that, I started to become more worried about whether I'd have to go back to work, or what kind of life I'd be able to live without that.

What I'm trying to say is that you can get to the freedom of will state with far less than $1M. It may not last forever. But I highly recommend doing it. It may be especially sweet for people like me, who have delayed gratification for decades.

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

#210

Post by thedufer » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 12:46 PM UTC

10122018 wrote: post #72

rgbrenner wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 was…

Nowhere have I said that $10K per year is comfortable. I have a dentist appointment tomorrow that I don't yet know how I am going to pay for. I can't remember the last time I got a Christmas or birthday present, or the last time I went on a holiday. It sucks, but there are people worse off than me. And there are three orders of magnitude between $10K and $10M. If anyone thinks they need $10M to feel secure and comfor…

> there are three orders of magnitude between $10K and $10M

Sure, but you're comparing apples and oranges. Almost 2 of those orders of magnitude disappear when you change $10M of assets into a few hundred thousand dollars of annual income.

A lot of the rest goes away when you notice that not worrying about finances "ever again" includes an awful lot of expensive things you don't pay for day-to-day or even year-to-year, such as the dental work you're putting off.