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

theatlantic.com

321–330 of 358 posts

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

#321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, in other words, it's not enough to meet GPs threshold of not work for anybody and support a family of four . It's enough (by your description) to not work for anybody and support a family of 1 (at a level a little over to the US current median individual income.)

>So, in other words, it's not enough to meet GPs threshold of not work for anybody and support a family of four. I have a co-worker that supports a family of four, with a mortgage, on not much more than I make. Do they take fancy vacations? No. Do they drive new cars? No, in fact they have 1 car. Do they eat out, buy convenience foods, buy fast food? No, they make their meals and enjoy them together. Do they have the…

Living costs drop dramatically when you don't need to work. The costs of transportation and time-saving meals is pretty incredible. Ignoring depreciation and interest, even a Civic costs thousands in gas, maintenance, and insurance to run 40 miles daily.

Side note: the prices on your bulk beef sound pretty high. My local grocery has ground beef at $3.29/lb, $9/lb is almost what they charge for t-bone steaks. For cheap meat, I stick to whole chickens at <$1/lb or pork when it's BOGO.

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

#322
I have been to third world countries, seen the slums and underage girls walk around at 4 in the morning outside bars.

And yet when I land at AMS I immediately go back into first world mode. Waiting for luggage? Miss the shuttle bus for the parking? Literally rape.

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

#323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And this yet another example of the HN bubble. My parents retired at 55 and 57 in a small town and have never worried about money. My dad had maybe a million in retirement as a factory worker and my mom retired with a pension as a school teacher. My mom did low pay volunteer work as a consultant for a few years after she retired, but now they are in their mid 70s and not “worried” about money between social security,…

That 2-3 million number is a common one I see for software engineers who aim to have that much invested by 40-50. Certainly my goal.

Well because of $bad_decisions up until I was 35 and purposeful financial commitments I’ve made for the past 10 years, it’s going to be a stretch for us to have $2 million. But, I’m okay with that. If we can retire with a paid for house, about a million and whatever social security is then, we should be okay.

Worse case, what would We do retired that we couldn’t do with me contracting/consulting part time? My hobbies are technology and fitness. I’ve been developing for 20 years and never disliked my careeer. I have disliked my job but there is mobility in the technology industry if you keep your skills up.

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

#324
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it clearly demonstrates that these employees where not creating that much value at the firm. Progressive betting strategies for example can appear to work in the short term, but anyone executing them is destroying value.

Janitors were providing value whether or not Bear's long exposure to MBSs were too large. The same applies to traders, etc. My dentist fixing my toothache still provided value to me even if I die of a massive heart attack in two months.

If you sum up all work by everyone at Bear over the companies last year, they created negative value. Some lost far more money than others, but Traders as a group where not a net money maker.

Really, the company did not die in "100 hours." People just noticed it was already dead.

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

#325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, in other words, it's not enough to meet GPs threshold of not work for anybody and support a family of four . It's enough (by your description) to not work for anybody and support a family of 1 (at a level a little over to the US current median individual income.)

>So, in other words, it's not enough to meet GPs threshold of not work for anybody and support a family of four. I have a co-worker that supports a family of four, with a mortgage, on not much more than I make. Do they take fancy vacations? No. Do they drive new cars? No, in fact they have 1 car. Do they eat out, buy convenience foods, buy fast food? No, they make their meals and enjoy them together. Do they have the…

and so you're saying if they had 1 million dollars you would consider them financially "rich"?

The article is about the motivations of rich people.

it doesn't sound like the lifestyle you're describing is a financially "rich" lifestyle. It sounds like an "I could get by if I pinched pennies" lifestyle. One for which it would be obvious why they'd want more money.

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

#326

Earlier 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…

Part of being worry-free is knowing that even if you became unable to work you would not go hungry. 100k would do that for a while (unless you had medical expenses) but not forever. As a result, at some point you would need to worry.

My point in saying all of this isn't to depress you or wave money in your face or anything-- just to be clear, I don't have that kind of cash. It's just that the math says somewhere in the $1M to $10M range is what you need to be legitimately isolated from personal financial stress.

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

#327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>So, in other words, it's not enough to meet GPs threshold of not work for anybody and support a family of four. I have a co-worker that supports a family of four, with a mortgage, on not much more than I make. Do they take fancy vacations? No. Do they drive new cars? No, in fact they have 1 car. Do they eat out, buy convenience foods, buy fast food? No, they make their meals and enjoy them together. Do they have the…

and so you're saying if they had 1 million dollars you would consider them financially "rich"? The article is about the motivations of rich people. it doesn't sound like the lifestyle you're describing is a financially "rich" lifestyle. It sounds like an "I could get by if I pinched pennies" lifestyle. One for which it would be obvious why they'd want more money.

>and so you're saying if they had 1 million dollars you would consider them financially "rich"?

To most of the country 1 million dollars makes you quite rich. Again, median HOUSEHOLD income is 59k. Federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, that means 66.31 years of gross wages for a minimum wage worker.

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

#328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>So, in other words, it's not enough to meet GPs threshold of not work for anybody and support a family of four. I have a co-worker that supports a family of four, with a mortgage, on not much more than I make. Do they take fancy vacations? No. Do they drive new cars? No, in fact they have 1 car. Do they eat out, buy convenience foods, buy fast food? No, they make their meals and enjoy them together. Do they have the…

Living costs drop dramatically when you don't need to work. The costs of transportation and time-saving meals is pretty incredible. Ignoring depreciation and interest, even a Civic costs thousands in gas, maintenance, and insurance to run 40 miles daily. Side note: the prices on your bulk beef sound pretty high. My local grocery has ground beef at $3.29/lb, $9/lb is almost what they charge for t-bone steaks. For chea…

>Side note: the prices on your bulk beef sound pretty high.

I'm talking about buying 1/4 or 1 whole specific cow directly from a farm that gets butchered and wrapped for you, it's actually quite cheaper than the grocery. The average cost per pound is absolutely higher for ground beef because you're getting a LOT of steak and ribs.

For 1/4 beef you're talking like 50ish pounds of ground beef, like 20lbs of various roasts, 40ish pounds of steaks and probably some ribs.

Yeah, you can get ground beef or ground chuck stupid cheap at the grocery, especially if you're buying the big rolls of it. 2-5$ depending on the quantity and fat content, but buy a 1/4 , 1/2 or whole beef gets you a ton of steak, roasts, ribs.

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

#329
post #204
post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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The Spanish conquistadors were feudalists, not capitalists. Spain actually had one of the most rigid and statist economies in all of Europe. The sort of tribalism (of the European colonists) that lead to the destruction of native societies in the Americas, both North and South is it's own thing and exists independently of the economic system of those practicing it.

In fact Capitalism says very little about politics though. All it takes for it to operate is a functioning legal system and respect for property rights, and that's about it. Capitalism is simply about the freedom to own and raise capital, make investments and earn profits. That's about it. People have been doing that for thousands of years, it's simply the degree to which it is taken that makes the difference. What makes a system non-capitalist is really the degree to which freedoms to invest and practice economic activity are restricted or reserved, and the degree to which property, profits and investment can be appropriated.

Capitalism has very few ideological requirements. A such you can layer over or under it almost any other political ideology. Just look at China with it's Communist political system, statist public sector but burgeoning capitalist economic sector. Is the persecution of the Uighurs down to capitalism?

One problem with capitalism is that it makes a society dramatically more efficient and wealthy, making it a lot more capable of prosecuting whatever other political, racial, cultural or religious agenda the society might have. Just look at the wealthiest nations on earth. They are either capitalist, or they are resource rich such as the petrostates, or in the case of China have re-branded capitalism as 'Chinese Characteristics' and used it to fund the statist side of their agenda. Russia is failing precisely because it has been unable to establish a functioning capitalist economy and relies on oil and gas money instead.

Look at the middle east. Israel is easily the most capitalist society in the region and, even though it faces up to some of the wealthiest nations on the planet, if there was a war between Israel and say Saudi Arabia even, there's no doubt who would get humiliated. That's how terrifyingly effective capitalsim can be. It's the reason Japan rose from being a miserable medieval backwater to dominating all of Asia, even though it retained it's feudal hierarchy. That's how flexible capitalism is because it's not really an ideology, it's just about basic economics.

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

#330
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 -…

Returning to ho capitalism functioned during the years of 1930-1980, before the reduction in top marginal tax rates would go a long way towards leveling the playing field.

That's an interesting idea. I wonder what, fundamentally, caused the marginal tax rate to fall? Is it the perception (or reality) that governments waste the tax money? Or is it simply the corrupting influence of wealth in govt?

I don't see how any of these would not have been true earlier though.

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