Ask HN: 27, accidentally became wealthy, lost drive. What should I do?

Since this is new-found money, don't do anything sudden or drastic, as you emotionally need to find a new equilibrium. But if it continues to be a motivation killer, there is a simple solution: give away some of the money.

Various studies have shown that giving a gift of $X to someone brings more happiness than receiving $X. Of course, people who are economically marginal need the money more than they need the positive feelings of helping someone else, but that isn't your current situation. Take your time and investigate some charities. Don't make one big donation; by spreading out the time considering things, you are also spending more time imagining how many people this could help.

One important concept is: effective altruism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_altruism

One shouldn't pick a charity simply because they have the smallest overhead. Pick one which can do the most good for the worst off. For instance, yes, you could buy a custom vehicle for 50K euro so someone without legs can drive around, and it is fantastic for that one person. Or with that same amount of money you could literally prevent ten deaths, or 1000 cases of blindness through medical interventions in some of the poorest countries.

Here is an example: if a woman is in labor too long, the pressure of the fetus can cause an ulceration of the woman's vaginal wall. Without proper medical care, it leaves her with a permanent hole between her intestines and her vagina. As a result, gas and feces can freely run out of her vagina, making her a social outcast. $750 is what it costs to give such a woman the surgery to fix this and a month to heal, allowing her to return to a normal life.

https://fistulafoundation.org/

You don't need to give everything away. Start with an amount that is significant but doesn't materially effect your lifestyle, say 250K euro. Then find a basket of charities that are meaningful to you over the next year, and donate. After that year, decide if you you want to do more or not. If not, at least you helped some people and you still have 95% of your windfall.

Finally, as other people have said, don't advertise your wealth. You will find "friends" who are happy to spend it for you. At the time it will seem fun and exciting to have so many friends doing so many things with, since it will be filling an emotional hole which you've expressed. Unfortunately, this exact scenario happened with my son (a smaller amount than yours, but over $1M). He had a lot of shallow friends for a couple years until the money ran out.

From a utilitarian perspective: money represents choices. If you have a lot of it, you have more choices: whether to go to work or not, live in any country you like, doing chores or not, and living in any neighborhood. The less money you have, the fewer the options are.

I've read a few books about early retirement.

One place to find your passion: what did you like to do for fun as a teen? Did you like to write small computer programs because they were fun? Woodwoorking? These were things you did when you didn't need to, and when nobody was expecting the results.

You can also get a job somewhere doing something you'd like to do. For example, work at a non-profit, become a professor, work at a startup, etc. Get the job, with salary, even though you don't need to salary for money. The company paying you will expect you to deliver, and you'll feel you need to do it because they're paying you. When the amount of salary isn't important, it can be really freeing. e.g. you could at a software startup that's targeting healthcare, or education, etc.

Ignore anyone who tells you that you're lucky and that this situation isn't a problem. Great good fortune can be just as challenging as great misfortune, and they both force you to adjust how you are living.

But, be glad that you have more options than this other guy who also lost his drive:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6809065

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29458352