What I find odd when reading these kinds of posts and the discussion that ensues is that most people don't even seem to ask if "becoming rich" is really that important to begin with: For example, in his post the author gives the impression that only money can buy you a decent and fulfilling life and that you should better get rich quick since otherwise "you’ll be too old to enjoy it". Personally I think building up m…
First off, MJ recently discussed in his forum (which I no longer frequent, I like it here better) about how he had too much stuff, and was happy just hanging out in his GF's small apartment. So even very wealthy people can have these types of existential crises.
Now here's my untested thesis that I'd like to blog about:
In the US, there was a study that shows something like "happiness stops growing after 75k".
There are several reasons, but I feel that a large part of it is that once you have over 75k income, you start buying more things which end up causing you more problems. That Mercedes that always needs repair? That big suburban house that needs constant work? Wife wants to go on vacations, pressure to have kids, etc etc.
So now you're making 125k, but you're no happier than someone making 50k. Because:
* You're working harder for the 125k
* You have more crap cluttering your life, and it keeps breaking and finding ways to abuse your time.
* You're invited to more parties and social events, especially if you have kids.
YET, you're still not making so much money that you can afford to have someone handle the small stuff for you. So you're awash in crap and tiny things and the next thing you know, you're not doing what you truly enjoy. you're running errands.
So it becomes a Mo' Money Mo' Problems type situation.
* One solution is to live minimalistically. Something I personally prefer.
* Another solution is to get rich enough and have an assistant, cook, maid, etc do the small stuff for you, so you can enjoy your time again instead of running errands all day. This is also what I'm going after.
* A third solution is to move to a cheaper country.
Anyway, the point is, you don't need to be rich. But if you want the "stuff", you're going to get a hell of a lot of headaches that go along with it, unless you're seriously ballin enough to not give a crap about hiring people to do the nonsense work. Otherwise, you're just paying for more work for yourself.
That's my little offtopic thesis. I need to get back to work now.