As much as I am working my butt off right now, if I don't get rich then it wouldn't have been worth it. When I do get rich, and for some reason I find it wasn't worth the sacrifices, then I will lie to myself about it. Humans have an amazing capacity for denial.
Is getting rich worth it?
71–80 of 145 posts
Re: Is getting rich worth it?
#72Re: Is getting rich worth it?
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
The other piece of advice I always here is that as soon as you have the money, put it away in some safe financial instrument (after you've paid any outstanding debts) for at about a year and keep living your life on exactly the same income you had before you became rich.
That sounds an excellent idea - plus, to be fair, it kinda solves the "what if I go crazy and spend it" - if the right amount is tied up in trust funds for your children (enough to do something, not enough to do nothing) then you can consider the rest risk-potential and worry less (one hopes) In general however, people who win lotteries tend to go back to their norm of happiness within a year. By the time you are 18…
> By the time you are 18 you are either a happy person or not. Sorry.
I agreed with everything until your last sentence, which I can tell from personal experience is not true :)
Re: Is getting rich worth it?
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
The other piece of advice I always here is that as soon as you have the money, put it away in some safe financial instrument (after you've paid any outstanding debts) for at about a year and keep living your life on exactly the same income you had before you became rich.
That sounds an excellent idea - plus, to be fair, it kinda solves the "what if I go crazy and spend it" - if the right amount is tied up in trust funds for your children (enough to do something, not enough to do nothing) then you can consider the rest risk-potential and worry less (one hopes) In general however, people who win lotteries tend to go back to their norm of happiness within a year. By the time you are 18…
The quantifier of 18 is not really accurate, although I agree with the general sentiment.
For many (most?) people, 18 is simply the start of the journey. That journey may be short or it may take decades, but the idea that you are somehow static after a certain age is certainly something coming from a very young mind.
Re: Is getting rich worth it?
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you're illustrating the first point of the article quite well.
I agree that that point is a valid complaint, but a complaint is all it is. If the money was really bringing someone down so much, the problem could be dispensed with by writing one check to a charity of their choice. The fact that wealthy people do not give all of their money away is proof that having it is better than not having it.
I don't think it's that simple. It's possible that you don't like what your life has become, but still wouldn't give your money away because that would make you even more unhappy. It's a nice problem to have, but we shouldn't trivialize the human psychology, just try to understand it. Nobody is completely rational, and even if part of them is rational, they will always have an emotional part. Choosing to be childless for instance, is pretty much the rational choice for many people, but that doesn't mean that would make them happy.
Re: Is getting rich worth it?
#76Flagged for linking to a site that is blatantly stealing content. Link should go to the original on Quora: http://www.quora.com/Wealth/Is-getting-rich-worth-it
it says so right on the box:
"curaqion is a monthly curation of high quality answers from fascinating topics and questions on Quora."
Re: Is getting rich worth it?
#77Nice post but the guy completely forgot to say that over a certain level of richness you start to stop worryng about work.
That for most people here means probably to work even more, but just coding what they believe is significant, when you feel with the right energy, and not what the current company / job believes it is.
I believe there is a significant amount of people that every day wake up and go make something they believe it is useless, just to pay the bills. Richness can stop this massive personal sacrifice.
Clarification: As you can guess I'm very happy with my current job, the problem is, I wrote useless code for many years when I started to pay my bills as a programmer. Later I created companies and I was able to escape the sadness of writing useless code. However the fear of returning into this condition is always present, especially with a loan that I used to purchase a new house, children, and so forth.
Re: Is getting rich worth it?
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why backstabbing? Is that really necessary? Sure, politics and hard work, and even hustling (as used by Steven Corona here: http://stevecorona.com/college-was-my-biggest-mistake , rather than the "semi-legal activities" pop definition) I just don't see backstabbing as a necessary (or even effective) means to accomplish an end, no matter how noble the end may be.
I don't mean I will backstab. I mean I will get backstabbed. When you are rich, or working toward getting rich, people WILL backstab you.
Wherever you go, there you are.
Re: Is getting rich worth it?
#79I want to get rich. But I don't want to do it because I want stuff. I don't want a Audi, or a Maserati, or a fancy home, or the newest gadget. I have a objective, a plan, for me, and for future generations, and I know how much it will cost, and doing it will require me to be rich. And I know how much problems it will attract, how much relationships it will wreck, and how much danger it will bring to my life. But I do…
That's how I see it too. The article seemed to focus on, yeah you can buy more stuff but stuff doesn't make you happy. Yeah, we know that, what money really buys you is the freedom to pursue your own goals and not be slave to someone else's. Especially if your goals are things that are not "profitable" in the pecuniary sense, pursuing them full time is just not an option when you need to eat.
Re: Is getting rich worth it?
#80> First, one of the only real things being rich gives you is that you don't have to worry about money as much anymore. I disagree with this. One thing being rich gives you is the ability to make things happen. Being a benefactor of a cause or artistic organization or an investor in a startup means that you can help set into motion meaningful projects that you believe in that would not otherwise have been possible. I'…
Capitalism is a system of alienation. For us hackers this is clear as day as the many proprietary software programs out there directly alienate people from the process of software production. Perhaps the best thing about being a capitalist is that you are no longer alienated from production like everyone else so you can make things happen.
Absolutely. The article does not include the cost of alienation and serfdom into its calculus.
How much would you pay for freedom?