Of course, I’d do all the obvious things, such as getting a bigger house, a newer car, and quitting work, but beyond that, I have no interest in an extravagant lifestyle—or at least that’s what I tell myself.
By a bigger house, I mean one typical of upper-middle-class living. I’ve watched plenty of videos of people touring million-dollar mansions, and they all look too big, open, and sterile to me. I’ve seen cozier tiny homes than those. And by a newer car, I mean a 2017 model or so instead of the 2007 one I drive now.
Really, give me a nice cottage by the lake with some land and a big garage for all my tools and toys, and I’m all set. I much prefer the idea of “hidden wealth” over showing it off. I’m just kind of worried that I wouldn’t be able to live up to my own expectations if push comes to shove, and there’s really no way of testing that. Am I just kidding myself here?
I feel the same way about fame. Many people aspire to become successful YouTubers or such, but the idea of people recognizing me on the street sounds awful.
It’s all a hypothetical, feel free to just decide you are that type of person. No harm in it.
In real life though, if money is no object, the difference between a 2017 normal car and a 2025 luxury car is literally just “do you want extra features and a bigger screen on a car that will last longer?” It just doesn’t make sense to get the cheaper version, unless you are giving up something else because you only have a limited amount of money.
I honestly think most people would do what you think you would do: Just reinforce what makes you happy and remove stressors.
We just notice more the ones who believe happiness is showing off how big they are.
In addition to what you listed I think you’d probably travel more and consider hiring people to do regular house cleaning and garden maintenance.
Where do you start from? You’re on lemmy, most likely work in tech but are too leftist to get promoted, to the drive a Tesla and get stock option paygrade
If you enjoy your job, and get enough income struggle to fulfill your basic needs, more money is just some extra comfort. Sure you could spend you holiday in a hotel rather than a camping and get designer furnitures rather than IKEA one. You could finally have the free room in you house to set up a lab.
So compared to people who don’t even reach the (full time) minimal wage, you are way in advance.
Most rich people don’t have such an extravagant lifestyle. And many people who show off areren’t that rich( they could become if they stop getting debt and showing off)
I’m self-employed contractor. I make enough to buy whatever I want, and I have plenty of savings. However, I often find that my anxieties boil down to finances. Even though things are good now, I’m always worried something bad might happen in the future. With enough money to retire, I wouldn’t need to worry about that anymore and could move on to worrying about other things, like my health and such.
Not sure if you’ve ever come across FIRE (financially independent, retire early)? Mr Money Moustache is a pretty interesting blog to read about his journey.
Yeah I’ve listened to him, Dave Ramsey and others as well. It’s what originally got me into investing around 6 years ago. I should’ve started way sooner…
If you’re not a wage slave and have a bigger home, think of all the hobbies and interests you can pursue, new things to learn, time to meet people and space to host them, charity work… And you have the energy for things that a job would drain from you otherwise. I think life would be drastically different.
This sounds like retirement.
Source: am retired
Yeah, about that… a lot of people in the Millennial and Gen z generations may not be able to ever retire.
Yep, I’m well aware that I’m privileged. I’m concerned about the world my kids will live in as they grow up.
I’d think you would end up living differently just because of the scale.
Let’s say you were suddenly handed 100 million dollars. Lottery, inheritance, whatever.
I don’t know what your annual salary is, but for me, that’s 694.4 years worth of annual income.
So “paying myself” my current annual salary, which NGL, is pretty comfortable, it would take 694.4 years to burn through $100M.
Of course interest changes that as well. Capping yourself at whatever your annual income is would likely see your wealth continuing to grow and never shrink.
All of a sudden, a world of possibilities opens to you. Vacation rentals? Screw that, vacation HOMES. AirBNB them 96% of the time (50/52 weeks a year) and that’s more money on the pile.
If you did get a seriously large lump of cash… after a settling in period a lot of changes will happen, and you will be happy they did (IMHO).
The reason is that one of the biggest gifts that wealth gives you is TIME. A lot of the day to day crap that the rest of us need to deal with just evaporates. No need to shop (there are people for that). Want to travel… people will organise everything. There will be no waiting in lines at airports, at restaurants, at government offices… there are people for that. Someone to clean, someone to pick up the kids (unless you want to of course), someone to cook, holidays on a fuck-off huge yacht with crew to manage everything, or just to zip to Paris for the weekend.
You will probably really appreciate not having to deal with most of that crap. Also, while you probably don’t want a stupid large house, you do want privacy and so will want to get a house on 1000 acres in a gorgeous landscape (plus perhaps apartments in various cities that you like).
Imagine moving from a food insecure lifestyle to a secure lifestyle where food, safety, housing is always there. Would you want to keep your old food-insecure lifestyle? No. Same with going from a food secure lifestyle to a time-and-resource abundant lifestyle.
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I think most people who win the lottery for example, make bad choices and end up losing that money anyways.
I’d say it’s possible to a degree. But it’s certainly not easy. If you own a bigger house, you need someone to clean it. Same for other nice things like a big pool. A large, well-maintained lawn etc. There will be people envying your wealth and you got to deal with them. You need someone to manage your money and assets, or have lots of spare time to deal with all of that. And it’ll be at the cost of your hobbies. If you have too may people doing stuff for you, you need people to manage those people…
Yeah, everyone always talks about having a “hole” they need to fill with something… I’m pretty sure I don’t have that. I enjoy stuff, I’m a pretty happy person. But I don’t really -need- anything, other than sustenance stuff. I like having more stuff, but it’s not that important to me. I live well below my means, so my extra money just kind if piles up. My dad always says money just sitting there in the bank could be “working for you”, but then he always lives paycheck to paycheck and stresses about money all the time, that lifestyle didn’t “work for me”. I’d rather just have that money sitting there and be stress free instead, that works for me.
I like VR quite a bit, so I like to make sure I have a current headset and computer. But those are both pretty cheap. Computer is like 3% of my yearly income, but I only need a new one every 5 years or so, and the old one still sells for decent. And the headsets are less than 1% of yearly income.
If I won a lottery or something, I would probably just become a secret philanthropist, well, more of one. But don’t tell anyone, it’s a secret. I do like just randomly helping people with stuff. Money makes that easy, but I help with whatever I can. Despite being autistic, I am somehow inexplicably also strongly empathic. So I’m ultimately a people pleaser, but very much an introvert with heavy social anxiety. So yeah, I like to make people feel good, without them knowing it was me, cuz getting credit would suck for me.
I don’t think we really get to choose alot of our behaviour, we are mostly a product of our genetics plus our life experiences. I’m honestly not even sure about free will. Did I actually make any choices that could have been different, or was the answer I eventually settled on always going to be what I was going to do based on everything that happened leading up to it and my perception of those events. I suppose ultimately, it doesn’t matter. I like the way I am, and I wouldn’t change anything if I could, so it doesn’t matter if I probably can’t anyway.
Keeping large amounts of cash in the bank is not a very smart financial move. Due to inflation, you’re effectively losing money. You should have enough cash to get you through a crisis without needing to touch your investments, but the rest should be put into low-cost index funds, for example. I “earn” more from interest each year than the vast majority of people can save from their wages. In my opinion, working-class people can’t afford to miss out on the phenomenon of compounding interest. That should be taught in schools. Other than owning a house, it’s basically the only other way to generate a significant amount of wealth.
This thread is about feeling like we already have enough money, lol. Yes, they taught us about compound interest in school. I know I could be making more money, but I don’t want more money, I want my money to just be sitting there so I don’t have to worry about it. My dad is always so stressed out because he never has any money on hand, it’s always tied up in stuff and he has to constantly micromanage everything. I’m sure he has more money than he would have if he wasn’t doing that… but it certainly isn’t the “passive” income he claims it is. It’s more work than his actual job, and the stress is costing him years off his life on top of the time it already costs to manage it all.
I have enough money. More money would be a waste. I don’t want to do even a fraction of what he does, it can just sit there and I can just chill. I like my life.
He’s not a passive investor then. Passive investing doesn’t require any managing. What he’s doing is not the recommended style for normal people because it’s effectively gambling.
My investing requires zero managing. I set it up once and haven’t touched it since. It automatically buys more shares each month and never sells anything. If the market crashes tomorrow, I’m not doing anything differently. It’s like automatically moving money to a savings account each month, but instead of putting it in a bank, I’m buying index funds.
Keeping large amounts of money in the bank not only isn’t making you any money, but you’re losing money you’ve spent your valuable time working for. It’s like giving back around 5% of your salary each time you get it.
I don’t think you’re kidding yourself, i think you’re just capable of introspection and critical thought.
I frankly consider the excessive spending and flaunting of wealth that many people do to be a sign of pretty profound unhappiness, they’re just trying to desperately fill a void inside them and distracting themselves with constant consumption.
No, looking at the world and at history we can see what actually makes people happy, and those things are quite simple: having a social group, being in nice places, and having hobbies. Of course there are other things too but these are the basic pillars.
Personally if i got a shitload of money i’d invest it in founding organizations to improve the world and funding existing efforts to do the same, because it’s very clear that i personally benefit from everyone else having good lives. I want everyone to be so well off that you can drop me naked in any random place and i never ever have to worry about anything, i can 100% rely on people just giving me clothes and food and being able to travel for free, THAT is the ultimate freedom.
Over the years Ive worked up the salary I earn. I am not wealthy, just earn more than most. I am bad with money at the best of times, but I found my spending just naturally grew as I had more available to spend. If I was suddenly ultra wealthy, at the start I would probably live “normally” but honestly I would likely end up spending vastly more money just because its there
Agreed, and it’s not necessarily something big or sudden. Over the years I’ve become more likely to hire someone to care for my yard, more likely to use the AC, more likely to not watch my spending at a restaurant. More likely to go overboard at Costco. I get a better cut of meat, more expensive beer, etc. these are all little niceties I can afford, but they add up to a much more expensive lifestyle that always seems to rise with my income
Being rich turns you greedy. Not you in particular, rather: any of us. Almost everyone. You become more worried about hanging on to what you have and less concerned with the welfare of others. The good news is that you can be reminded to be compassionate and it will help. If you are asked to imagine yourself in another’s place, you can become more aware of how others feel. If, however, you are left to your own devices, you are likely to change for the worse without even noticing. I am thankful Melinda Gates married Bill and got him to engage in charities. I think a lesser woman may have allowed him to be a horrible person.
There’s lots of studies out there, but here’s a quick link with the summary of a few of them: https://blog.ted.com/6-studies-of-money-and-the-mind/
The way I think about it is that being “rich” means having a lot of money in the bank, whereas being “wealthy” means having enough investments to live off passive income indefinitely. Rich people can still live effectively from paycheck to paycheck, while a wealthy person’s wealth is tied up in assets. This means they can’t necessarily splurge a ton of cash on a yacht or similar luxuries, but they can live comfortably off the interest without having to work. Billionaires, on the other hand, are a whole different animal because they can afford to do both and much more.
Rich people can still live effectively from paycheck to paycheck, while a wealthy person’s wealth is tied up in assets. This means they can’t necessarily splurge a ton of cash on a yacht or similar luxuries, but they can live comfortably off the interest without having to work.
Wealthy people can use their wealth to secure low interest loans when they want to splirge. They just don’t tend to do it as much as rich people because the mindset that leads to long term wealth involves splurging less offen and only when it is affordable without negatiely impacting their wealth.
I would only live differently in that I would actually be able to do everything I want to do instead of doing nothing because I can’t afford to do anything. Better home, better car, better gaming setup and I’d actually leave the house once in a while for more than just work and getting consumable goods like food, TP, soap, etc. And there isn’t a lot I want to go out for. Bowling, pool, going up to Yosemite or down to Santa Cruz (gas is insane).
It depends on how much money it is, and whether you keep it all.
If the amount were, say, less than 10 million, you’d probably do exactly what you say. If the amount were more but you gave a bunch away to have around 10 mil or less, same thing.
If the amount is billions and you keep it all for yourself, that’s when it starts doing things to you. In order to keep that for yourself, you have to justify it internally–why is it you deserve this money while others are struggling? The only way to justify it is to demonize the poor–believing that poverty is a moral failing, or otherwise believing that you’re better than others.
Extreme wealth hoarding is bad for everyone–both the poor and the rich.
I have similar wants. Just a standard house, maybe some land for a bit of gardening, and a workshop to make things. Donate to certain charities and open source projects etc. Travel a bit.
But they’re one little thing I’d do that would definitely show I’m rich:
I’d travel to local forest parks around the world, and bury actual treasure. Like a 3 gold bars. In in actual chest too. Maybe every now and then I’d do smaller treasures that are like a fancy sword or platinum ring or just medieval armor. Idk.
Then I’d go to the local university and set up riddles they’ll lead to a part of a hidden map, with the map being hidden both throughout the university and maybe online too, depending.
But it wouldn’t be a straightforward map. It would be a map to a random house built near the park. And somewhere in that house, would be the final map leading to the treasure.
Why? Because the world could use a little bit of magic adventuring I think. That’s something that just doesn’t really exist anymore in the modern era, in a way. I feel like finding treasure and going on a treasure hunt is something a lot of people as a kid probably thought would be fun.
And second, university students can always use some money, so they get first dibs too.
Likewise when I die any children I have would have to go to a mini mansion and solve the puzzles in order to get my last will that grants the finder my money.
