Sam Adams founder

[Travelwanted]

Recent interview with Jim Koch. What he says about money is soooo true. I see it every day. Thought the good folks here could appreciate his wisdom:


Koch became a billionaire in 2013. He says that while he appreciates the success of his company, he doesn't think too much about his net worth.

"I tell everyone, getting rich is life's biggest booby trap," he says.

Koch believes achieving wealth brings the temptation to sacrifice your passion for whatever will result in more cash, and using wealth as your main motivator sets you up for self-destruction.

"It comes down to what would you rather be, happy or rich?" he says. "I say do what's gonna make you happy."

[unclemick]

In the modern era I view happiness like fishing in that mostly I practice catch and release.

" Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."

If you catch it let it go - go and chase it again. It's the pursuit I am after.

heh heh heh - never underestimate the shear joy of whining or a good rant. Or the Zen of watching paint dry or grass growing.

Left handed INTJ here. I will accept the misery of a billion if someone wants to lay it on me - strongly opinionated enough to run a foundation.

[Masquernom]

So, I guess he'll start paying his employees a lot more and not worry about company profits...

Right........

[NW-Bound]

What if money is what makes you happy?

[45th Birthday]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Masquernom So, I guess he'll start paying his employees a lot more and not worry about company profits... Right........

Boston Beer Company is regularly recognized as one of the best places to work. Maybe you should find someplace else to post your anti-capitalist rants.

[ziggy29]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Masquernom So, I guess he'll start paying his employees a lot more and not worry about company profits...

His company is publicly traded, so those pesky shareholders might not like it. Unless he personally still owns a controlling interest, anyway.

[pb4uski]

Quote:

Originally Posted by unclemick ...If you catch it let it go - go and chase it again. It's the pursuit I am after....

"T-Rex doesn't want to be fed. He wants to hunt. Can't just suppress 65 million years of gut instinct."

-Jurassic Park

[Koolau]

Quote:

"It comes down to what would you rather be, happy or rich?" he says. "I say do what's gonna make you happy."

Then there are these:

I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor: Rich is better. — Sophie Tucker

I have never been in a situation where having more money made it worse. — Clinton Jones

Contentment makes poor men rich; discontentment makes rich men poor. — Benjamin Franklin

As always, YMMV.

[Jay_Gatsby]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koolau "It comes down to what would you rather be, happy or rich?" he says. "I say do what's gonna make you happy."

Quote:

Then there are these: I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor: Rich is better. — Sophie Tucker I have never been in a situation where having more money made it worse. — Clinton Jones Contentment makes poor men rich; discontentment makes rich men poor. — Benjamin Franklin As always, YMMV.

It's easy to say that money doesn't matter . . . when you have plenty of money. Put differently, money becomes less of a motivator when you don't have to worry about a roof over your head, food on the table, etc....

[ziggy29]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jay_Gatsby It's easy to say that money doesn't matter . . . when you have plenty of money. Put differently, money becomes less of a motivator when you don't have to worry about a roof over your head, food on the table, etc....

Of course money matters, but there is usually diminished returns above a certain amount of income or net worth. I've seen surveys and studies that put the point of diminishing returns at about $75,000 per year. At that point all of your needs are met and many of your wants. And each incremental dollar earned above that generates less happiness, satisfaction, and improvement in quality of life than at lower incomes.

As always, individual opinions and situations will vary. But suffice it to say, a $10,000 windfall makes less impact on a household earning $300,000 a year than one earning $30,000.

[JoeWras]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 45th Birthday Boston Beer Company is regularly recognized as one of the best places to work. Maybe you should find someplace else to post your anti-capitalist rants.

I'll say this much for Koch...

During a recent "brew tour" at a local brewery, the Brewmaster had nothing but good things to say about him. Recently, there was some shortage of something, I can't remember what (hops? grain?), and it was hitting the small guys hard, real hard.

Although Boston is now pretty much a "big guy", they were the only big company -- which the suppliers had at the front of the line -- that decided to not hoard the ingredient and actually resold it to many of the little guys at their cost, to avoid shutting them out. It would have been really easy to basically shut 80% of the microbrews down for a few months because of this.

Koch literally came to the rescue.

I know nothing else, just what this brewmaster said. This company competes with Boston on the local shelves. Didn't matter. Koch did the right thing.

[razztazz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 45th Birthday Boston Beer Company is regularly recognized as one of the best places to work. Maybe you should find someplace else to post your anti-capitalist rants.

What do you mean "anti-capitalist". Capitalists brag about this sort of modus operandi.

[JoeWras]

Interestingly, I decided to try to find this crisis the brewmaster mentioned. Instead I found an article that says Koch may be veering away from this altruistic past:

The Competition for Craft Beer Drinkers Takes a Bitter Turn - TIME

Don't know. It is "he said, he said" right now.

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ziggy29 Of course money matters, but there is usually diminished returns above a certain amount of income or net worth. I've seen surveys and studies that put the point of diminishing returns at about $75,000 per year. At that point all of your needs are met and many of your wants. And each incremental dollar earned above that generates less happiness, satisfaction, and improvement in quality of life than at lower incomes...

Roughly speaking, I agree with this threshold as the ballpark. But the devil is in the details. Does one have to pay for mortgage out of that $75k? And, it may be a survey from workers who have insurance through employers; add another $15k for ER's to buy healthcare. On the other hand, one can argue that ER's have fewer expenses. OK, so subtract that $15k back out. Then, how does an ER generate his $75k/yr? WR of 4% or 3%? We are talking investable assets of around $2M here, a number not reachable by many workers.

Still, I can think a person can live comfortable if he has $50K to $100K to spend, the higher limit applying to a couple. From my early 20s till now, that range has been what my expenses are (after taxes and savings), and the $100K level is exceeded only when I have extraneous spending for children's college expenses or home improvements.

More money will get me more toys, which will surely make my life busier but not necessarily much happier. Counting that money with Quicken most likely makes me happier, so I still want more money even without spending it. I just do not want to work hard for it.

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeWras I'll say this much for Koch... During a recent "brew tour" at a local brewery, the Brewmaster had nothing but good things to say about him. Recently, there was some shortage of something, I can't remember what (hops? grain?), and it was hitting the small guys hard, real hard. Although Boston is now pretty much a "big guy", they were the only big company -- which the suppliers had at the front of the line -- that decided to not hoard the ingredient and actually resold it to many of the little guys at their cost, to avoid shutting them out. It would have been really easy to basically shut 80% of the microbrews down for a few months because of this. Koch literally came to the rescue. I know nothing else, just what this brewmaster said. This company competes with Boston on the local shelves. Didn't matter. Koch did the right thing.

Yes, that was about a hop shortage. It's kind of complicated, but the big guys (Miller, Bud, Coors, etc) apparently use mostly a hop oil concentrate that is shelf stable for years. They had contracted with hop growers, and ran into overproduction for several years, and the big guys had an excess of hop concentrate on the shelf, so cut future contracts way down. Hop farmers ended up pulling out hops and growing other things to stay afloat.

Now the microbrewers are getting mostly the marginal excess hops from these big growers, and basically, the margins dried up very quickly. And it takes years for hops to start producing in quantity. It was tough for home brewers and micro-brewers.

And it was widely reported that Koch helped out the other guys, as he had his own contracts with some to spare (or something like that). Yes, he's very well thought of among home brewers and the micro-brewer community.

I think the sum of the micros and home brewers have created a hop market separate from the big boys, so barring weather or disease issues, probably not a future problem.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeWras Interestingly, I decided to try to find this crisis the brewmaster mentioned. Instead I found an article that says Koch may be veering away from this altruistic past: The Competition for Craft Beer Drinkers Takes a Bitter Turn - TIME Don't know. It is "he said, he said" right now.

As far as the second post there - yes, 'he said - she said', and the guy from Laguntitas got in a big row recently, he really acted like a jerk and was widely scorned for it. Basically, he was suing another company (Sierra Nevada I think) for trademark infringement - claiming their "IPA" label ripped off Lagunitas IPA label. Hmmm, three block-style letters, just how different can you make them? The court of popular opinion spoke, and Lagunitas tweeted an apology. But he still came off as a jerk.

In a he-said-she-said, I'd go with Koch.

-ERD50

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeWras Interestingly, I decided to try to find this crisis the brewmaster mentioned. Instead I found an article that says Koch may be veering away from this altruistic past: The Competition for Craft Beer Drinkers Takes a Bitter Turn - TIME Don't know. It is "he said, he said" right now.

Also, I googled " koch hop shortage" and came up with quite a few:

Boston Brewing Sells Ten Tons of Hops to Hop-Starved Small Brewers | OregonLive.com

Quote:

He told them that Boston Beer, brewer of the Samuel Adams beers, will sell 20,000 pounds of hops that otherwise would not be available to smaller breweries. The company will sell the hops at its cost, which is considerably less than they would bring on the open (or "spot") market. .... Samuel Adams will limit the amount sold to any one brewery in order to assure as many as possible get hops. "The purpose of doing this is to get some hops to the brewers who really need them. So if you don't really need them, please don't order them," Koch wrote. "And don't order them just because we're making them available at a price way below market. Order them because you need these hops to make your beer. We're not asking questions, so let your conscience be your guide.

-ERD50

[Midpack]

Which shows once again, you can find something believable to support any point of view online. Doing your own legwork, and not taking anyone's word for anything online, seems the only answer. Ain't technology grand...

[Travelwanted]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ziggy29 Of course money matters, but there is usually diminished returns above a certain amount of income or net worth. I've seen surveys and studies that put the point of diminishing returns at about $75,000 per year. At that point all of your needs are met and many of your wants. And each incremental dollar earned above that generates less happiness, satisfaction, and improvement in quality of life than at lower incomes. As always, individual opinions and situations will vary. But suffice it to say, a $10,000 windfall makes less impact on a household earning $300,000 a year than one earning $30,000.

I believe that study is quoted in "What Happy People Know". Which, by the way, was the point of sharing the quote.

I took the quote to reflect what many on this forum believe, that pursuing more and more money will not equate to more happiness. That is all. . .no political message or any other agenda.

[marko]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ziggy29 I've seen surveys and studies that put the point of diminishing returns at about $75,000 per year. At that point all of your needs are met and many of your wants.

As often comes up in the forum, where you live determines a lot about at what point "all your needs are met" financially. $75K in Manhattan vs Idaho deliver two very different lifestyles.

[marko]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Masquernom So, I guess he'll start paying his employees a lot more and not worry about company profits... Right........

Can you steer me to the data/article/information that shows his workers are unfairly paid or unhappy to work there? I'm assuming your comment is based in some fact.