Success...

[Rich]

Visited a buddy yesterday. Guy’s been retired since he was 36 and we’re about the same age (60). Lives in a lovely home on the water on Cape Cod. Worth maybe 2 million, maybe a buck or two more. He sold his winter place in Naples FL last year for 3.7 mil. Too much of a pain in the butt for him. Anyway, it was the “tear-down” place of  the neighborhood. Don’t know how much money my friend is worth, let’s just say it’s a lot. Poor guy considers himself a failure. “All” the other guys he worked with became, if not billionaires, close to it. So, in his mind, he’s at the bottom of the barrel.

Me, I don’t have a fraction of what my buddy has. Just a loving wife, a great job, a damn good pension to look forward to and I enjoy life. Guess I’m the rich one.

 

[yakers]

"A rich man is one who is satisfied with what he has."

 

[sgeeeee]

"A rich man is one who is satisfied with what he has."

Yeah . . . but I could always be satistfied with a million more.

 

[wabmester]

How much money is too much money? Bill Gates has to spend a lot of his time thinking of ways to give away his money. His buddy Paul Allen has made some very foolish and public investments with his stash.

A billion is way too much. $10M seems like a nice number to me. Any more than that, and the money would own me.

 

[sgeeeee]

How much money is too much money?   Bill Gates has to spend a lot of his time thinking of ways to give away his money.   His buddy Paul Allen has made some very foolish and public investments with his stash.

A billion is way too much.   $10M seems like a nice number to me.   Any more than that, and the money would own me.

Oh come on. As I moved through my career, I learned how to delegate and who to trust and who not to trust. Give me several $100M and I could find a way to spend it and get value. Granted it would not provide satisfaction with as much efficiency as $1M or $2M, but I could get extra value.

And I think you could learn to live with $1B effectively too, Wab.

Money doesn't have to own you regardless of the amount. Of course most people who accumulate massive amounts of money do so because they are owned by it. I don't want to be Bill Gates. I don't even respect him. On the other hand, if someone gave me his money, I am confident I would have a great time spending it -- and would be able to do that without compromising my values.

 

[wabmester]

I guess I just don't have the desire or imagination for such large sums. That's one of the reasons I left the rat race. I knew I was leaving lots of money on the table, but I didn't have any need or desire for more than I had.

Once you get over $10M, I think you leave the realm of "things" and enter the realm of "organizations." I am no longer interested in being part of an organization, even if it's just a bunch of my own lackeys. $10M would give me a nice lifetime income, as much shelter as I could possibly want, and as many toys as I could possibly play with.

How would you spend $100M? Or $1B?

 

[sgeeeee]

. . .How would you spend $100M?   Or $1B?

Send it to me and I'll file a report.

 

[justin]

How would you spend $100M? Or $1B?

$1,000 at a time!

 

[TromboneAl]

Bill Gates has caused more pain and suffering than all the terrorists in the world.

 

[cube_rat]

Bill Gates has caused more pain and suffering than all the terrorists in the world.

I concur. I scratch my head as to how he got rich with all of the crappy software Microsoft puts out. Long live open source software!

 

[wabmester]

I concur.  I scratch my head as to how he got rich with all of the crappy software Microsoft puts out.

Blame IBM for giving away the API to the PC in 1981. Gates was just smart enough to hold on to it.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Regarding the rich friend who considers himself a failure:

I have a neighbor like that.  The guy (now late 60's) is worth many many millions and retired at 52 from a lucrative real-estate development career. He's probably got more than anyone on the whole block. He travels first class for months at a time and appears to live "the good life".

Yet when I was chatting with him he talked about his other (richer) developer friends and associates some of whom are now billionaires. My neighbor says he now wishes he had kept working.

It's hard for me to get my head around what he said. How could someone in such a great financial position be dis-satisfied. I guess it's all human nature to want what others in your circle have.

- Success is getting what you want... Happiness is wanting what you get.

 

[laurence]

Money is status in some circles, and the market is continually coming up with status symbols to buy to put you in an ever more elite circle. From coach to first class to private jet...then when you get to billionaire status, you can buy your way onto boards of directors for charitable organizations etc. so that you can show how much better you are than some two bit millionaire. There was a show on the Hamptons, and how the super rich were driving out the merely rich/old money buy driving up the price of homes beyond even their reach.

That's why it's important to realize it's all BS early in the game, before you are brainwashed into seeing money as more than a tool.

 

[justin]

You guys seem to know a lot of people that know many billionaires.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Justin:

Just cause someone knows of or has done business with a billionaire doesn't mean that they hang out with billionaires.

Nonetheless, When a rich man is envious of a very rich man it makes you wonder. I guess that's why they call it the rat race.

 

[TargaDave]

Bill Gates has caused more pain and suffering than all the terrorists in the world.

Ah yes, spoken as a true programmer. "Open source rules!" or so my programmers tell me

 

[MJ]

$1,000 at a time!

That still would take many lifetimes.

 

[Texas Proud]

My brother in law continues to try and 'make money quickly'... he is almost 70.. can not get over not making a million or more. But, my sister has a good pension and they have a nice house, a big sail boat and two new cars..

I keep telling him "You won", enjoy it. But he seems to think he needs to compete with someone...

 

[MJ]

I still play the mega lottery when it surpasses $60mil.
I know lots of money has it's own set of problems and having $10mil+ would not necessarily make you happy.
Never having to worry about money would make most of us extremely content.
I know if I had $500k to spend a year, I probably would only spend $400k.
Like unclemick, I would have a hard time shaking off a lifetime of LBYM but what a wonderful challenge.

 

[retire@40]

I still play the mega lottery when it surpasses $60mil.

That's when I never play. I don't want to win $60mil.

That's too much money for any one person to win. I would rather see 12 people winning $5mil than one person winning $60mil.

Also, you may have better odds of getting stung by a bee as a shark is biting your leg than winning some of these megajackpots.

Once in a while I'll play the smaller lotteries with a $2mil-$3mil jackpot that have the same odds of only getting attacked by a shark. The funny thing is even if I win $2mil, the payouts are over 20 years @ $100K, so my life wouldn't change by that much. I would live off the $100K and let my current portfolio build for 20 years before taking a withdrawal. Of course, I would fully retire immediately.

 

[moghopper]

Also, you may have better odds of getting stung by a bee as a shark is biting your leg than winning some of these megajackpots.

True. But another little known factoid is that $5 spent on lottery tickets is more enjoyable and a better value than $8 spent on most new release movies.

 

[SteveR]

The odds of winning a Powerball is about 80,000,00 to 1.

Odds of being struck by lightning is about 700,000 to 1.


If you don't buy a ticket your odds are zero chance.

 

[MasterBlaster]

If you spend $1 to possibly win $2M to $60M when the odds are 1:80M for a win then that strikes me as a very very poor bet.

Add in the fact that you must cut in the government and take your win over a couple of decades that makes the bet even worse. Add in the fact that there possibly may be other winning tickets that you'll need to share with makes the bet even worse.

- If you don't buy a ticket your odds of LOSING are ZERO

- If you do buy a ticket your odds of Winning are essentially ZERO

 

[moghopper]

The odds of winning a Powerball is about 80,000,00 to 1.

Odds of being struck by lightning is about 700,000 to 1.


If you don't buy a ticket your odds are zero chance.

You need a ticket to get struck by lightning? Good to know.

 

[laurence]

What you are paying for is entertainment.  That's why I cnly buy 1 ticket when I play.