What would you do if your assets grew to 8 figures?

[Rianne]

OP question similar to "what if you won the lottery?" I'd build a giant dog park with a huge lake. Then give some to my family and donate some to forest preserve and of course, to kids programs for the less fortunate.

[Winemaker]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Senator I would invest in a gentlemen's entertainment establishment. I have always been a fan of the arts, especially dance, and this would help my philanthropic side.

As Steve Martin once said, paraphrasing, " I like to help young unwed mothers get their start."

I see Gravity beat me to it...

[Dash man]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 97guns Why would you even invest if you had an 8 figure net worth, 10 mil in a cd at .01% is $100k a year

Might want to check your math. It’s $10,000/yr.

[GravitySucks]

Back to the housing situation:
I'd build a 5,000 square foot pole barn for the toys and moving into a good hotel. Big dog walking bill might make it hard to afford though.

[brett]

I would not tell any of my relatives for a start.

We would most likely stay in the same home, keep the same vehicles. Maybe travel 5 and 6 star sometimes instead of 3 and 2.

We would set up a trust to guarantee both my children a retirement that was financially secure and very comfortable. We would complete saving funds for grandchildren's education. We would do some post secondary scholarships for deserving students who lack the funds to pursue their education and their dreams.

[Koogie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dash man Might want to check your math. It’s $10,000/yr.

You might want to check out post #97 in this thread...

[aja8888]

If I came into the eight digit club, one of the first things I would do is change my phone number to a 900 one and charge people $8.95 per minute when they call me to expound on the reasons why i should give them a handout.

[rodi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aja8888 If I came into the eight digit club, one of the first things I would do is change my phone number to a 900 one and charge people $8.95 per minute when they call me to expound on the reasons why i should give them a handout.

I'm totally stealing this idea if I ever hit the 8 digit club.

[RobbieB]

I bet that would stop robo callers.

[Scuba]

I like the idea of philanthropy for education. Also would increase the travel budget and would also consider modest second homes in a couple of favorite destinations.

[hesperus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audreyh1 Yes, your thread was my inspiration. I wanted to see what folks here think they would do differently. Now, if it keeps creeping up you'll let us know of any new inspirations/aspirations, right?

absolutely, and without a whee!

[Spanky]

Quote:

What would you do if (or did you do when) your assets grew to 8 figures?

Not a thing! It's only a number. As long as you have enough, more is NOT necessary better. The more that you have, the more that you have to worry losing it.

[RunningBum]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spanky Not a thing! It's only a number. As long as you have enough, more is NOT necessary better. The more that you have, the more that you have to worry losing it.

I don't think I follow that. I mean, I agree it's not necessarily better, but I don't see what I'd worry more about losing it. If I have $2M and am counting on all of that to fund the life I want, if I lose 10% I'm not happy and I have to make some cuts. If I've got $10M, and it's a lot more than I need, if I lose 10% it probably wouldn't faze me, at least not as much.

As long as I don't do something stupid like invest $9M in a can't-miss scheme and put all that at risk, I'm not worrying about losing it.

I also hear people talking about having to worry about managing all that money. What worry? I just invest 5x as much in each thing I'm in with $2M. How is that any harder? You could make a very small case that I'd have to worry more about taxes, but I'm most likely paying 15% for divs and LTCGs either way, and even if I'm not, I can live with a little higher tax rate.

What am I missing? The only other thing I can think of is more people coming after me with their hand out. I like that 1-900-number idea. Or I live pretty much like I do now, and people don't know if I have 8 figures or 7.

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RunningBum I don't think I follow that. I mean, I agree it's not necessarily better, but I don't see what I'd worry more about losing it. If I have $2M and am counting on all of that to fund the life I want, if I lose 10% I'm not happy and I have to make some cuts. If I've got $10M, and it's a lot more than I need, if I lose 10% it probably wouldn't faze me, at least not as much. As long as I don't do something stupid like invest $9M in a can't-miss scheme and put all that at risk, I'm not worrying about losing it. I also hear people talking about having to worry about managing all that money. What worry? I just invest 5x as much in each thing I'm in with $2M. How is that any harder? You could make a very small case that I'd have to worry more about taxes, but I'm most likely paying 15% for divs and LTCGs either way, and even if I'm not, I can live with a little higher tax rate. What am I missing? The only other thing I can think of is more people coming after me with their hand out. I like that 1-900-number idea. Or I live pretty much like I do now, and people don't know if I have 8 figures or 7.

I agree. I don't understand how a higher number would mean more worry about losing it assuming you have the usual investments. Say your portfolio takes a 40% hit. You'll still have a higher number remaining. And that might make a huge difference in terms of how tight the belt gets and what you can afford.

[Spanky]

Quote:

I don't think I follow that. I mean, I agree it's not necessarily better, but I don't see what I'd worry more about losing it. If I have $2M and am counting on all of that to fund the life I want, if I lose 10% I'm not happy and I have to make some cuts. If I've got $10M, and it's a lot more than I need, if I lose 10% it probably wouldn't faze me, at least not as much.

As long as you spend at the same amount regardless of how much that you make, that's fine. People tend to spend what they make, however. The more stuff or money, the more that you worry about - a part of human nature even though it may not be rationale.

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spanky As long as spend at the same amount regardless of how much that you make, that's fine. People tend to spend what they make, however.

I haven't noticed that on this forum. People appear to way underspend their assets here.

Probably one major thing that separates the ERs from the rest of the population.

I noticed many folks here immediately thought of gifting in various ways, creating foundations/scholarship funds, providing financial support for family members, etc., not simply ramping up personal spending. Although there were a few interested in upgrading the home and/or buying a second home or boat or plane.

[RobbieB]

What's the point of spending the same amount no matter how much you have?

Where's the fun, where's the drive, why bother?

So, say you find yourself with say 10X the dough you used to have and all you do is worry about it?

Yeah, I guess there's a lot of that thinking here now that I think about it.

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobbieB What's the point of spending the same amount no matter how much you have? Where's the fun, where's the drive, why bother? So, say you find yourself with say 10X the dough you used to have and all you do is worry about it? Yeah, I guess there's a lot of that thinking here now that I think about it.

LOL! I suspect there is the phenomenon of the shrinking withdrawal rate.....

Spending might not stay exactly the same, but maybe it doesn't grow nearly as fast as the assets.

Then again, we know big chunks of assets can disappear in what seems like the blink of an eye.

[Danmar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audreyh1 I agree. I don't understand how a higher number would mean more worry about losing it assuming you have the usual investments. Say your portfolio takes a 40% hit. You'll still have a higher number remaining. And that might make a huge difference in terms of how tight the belt gets and what you can afford.

Agree. Let’s go the other way. Say you lose 80% of your $10million, are you suddenly less worried? Doubt it.

[petershk]

Actually a helpful discussion for me . I'm around 60% of the way to that but the journey has been uneven. I THOUGHT that 2m would be more money than I would ever need and then because of lucky stock options that number about doubled. Over the past few years it went up about another 50% (mostly market returns and high savings rate)

As far as investments go, it makes very little difference. I have learned the hard way to create an asset allocation and basically just rebalance to meet it. I change the asset allocation based on what I think the general investment climate is (i.e. more expensive market, low interest, so less exposure to stocks... more bonds). The other difference is more "cash" in the sense that I probably have 4-5 years of cash in a CD ladder. It's a bit excessive, but it's just more of a safety blanket and wealth accumulation is not a goal anymore.

On the lifestyle side it's harder.
DW and I really want to prevent lifestyle creep to keep the SWR post retirement below 3% (around 2.5% now, but that includes a mortgage for our retirement house (880k) that we can easily pay off and probably will post retirement if it makes sense tax wise). We don't fly business or first class (with some exceptions.. international flights with kids), we have never really had expensive food or clothing tastes. I did buy DW a really nice Tiffany ring last xmas because when we got married I proposed with a pretty cheap ring (expensive would have been rejected :P) so that was nice to do.

Our current house is pretty modest for CA standards (about 550k) and that was after moving to a cheaper area and selling our primary house which had a gain of about 500k... so the house was kind of "free." We thought about buying a much bigger house, but it's actually worse IMO. More stuff to buy, more stuff to clean, bigger yard to maintain, kids are harder to find, more distance to walk to the bathroom, etc. People talk about hiring help, but managing help is kind of a job too. I'm not convinced managing a housekeeper and gardener and pool person who come a few times a week is easier than just living in a smaller place.

We're 4 people... I have friends at work with 6,000-10,000 sqft houses with pools, saunas, hot tubs, tennis courts, etc and I don't understand what they do with that space? They don't play tennis and rarely go in the pool . At 2800 sqft I don't even set foot into my "formal dining room" and we almost never use the 4th bedroom. So I don't really get it other than "because we can."

I did buy a 120k Tesla because... well... I think they are awesome.

Our monthly costs are around 8k or so (no mortgage) which seems high to me (don't track lots of detail, just general spending level) but is easily below my current income (work part time) and below passive income and way below long term capital gains in this raging bull market.

Now I don't think we'll ever get to 10m more or less on purpose. What we do is just give more away to prevent lifestyle creep. Some of this is charities we like, but most of it is family related. We gave my brother about 50k so he could fix up his house. We gave my Mom 15k for her birthday so she could travel with her husband for the next year or so (she doesn't need the money, still works, but she also doesn't spend much on fun stuff for herself - it's been hard to give her money). We bought my wife's sister a car because hers was getting old, we pay tuition for our nieces and nephews, we pay real estate taxes for my wife's mom, and stuff like that. Over the last year it was about 200k or so, which is more than we spend on our living expenses and reduces the increase in net worth due to market returns. That's the part that has gone up substantially.

BTW I don't mean to sound like some kind of self-righteous jerk... we like spending money that way. If people like giant houses and Ferraris... that's fine by me... money should be enjoyed . I get huge peace of mind knowing that most of what I spend is totally optional and can be easily scaled down without having an impact on my normal life. It seems way easier to tell people "sorry the market crashed last month and I lost my job so I can't pay as much tuition this year" than "family, we have to sell our house, our boat and stop flying private because the market crashed and I lost my job." Scaling down other people's lifestyles seems way easier than scaling down mine .

The goal is to kind of keep the wealth growth from being "excessive" while avoiding lifestyle creep. So if the market dumps 50% and I lose my job we can still live just fine... we just can't buy people cars and pay for the kids' school as easily.