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My buddy is a self-employed management consultant. His income has remained at $300k~(after taxes) per year for 10 years.
He say's that's all he needs to earn per year to be happy. He says beyond that, his happiness would not change anymore than it is now so he doesn't have a goal to earn more. I know he saves 50% of in annual.
Certainly you can't be serious, Rocco Barbosa. $300K per year - even before taxes - puts your buddy in something like the top three or four percent of income earners in the United States. How could it not be "all he needs....to be happy"?
There would be something wrong with him if he couldn't be happy on half the amount.
Everyone's number is different however the concept does hit home for me. I had a convo with htbe wife recently where I told her I didn't really have the desire to make anymore money than I currently do. Certainly I wouldn't take on more responsibility or travel for 10k a year as it's not worth it to me.
My buddy is a self-employed management consultant. His income has remained at $300k~(after taxes) per year for 10 years.
He say's that's all he needs to earn per year to be happy. He says beyond that, his happiness would not change anymore than it is now so he doesn't have a goal to earn more. I know he saves 50% of in annual.
I thought he made perfect sense.
Your thoughts?
If the guy is single and has been making $300k in his business from the time he is 40 and is now 50 it probably is a sweet life.
If he has other expenses or has kids that will only get more expensive as they grow older he'd probably have a very different attitude.
I also wonder about the classification as "self employed" -- in my experience having one's own business, that requires marketing your services, scheduling your time, collecting your negotiated rate from less than fully satisfied clients and all the other hassles of such a sole proprietor firm cause many people to "hang up the spurs" far earlier than if they are part of an organization.
I am fortunate to know several successful physicians / attorneys / finance professionals that have had earnings equal to an annual average that comes out to $300k per year over a 10 year period. They too try to save about half of the pre-tax income, but given the demands of having families and having somewhat unpredicatable income becuase of bonuses / incentive compensation they don't always hit the mark. Few physicians maintain the same schedule / workload into their 60s that they have in earlier decades of their career and that impacts income. Similarly many senior partners in law firms find their ability to bring in business / maintain billable hours decreases as they age. Even finance professionals find their most productive years are somewhat limited...
All-in-all the OP's friend sounds like quite an outlier.
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I wonder how much of a factor age is?
