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I am not a wealthy man but I used to work for family who had vast wealth. I never saw a family so screwed up. The father cheated on his wife with every woman that came his way. The wife traveled, gambled and got drunk often after finding her husband in bed with another woman. The son I always felt sorry for for. He was a homosexual who was berated by this father for being so. He sunk into a life of drugs until AIDS took his life. The mother caught her daughter in bed with husband. All of them saw a therapist.
This family had it all. A huge house in an affluent neighborhood. Expensive cars and money to buy what ever they wanted. Both their kids were given expensive condos and cars, but never worked a day in their lives. The fellow I worked for made a fortune on Wall Street and owned several small business. The had it all but hated each other. His kids would tell me about some of the things that went under their roof and it always shocked me. The only thing that kept them together was the money. After all I saw I would rather be poor than to live a life like that.
I'm sure there are alot of wealthy that live that way.
But not to say that people who aren't wealthy dont cheat on their spouse because they do as well.
The thing is, for some people, having total freedom actually makes them unhappy. Lots of people need a structured life to maintain stability and happiness. Other people feel the exact opposite.
Also many people simply increase their standard of living to 95% of their pay no matter what their income is. For people like this, money is unlikely to make them happier because it is like playing a poker game for bigger stakes. You are still playing the same poker game just with higher numbers and higher stakes poker games will normally have much more talented competition (think of keeping up with the Jones' - the richer the Jones' the more likely they are at being harder to keep up with).
I read a study once that argues that people who make less than $50,000 a year are, on average, less happy than those who make more than $50,000 a year. However, there was no difference in happiness level between $50,000 and $500,000, on average. This would lead me to believe that once you reach an income that provides for relative financial and life stability, any additional income will, on average, not make you happier. All that said, there's a huge variance with how people handle an increase in income.
Interesting topic. I'm currently deciding on whether to tailor my career path to follow money or my passion. I'm in software engineering, in my early 20's. Deciding between investment banks and dotcom startups; New York City and Silicon Valley; more money and less money; boring and fun...
Interesting topic. I'm currently deciding on whether to tailor my career path to follow money or my passion. I'm in software engineering, in my early 20's. Deciding between investment banks and dotcom startups; New York City and Silicon Valley; more money and less money; boring and fun...
really a big dilemma
Take the money. You can always have fun when you retire in your early 70s
Do you agree with "The more we earn, the more likely we are to complain about lack of time because we equate our high earnings with a sense of entitlement to more leisure and feel resentful that time cannot be stretched."
For me, I would not. I may live a little better standard of life than paycheck to paycheck, but i would not complain because of how hard i worked to get where i would be. No bills except a mortgage and money saved away for rainy months? What is there to complain about?
Maybe my only complaint would be how expensive school is and how i do not have more time for it.
Money gives someone a sense of power. To some people, that is a source of their happiness. I tend to shy away from people who view money this way because without money, it seems like their relationship with people is very poor.
IDK... maybe I'm a bit biased because I saw how my EX's business took off and it attracted a lot of women when we were married with children. After our divorce and a few years of his wild adventures and bad investments... he thought family was important.
I think happiness is seeing what you already have been blessed with.
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