I was a multi-millionaire by 27–here's what I learned
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Give me a break.
Don't like managing your wealth? Just let it sit in your bank account (after all, it doesn't really matter that much if it grows or not right?).
Don't like mistrusting people? Live a humble lifestyle and there's no reason they'd ever suspect you're wealthy. I've met plenty flip-flop and $10 shirt millionaires.
Can't figure out your "purpose" in life? Sounds like you have too much time and too little imagination; join a charity they'd be glad to keep you busy.
I openly say that this would probably something that is to me very far away from giving a purpose - quite the opposite. Perhaps because I am a nerd and charities typically "do something social involving humans", while I think all the time when, say, teaching children from disadvantaged background (just an arbitrary example) of how one can scale the impact by a factor of 10 (or if this is too simple) by 100 - for example using modern technology.
So my hints for finding a purpose:
1. Study mathematics: So many hard, important and unsolved problems to solve - many of them having a deep impact on humanity if someone would tackle and solve them.
2. Learn programming and solve deep problems that you find. For those for which 1 is too hardcore. This is HN, so I hope I don't have to write anything further about this.
3. If you still into charities, found one that has "how can we scale our impact by a factor of 10 as soon as possible" in mind all the time instead of "doing something social with humans" (no experience with this, though, but this is the only kind of charity that I can imagine having fun working at).
For example recently our dishwasher broke down. I spent a lot of time deciding whether to get it repaired or buy a new one, and then researching the latter. With money I would have saved lots of time by simply buying a medium priced new one off the internet.
Health issues, accommodation, travel plans, lots of worries can go away and they wear down people who don't have the cash. For example we often stress out about travel plans because we have to book far in advance or it gets too expensive. (I know these sound like luxury problems, but when it is a strain on the marriage it can escalate into real problems quickly).
On the other hand, it seems a lot of people feel rich when they aren't yet. For example, 5 Million $ doesn't seem that rich to me, more like a slightly higher pension prospect.
I have friends in the tech industry who have some money (not super rich) and take it slow, not taking into account that one day their needs might change and they might suddenly need a lot more money, and have less opportunities to earn it (for example because they get a family, or health issues).
I wouldn't call myself rich, but I also don't need to worry too much about money for the moment. That means I don't have to make a budget, fret over whether or not I should pay more for a flight with a more convenient itinerary, or be constantly anxious over whether or not I'd be able to pay for medical bills if I unexpectedly injured myself or got very ill. There are so many people in this world that don't have that comfort, and I think it's very easy to forget what that feels like once you've achieved a certain amount of wealth. (Hell, it's hard for me to really viscerally remember what that feels like.)
I think that the "basic needs met" thing is a bit of a fallacy, though I suppose it depends on how you define it. If you have a steady job that pays your bills and puts food on the table for you and your family, you might think you have your basic needs met, but also be stressed out because you don't feel like you have enough time in the day to split between your job, family, friends, and hobbies. Or you might feel anxiety over job security. Even having a full year of salary in the bank as a buffer (hardly rich by conventional measures, though sadly most people can't manage this) can ease those worries greatly.
His comments on fuck-you money were a bit weird, too. I think most people get that fuck-you money isn't about being able to literally say "fuck you; fire me if you want" to your boss when you don't like a decision he/she has made. It's just about being able to easily walk away from a job that doesn't make you happy -- for whatever reason -- without the pressure of needing to find another one immediately.
And then there was the bit about having to hire people to do things for you, and manage your money and possessions, and how all that is a full time job... well, no, it isn't a big deal, if you don't go down the conspicuous-consumption route. I don't have to hire people to take care of my things now, and having more money wouldn't magically make that a necessity (or even desirable).
When I had no money I did not have a dishwasher at all, but washed by hand. My travels where in the woods nearby, very relaxing and enjoy full at no cost at all. No booking required.
Reading stoic philosophy help me a lot more than money.
Washing by hand is great, but if you are a family of four, it will also cost a lot of time. In that sense a dishwasher is not really a luxury. It saves time, therefore it is a sensible investment.
We don't have that many woods nearby, either. There are some, but they serve a whole city of 3 Million people and their dogs, so they tend to be very overcrowded. We go there frequently, but it is not the answer to everything.
Yes, we won't die if we don't travel. Nevertheless, with kids you want to show them at least something. And just visiting grandparents with a family of four sets us back several hundred €. We don't die if we don't visit the grandparents, but it also doesn't seem like overindulgence to occasionally visit them.
There are articles out there, btw, on how poor people have to spend more on everything. For example they can't afford to travel to the cheap shops, so they have to buy in the expensive shops near their home. Counter-intuitive things like that.
Do I want to think about buying a dishwasher? Not really. Do I want to do the dishes by hand? Not really either.
If you want to read stoic philosophy, having basic things like a dishwasher will save you hours. That's the only reason why I would get one: less time wasted on things I don't like.
If I had more money, I imagine I would probably pick up a new hobby. When my cousin sold his company, he bought himself a helicopter because he has a love for flying (studied to be a pilot, etc). It's good fun, but obviously also not a basic necessity.
In fact, that was what I did when I had a dishwasher and lived on my own: I would wash up by hand when it was just me and a few items, but would use the dishwasher when there was a massive load, or I had to do something else.
I've found that having to do something (especially on a daily basis), very quickly makes a task a chore.
There are chores i don't mind but I spend a good part of my day cleaning up other people's messes. Washing up always seems so futile, you wash the dishes and within hours there they are again, needing washing; Sysiphean. I find it very hard to motivate myself for that.
On the other hand, repairs i enjoy: both the challenge and the reward of using, and saving from the bin, something that was a challenge to fix, something that needed some ingenuity.
Horses for courses though. I'd rather chop wood, service the car, fix the plumbing, re-roof the shed: pretty much anything instead of the drudgery of washing-up.
It's not the hand washing that bothered me, but using the same tired wash rag or wand that has accumulated soap or old water that got to us. Dish washers do an amazing job at washing dishes more sanitarily. I have always wanted one and am glad that we have one (and a garbage disposal) now.
(Both of these things are standard with most apartments and homes in the DFW.)
To me, a rich life means living well, doing what you love, but not working too hard. Unless you're spending extravagantly, what can't you do with $250k per year?
There always going to be a guy who has $10m, or $50m, or $100m
I wouldn't really count on those stock market returns, either. And I don't think you get 5% for guaranteed investments these days.
Your lifestyle will probably not have adjusted to that "new money" anyway, so you can afford to wait.
Nothing in life is guaranteed, and there are still opportunities out there. Whether it's passive (stock market investing) or active (running a business, albeit more relaxed). You do need to enjoy investing and taking charge of your money, though.
Would you put $5m to work in the public markets? I personally wouldn't, but feel free to do so.
So the crash may come (ultimately, in a couple of million years the sun will burn out), but it may take too long for some people.
Does basic necessities include being valued in particular value system? That's bigger issue to me. What if you tell people that your lifestyle makes you happy and the rest of society disagree? So can we say fuck society, and not a part of that society anymore? Human are social animals, right?
I know, when you don't eat for a while, of course your physical cells can't survive it. But basic necessities things aren't necessary what affect our biological body but also souls.
Things have eased a bit, just having £100 more a month makes an incredible difference, reducing a lot of stresses that come through penny-pinching.
"The problem with getting everything is you run out of reasons to keep trying, and human interaction becomes impossible due to imbalance.
In sweden, I will sit around and wait for my friends with jobs and families to have time to do shit, watching my reflection in the monitor
When we sold the company, the biggest effort went into making sure the employees got taken care of, and they all hate me now.
Found a great girl, but she's afraid of me and my life style and went with a normal person instead.
I would Musk and try to save the world, but that just exposes me to the same type of assholes that made me sell minecraft again
People who made sudden success are telling me this is normal and will pass. That's good to know! I guess I'll take a shower then!"
Really puts a light on the whole, money will make you happy spin that so many technologists seem to have fallen into.
References:
https://twitter.com/notch/status/637562496056995840
https://twitter.com/notch/status/637563038258868224
https://twitter.com/notch/status/637563226755067904
https://twitter.com/notch/status/637563481139638272
https://twitter.com/notch/status/637563733124980736
I personally claim that I am aware of much more really deep mathematics and programming problems that I would love to solve than I have lifetime. Using this money to fund a company to implement all these ideas (without investors on the tail) sounds like a quite fun idea to me.
So I personally believe that the problem that notch describes (in particular "The problem with getting everything is you run out of reasons to keep trying") would only exist in a strongly reduced version if I became a billionaire.
Minecraft alpha was fun. Quirky weird and awesome. I like to think notch was happy building that. He could start another, and cultivate a community. If it sucks (the pressure), open source it.
Or whatever, it's his life, and I wish him all the best.
The more money u earn, the more money u spend, the more stress u have.
I quite my job 8 years later, sold everything and travelled the world for 2 years, trying lifestyles i never imagined. In the far reaches of the amazonian rainforst where i vonunteered to help study the pink dolphins, I saw the poorest people were actually the happiest people. They had "nothing", but everything at the same time. Everywhere i went this was true. All my ailments that followed me while i was in civialisation suddenly dissapeared. Did they suffer from depression? nup. Poverty? from the outside we assume this was a bad word, but at the ground level, nup. If u live in a place that provides u with everything u need natually, u dont need money.
That was just 1 experience of many. Everyday was saturday and i had a purpose - looking for the meaning of life. I found it everywhere i looked, and money was never part of the equation.
So now im back; i love coding. Im already living the dream. I dont choose work based on pay, i choose it based on my moral compass. What did i discover? Well i think the meaning of life is a little different for everybody, but at our core, its love, connections, and experiences. No matter how much money you have, you cant buy the above.
I saw this sentence like hundreds of times and completely disagree. How did you know that deep inside their mind? I bet I can manage wealth and be happier than being poor. Give me just $50M please that's enough.
Me also coming from immigrants family during Vietnam War, and live in Thailand.
>> stupid shit like getting into more debt
>> The more money u earn, the more money u spend, the more stress u have
The key to more happiness for anyone who is not dirt poor is to live with the means of someone 1-3 tax brackets below. If you make $100k/year, live as though you only make $60-70k. If you make $300k, live like you make $120k. It really is that simple. Stop trying to attain the "next lifestyle bracket", because it will NEVER "be enough". You will be miserable your entire life, trying to scrape your way to the "next level". "Unfulfilling" does not begin to describe that path.
I used to pay $1300/month rent, with a $700/month car financing, a $120 internet package, etc. I now live in a cheaper neighborhood with $640 rent, gave up the car (ie: $0/month financing), with $40 internet, etc. I went from $40k in debt and $0 savings account 3 years ago to $0 debt and 5-digit savings today. The difference in quality of life that makes on a day-to-day basis is enormous.
Forget the white picket fence and the $50k+ car. Nobody gives a crap where you live or what you drive - including yourself, whether you believe that or not. Live somewhere with great public transit or, if you really need - not want - a car, buy used for $500-$2,000 that gets you from point A to point B. Stop trying to impress people with your lifesteal. Live cheap, and use the incredible amount of disposable income to lead a happier life.
Nope. Cars are one of my passions in life. I love driving my sports car. It's not about impressing people either. I don't understand why nerds _never_ understand this.
If owning an expensive car is what brings someone personal joy, I'm all for that. When a friend tells me he can't come watch a movie with me or come on a cheap local road trip because he's behind on his car payments, and he says it with a depressed facial expression that clearly shows regret for the car... yeah. I don't know how else to take that other than "stupid life decisions". And no, I don't drop my jaw in awe over their car - I just see them as a moron who has misplaced priorities.
edit: "better" is the wrong word, it's just cutting deeper to the core issue by a larger magnitude.
The wealthy are able to control how they spend their time. The not wealthy have somebody else control what they do with their time. The Romans had a word for the time period that you control - 'otium'. It was the ideal state for the Roman nobleman, as they were supposed to have enough income coming from their properties so that they don't have to work out for it.
The time that you didn't control was the opposite state of 'otium': 'negotium'.
It's more than just a matter of how much money you have and your believes. Having more money lends you a greater power to bargain on what you do with your time. Personally, I have enough of a rainy day fund so I am not compelled to stick around a job I don't like. But I still have to go to a job each day, and I feel really lucky that I can choose a job that I like. The vast majority of people are not as fortunate as myself.
But I always dreamed about having a good yacht so after selling my first company I bought one. The person who sold it to me joked about two greatest days of owning a yacht: the day you buy it, the day you sell it.
I did not understand at the time the second part deeply. But it did not take too long. The thing was a pain in the ass. Turns out the more beautiful the yacht, the more maintenance it needs, the bigger problems it has, the weaker it is against the elements and the bigger the storage you need to use, the more people it needs.
After a while I realized instead of giving me happiness it was giving me frustration, anger and pain. Instead of me owning this thing it was the opposite, the thing owning lots of my time and money.
In the end I just sold the thing and I felt like 100 kgs(200pounds) were taken off my shoulders and it was an amazing moment.
In the future if I need sailing I will lend it instead.
Being wealthy could be a trap. It is a good thing to have some psychological training first and prepare. Also learn about investing your own money, never trust others with your money, specially if they are the experts.
It helped that I started thinking about all things in terms of planning a design(what I'm doing and how) before buying anything. Besides making better decisions, it stops a lot of impulse buys. Usually the act of making the design tells me what I need to know, and possible alternatives. And the real bottleneck is often a skill I need to learn, not anything to do with money.
I have a friend, and his family owns a pretty large yacht. Finding a suitable and capable skipper that will stick around (e.g. more than a year or two) has often been a major source of frustration for them.
They must not be very good employers.
The issue is that the yacht is used by people all year around, and there isn't much opportunity to not work. You're away from your family and the people you love, and so, by default, it's a limited time gig for most people.
I understand where this article is coming from though and it does a good job of making the point it intends to.
Luckily, poor in the Netherlands is not the same as poor in the US, also, my parents knew how to handle money quite well, so we managed. A lot of my neightbours, however did not. I've seen what being poor does to health. What it does to behavior towards others, who seem to 'have more', but just spend it differently. What it does to expectations and opportunities of their children.
I'm sure that money doesn't make you happy, it often does make you happier than being in the exact same situation without money.
Less affluent people have that same fear, the difference being that "in the future" can mean next year, next month, or even tomorrow.
While wealthy people may worry that they won't be able to keep up their lifestyle forever, they know that they will still be able to buy food and shelter (and medical care) even if they lose nearly all of their wealth.
This isn't about what's actually going on, it's about what's being felt.
Comparative suffering is really only suitable for comedic flirting.
1. Having more money does present you with complications. You can't just keep it in a Savings account and ignore it. You just can't , especially for long periods of time. This adds a significant amount of stress, much more than you would've imagined !
2. You start making investments (good and bad). With bad, you learn a lesson and move on. With good, you again go back to the first point.
3. Worst problem is when you invest in expensive/market-risk assets (Ex:a house). After your purchase, if the market goes bad/you don't want to maintain it etc., it becomes a burden like no other. There are many a sleepless nights to be had in anticipation of the outcome.
4. I've a friend who goes to a 9-5 job, stays in a rented house, has a small piece of land he has bought as an investment for his old days, and spends most of his free time watching movies (basically doing what he likes). He doesn't have a fancy car (he actually doesn't have any car), or a fancy house, but he seems quite happy with what he has. That's the crux of the article I presume ?
The worst that happens to it in the first world is inflation eating it away which really isn't going to make a practical difference on a few millions. That's like the cost of a cleaner to clean your house.
2-3. That's self-made problems. You don't need to make that kind of investment unless you want your job to become "investor". In any case a lot of the more traditional investment like real estate have countless middlemen to take the stress out of it.
4. That is something you can definitively do with a lot of money too. I know people that retired just after Uni or later in life and did just that.
This is an attitude problem. It is very common here on HN or in the tech community in general, even the one with 9-5 jobs. The obsession to make every minute of your time productive, self-convincing yourself that's what you really want to do or that you must do it in order to stay relevant is destroying a lot of people.
Unlike the lawyer, doctor, ... the tech community is its own enemy. The other communities tries to get the member to cope with the pressure, the tech one openly encourage it: "So your brain surgeon is not volunteering as a knee surgeon nurse over the weekend to extend his skill and does not run mental health practice in the evening as a hobby business ? What a loser."
Also, 1-3 can easily be solved with a Vanguard/ETF/S&P500/etc. While technically not risk free, it practically is in the long run.
Having money doesn't inherently create any problems for you. Having no money however definitely limits your options of living.
Having these problems (mentioned in the article) is completely unrelated to money.
Kudos man. I'm glad it took 5M$ to get you to that point. I paid a netflix fee for the same result but hey, tomato...
He is sharing personal stories how "money doesn't make you happy" is not just some Christian philosophy or Hollywood movies cliché, it's actually true.
Except it's true for the exact reasons portrayed in Hollywood movies.
And it's a cliché because it neglects the very real fact that money removes obstacles faced by a significant chunk of the poorer population. That you happen to (still) be sad after you get money doesn't negate the great benefit money would have to people who are already happy (or sad) without it.
Let me put it this way:
You are rich and sad; your options for fixing that are contained in X.
You are poor and sad; your options for fixing that are contained in X-Y, where Y requires money. Or time, which you can buy.
So essentially movies made by rich people to teach the poor masses not to be envious.
https://hackernoon.com/multi-millionaire-at-27-what-i-learne...
The former has added a number of CNBC content ad links which the author didn't seem to have in the Medium source.
You'll have those 'deeper issues' when you're poor as well. The difference will be you'll be anxious because you won't be sure if you'll have the money for all of your bills or you'll have enough to feed your family and not worrying if you can afford next luxury car.
I see blogs/articles like this pop from time to time. A rich guy (who probably didn't ever experience in his life how it's like to be poor) saying "being rich isn't a solution to all of your life problems". Well, I'm sure it isn't, being rich doesn't equal being content in life, but it sure as hell beats being poor.
This one really struck me. Repeatedly this point comes up in all the new age money related philosophies, and I'm kind of starting to agree with it. Nice write up.
Do you have any links relating to this?
Edit: Another tangential stuff is Paul Graham's essay on wealth - http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html. There he specifically mentions that money is not wealth, but something used to move wealth. But the point about there is no fixed wealth and we can always create more wealth, also looks similar to the above mentioned point to me.
Remember when that one guy in New York, I think it was, gave a homeless guy a deal: money now, or programming lessons - and they made an app, and the app made money... that the guy couldn't collect because he couldn't get a bank account because he couldn't Deal with going into the government offices to get an identity?
Or that thing that happens when you give someone who's been homeless for awhile an apartment and they camp out in the apartment like they were still on the street?
It's like... min(x, y, z). It makes sense that belief does not get you money, but it also makes sense the lack of belief leads to lack of money.
I'm not saying that everyone is in that boat. That is definitely not the case. But I would say that most people are in that boat.
There's also a big difference in if the boat has three off-board motors and a Jacuzzi, or paddle... But if you don't believe there's someplace worth going that you can get to...?
The things you aren't describing are "lack of belief." They're "serious emotional problems brought on by seriously hard life situations."
Do people still really believe in this pull-yourseful-up-by-the-bootstraps stuff?
And that is not a huge red flag right there?
This. Finances are currently a struggle for me, and work hasn't been all easy either, however I still have the ability to deeply enjoy whatever I'm doing - not all the time, but often enough that I feel happy in light of everything.
I feel a sense of gratitude* for that.
On the other hand, they are wealthier than me and can say that. I can't. It is difficult to take their advice at face value because of it.
I think that the only two solutions to this problem are (1) Fore-go wanting to become wealthy and being content with what you have, or (2) Try to attain enough wealth to see for yourself whether the sacrifices made were worth it.
If staying where you're at doesn't seem right to you, then you're only option is door (2).
To be clear, I don't think that doing everything you can to make more cash is the right way to go. From what I've seen, it is very difficult to attain massive amounts of wealth without getting in really early on a business opportunity that rocket ships. I think having core values (i.e things you cannot give up) helps. But if the expected reaction from reading this piece is "Well, being rich doesn't sound much better than having to worry about money all of the time, so I guess I'll just keep working at okay salary levels until I retire 60 years from now," then I can't feel ok with that.
That's where my head's at right now.
I've been living in a developing country [my home country] after moving away from a the first world country for family reason. As a 25 year old, introvert and someone who has social anxiety without ever knowing it, I just can't understand what is happiness.
I have observed people out in the street, at stores, at restaurants just doing their jobs and happy. They laugh and go to small parties and look as if content. This observation was made even by a working at a small local company which wasn't much that people just worked. They did not have any desire to make more money as to gain skills. It boggles my mind they just 'keep churning'. They go back to their home living with family and come back, rinse on repeat. Even small shops, really small shops/restaurants who might think they need money to survive, they don't have any real check and balance. It's literally "I want this". You go off someone else where the cook might be, you pick up it up after it's done and you head back to the cashier. The cashier doesn't have any idea what I ordered, the quantity or anything. There is possibility just walk away without paying.
Whereas what I believe at the moment, I need skills and wealth to achieve happiness. I sometimes question, am I even unhappy? Yes I'm unhappy because I don't have a career, I don't have a home, I don't wealth etc. But in reality, the way families work here, they want everyone to live under the same roof, making small amount of money to 'run the kitchen', share family car. Why seek an independent life when all the needs can be provided by entire families working together.
I fear the life I'm striving for might lead to loneliness. I.e moving away from my home, starting a career, moving to a different country from developing to develop, getting into corporate life and eventually becoming wealthy. In my eyes, I would feel I'm the most successful with most money in the bank, but what would other think?
I have some very wealthy friends who do not fit that pattern at all. They know what to do with their money (and no it's not about buying luxury cars). They know how to keep a sense of purpose in their lives. They know how to keep healthy relationships despite the money imbalance.
What's interesting is what comes AFTER the realization that money doesn't buy everything. It still buys you a lot of freedom, the question is what you do with that!
The best things in life are free.
Sorry no sympathy.
I worked at a bank and can confirm. Most financial advisors even lack the basic math skills, they can do linear functions if they are above average. Needless to say, I'm outta there and in tech now. Just do your homework and decide what to do with your money yourself. You'll save time and lots of money.
I doubt he had the same opinions before he got rich.