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Comment by tachyonbeam | Hacker News Reader

Agreed. I also grew up poor and now live comfortably. Having my own place with no roommates (or mentally ill family members screaming at me) brings me a lot of peace. Being able to just uber somewhere when I have an appointment but feel too tired to take public transit for 45 minutes makes my life easier. There are a lot of problems in life that you can make disappear (or simplify a lot) by throwing a little money at them. You can remove a lot of stress factors. Money gives you more freedom to choose what you want your life to be like.

The flipside is that I know very well that, if I'm in an anxious mindset, my brain will find things to worry and be unhappy about. I know being a multi-millionaire wouldn't bring me bliss, but... Being able to work on my own projects, as much as I want, whenever I want. That would be fucking awesome.

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The most precious thing money can buy is freedom. Any more money than that and it can become a burden. The tricky part is the sweet spot, you have to find it, be aware of it. Ah, and yes, just where that spot is so depends on everything that it won't be the same for more than one person.

Essentially, money is freedom. It's a wonderful, marvelous experience when you can suddenly turn your problems into expenses.

I recall reading that sweet spot is around $150,000 per person.

I often hear the “money isn’t everything” platitude from people who already have it. It’s gatekeeping.

See also: “You don’t REALLY want to be promoted like I was—it’s so much more stress and work. You should be happy as an individual contributor!”

I like to say, money can't buy happiness, but it can keep at bay a whole lot of the kind of grief and worrying that comes with just scraping by.

It's also embarrassment at success, rather than deliberate gatekeeping. It holds a lot of people back, too...

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/07/01/poor-rich/

Thanks for digging this up!

The bit about being promoted - I said that. And then after a couple years I quit and went back to being an individual contributor... management is not for everyone.

EDIT: Maybe I should say, not every promotion is a positive step...

"management isn't really a promotion" from people who went into management and saw their responsibility (and compensation) very quickly outpace the people stayed as corporate code monkeys.

This 100%. I also grew up poor and having a certain amount of money alleviates a ton of problems and people don’t realize how taxing day to day survival can be in the modern economy with not enough. It is pure survival mode until you reach a threshold.

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