What you can do when you get rich
mrsteinberg.com
mrsteinberg.com
I was hoping for philanthropic stuff - how to find above board charitable trusts to fund.
It doesn’t take that much wealth to buy some time, to network, and then focus one’s attention on local charity. Often the way to build resilience and have impact in a community is to demonstrate local leadership, so that everyone chips in. That is the sort of thing one can afford easily when one’s a millionaire (though it’s not necessary to be rich to do it).
I'd like to point out it's titled "what to do?" while it was actually an answer to "what to buy?" so the problem is more about the implied confusion between buying, doing and being.
So, buy a big house if you want but maybe also some free time to work on yourself so that you have a better grasp of who you really are because if your whole life revolves around making and spending money it sure as hell can be depressing.
That said, it is pretty funny that "eat exotic fruits" and "change laws to make myself richer" are both listed along side each other as things reserved for the "rich". Personally, in my neighborhood (median income of $28,368 - far from rich), I can buy rambutan. I can't buy politicians.
(Maybe the threshold for "exotic" fruit is also fuzzy)
Have you tried? Influence with your local politicians may be much cheaper than you assume. The guy running for city council and projected to win may be broke.
You're assuming you'd have the same lame-o pursuits as this list if you did strike it rich.
You probably would not.
Very little in common with what I would do if I made it to 8/9 figures wealth.
"On stage with your favorite artist, dj, etc during a show "
Why in heavens name would you want to do something like this? Prove to the entire audience of the show how big of a dick you are?
There's definitely things on this list I find more obnoxious. And also just odd. The personal chef one I don't really get. Does no one else enjoy a kind of meditative pleasure in cooking?
- help your family and friends out
- start businesses for fun or pure experimentation
- invest in your hometown (public services and local businesses)
- sponsor awards in your old school / college / university
- make art
etc
All of this fluff just doesn't interest me that much.
The difference between a 7 and 8 figure exit can’t be understated though, assuming you want to make sure the money never runs dry. A 7 figure exit leaves you set for life, but not rich in the sense of “can do things that a good tech salary doesn’t already let you do”. At 8 figures you enter the territory of being able to sustain lifestyles inaccessible to those without so much money indefinitely.
Perhaps stating the obvious but that's far from true. In terms of buying things and experiences, that is true.
But a good tech salary brings with it a complete lack of free time to enjoy any of the things you could afford, having to work >>40hrs a week.
A 7 figure exit lets you have mostly the same stuff you could afford on the tech salary, but then you have all the time in the world to actually enjoy it.
It's amazing how close we are to this level of luxury being available to the middle class in the form of Doordash, Waymo, and Google Assistant.
The rich are richer than they've ever been, but in other ways the gap is closing. The richest billionaires can afford much nicer boats, but their phones aren't any better than ours.
Very fair point on everything else though.
> Personal Driver - who seems to be flirting with your husband/wife
> Personal Assistant - who you suspect is subtly defrauding you
Employing people to be close to you is fraught with potential problems real or imagined. Jeeves would give away Bertie's clothes if he didn't like them.
If I wanted money and financial safety, I should have kept the nice corporate job I had, got myself a mortage, some pension savings, etc. And corporate jobs are not even that horribly soul crushing. At least they don't have to be. So, no shame in doing that and I'd be all set to retire in 20-30 years. If that's your life and you are happy, good for you. Don't change it.
But for me it would be a compromise so that one day, I might retire to enjoy the few years I have left while I'm still healthy enough to enjoy that life. For most people that's 10-15 years on average. Some people stretch it a bit further. Except your life is not defined by how it ends but how you live it generally. And most of the memorable bits tend to be at the beginning way before you retire, not after.
So, instead, I'm enjoying life now with a decent chance to level up the level of enjoyment at some point and a risk of losing some of what I have. I work hard but only on stuff I genuinely care about. What matters to me is doing things I like doing now exactly the way I want those things to be done so I can look back on those things with no regrets (other than having missed opportunities to do them even better). I'm not postponing enjoying life until I'm too old, broken, and miserable to enjoy any of that. I don't actually need a lot of expensive stuff in my life.
I'm not even sure I'd actually want to change a whole lot if I suddenly got a lot of money. I might do a few decadent and frivolous things and I might even enjoy those things. I'd probably get a nicer place to live in (or several even) and a few other things. But I can't honestly say I really miss or crave these things right now. I'm more interested in securing the life I have than having a better life.
Life is a journey, not a destination. You can't take any of the materialistic stuff with you in the end.
A lot of these are more accessible in lower-income countries (full-time driver for eg), and a few have a much higher bar (citizenship changes, nomad lifestyle - which don’t work with a weaker passport).
You don't necessarily need to be rich for that, but it certainly smooths out some problems, and allows you to actually choose between 'short flight' or '10 hour bus trip'. When you're traveling for leisure, often the bus is the better experience as you meet people, see the country, etc, but sometimes really not.
Maybe also studying something just because you want to, without any requirement that it'll lead to a job etc.
If I were rich enough, I'd fund a free one, and just hang out there. Free, in exchange for you have to spend 30 minutes telling everyone else what project you're working on, or some other interesting talk every few weeks.
This is the one I don't understand why more actually rich people don't do. It doesn't cost THAT much to have someone available 24/7 who is trained in defensive driving.
Zero issues with you crashing, driving drunk etc.
You end having to manage personnel. Headache.
Also: you now have a new family member in the sense that he knows everything about you. Also headache.
> This is the one I don't understand why more actually rich people don't do.
Why would you buy a Ferrari or other exotic and then hand off the keys to some stranger? Most people rich enough to do that want to then enjoy it.
Why jump from one extreme scenario to another?
It is perfectly legit to buy an exotic car and drive it regularly on the street, not drunk.
I believe Cyprus and Malta are the more affordable options for gaining EU citizenship through a national investor program.
Supposedly bringing about $2 million into Cyprus will get you the passport.
(Other stuff is obvious - like securing one's existing finances, though I have no easy solution to this )
It does have a bunch of redeeming entries, but all of those were suggested in this very HN thread and added later...
I don't see myself doing even half of those things if I had even 7 figures or low 8 figures.
What does this mean?
> Write off expenses
> Influencer style business so most living expenses are written off
This costs $9.95/mo with iPostal.
I have one. Amazing service.
Lol. Maybe have someone do your shopping for you instead?
I also assume they have expensive hotel rooms with a lot of alcohol provided by their hotel.