If you start of with the constraint "not in the USA" it gets to be a lot mo re easily attainable. There's always a certain amount of competition to get into nice places to live, and you may have to learn a new language, but th at particular exercise is good for your brain.
Being unusually good at what you do for a living always helps.
-- Bill Sloman, Sydney
I can appreciate that - up to a point. So certainly a bit of money helps, but you reach a saturation point, or at least rapidly diminishing returns.
If you don't have a car, then $2K to buy an old banger can significantly improve your happiness. $20K to buy a decent car is a good deal better. $200K to buy a cool flashy car /may/ make you happier, if you are interested in cars, but it will not be 10 times better. $2M to buy four different expensive cars just introduces a world of headaches about garage space, insurance, security worries, etc., and will significantly /decrease/ happiness.
I don't know where the crunch point would be for you and test equipment, but there will be a similar pattern. Given unlimited funds you'd buy bigger and fancier oscilloscopes - but at some point you'd find you've gone back to a mid-level scope that you find works smoothly for what you need, and you ignore the multi-M$ 16-channel THz device because it weighs 50 kg and takes half an hour to boot up.
Calling it a "goal" makes it sound like something achievable. It is not
- it is something to aim towards. You never get to a point where you can say "This school is as good as possible. Let's stop spending money on it."
But certainly it is achievable to get a solid way along the path - using a reasonable amount of money. The trick is to work together, rather than to focus only on what /you/ want for /your/ kids, cars, health, and to target the /real/ aims rather than viewing everything as a way for someone to make bucket-loads of money.
That is why most countries get vastly more for their money in this sort of area than the USA does.
different expensive cars just introduces a world of headaches about garage space, insurance, security worries, etc., and will significantly /decrease/ happiness. "
Lamborghini and Maserati hate you.
There have been studies that suggest once you have $75k a year, more money does not buy more happiness. With a paid off house and no debt, I don't think I could spend $75k a year. As someone posted, "I've been frugal so long, it would be hard to beat it out of me." I take that back, starting in June, I'll be paying for dental school for my daughter, For the next 4 years, I'll be spending about $75k, just on her. I'm ambivalent, thrilled we can do this for her and she'll enter the work world without a huge debt, on the other hand, not happy spending part of my nest egg that we have worked 36 years to build.
Mikek
But being old and poor could make for some unhappiness. The right amount of money is when you don't have to worry about money.
College costs are absurd. Thank goodness I've (probably) got that all over.
Is she going to pay you back?
-- John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc lunatic fringe electronics
more money does not buy more happiness. "
I was quite content on less, more like a bit under 50K. Don't get me wrong, I had some serious earning power, but I wasn't greedy enough. I had parti es where I bought a whole beef tenderloin and passed the steaks out like ho tdogs. I always had money, beer, weed, a running car or 2, good food and I never looked at t he prices when I did go to the grocery store rather than sending someone else. The house wasn't fancy, it was cheap but I would hav e f***ed up a good house anyway. The local cops knew me and what I did, the pot and other, they did come for a loud stereo once in a while but never a n inspector. That was OK because we didn't mow the grass for 7 years, then tilled it and had the best god damn tomato garden. (
he
r aSo I guess Jay Leno is one of the most miserable people on earth...
Rick C.
I don't buy that at all. With more money, you can make more people happy, which pays back happiness.
$75K is easy. I have expensive hobbies. ;-)
See? You're making someone happy.
The problem with that statement is that education, knowledge, and expense are only loosely correlated.
How would krw know? He doesn't seem to have any knowledge at all.
You can certainly spend a lot on an education that doesn't seem to give you all that much relevant knowledge, and autodidacts can read the same books rather more cheaply, and end up knowing at least as much.
Not getting the education nor reading the books leaves you with the job of re-inventing the wheel from scratch, which is remarkably tedious.
-- Bill Sloman, Sydney
That is /exactly/ right. There is a sweet spot. Too little, and you worry about money. Too much, and you also worry (about different aspects, of course). Somewhere in the middle, you can pretty much avoid thinking about it - you have enough to cover your needs without much thought, but not so much it is burning a hole in your pocket.
Could be - I've never met him, so I have no idea.
Of course, some people have expensive hobbies - some /do/ like collecting expensive cars. If you've got the money, and the interest in cars, then go for it - buy the cars and be happy.
Absolutely, poor guy has autophilia, a condition that saps his finances to the tune of millions. The condition also results in the waste of acres of v aluable land to store wheeled boxes that never roll.
I would help the guy with my 12 step program. The first step is to go out i n public (EEEK !) and look closely at someting unusual with wheels ad say t o yourself "I am not buying that, I am not buying that, I am NOT buying tha t !".
The second step is to gift 3 of your most valuable wheeled boxes to your ev er loyal and able therapist, me of course. That leads to the third step, de sensitization. This is when you watch me drive a wheeled box and recklessly put scratches on the paint, park going up on the curb and maybe even shift ing to a forward gear while still moving in reverse. This will require copi ous amounts of beer and that plant that grows in that dude's basement on ea st 47th. (it's only $ 360 an ounce, a small price to pay to beat this terri ble addiction)
Make the call now. (I m running out of money) take that first step to recov ery. (bring beer at least) Help yourself to help others and become once mor e a viable asset to society. (well mostly me, f*ck the rest of them)Hurry, time is running out and they are about to stop covering such treatments on insurance. (if you buy too many wheeled boxes there will be no money left f or me to take)
Call now, the number is 1-800-IMA-DICK. Please, before it's too late. (I'm low on weed too)
That's pretty much nonsense. Having more money doesn't mean you have to be more concerned with it. Just the opposite. Having enough means you need to worry and manage it so it doesn't run out. Having a lot more means you don't have to think about it, put it in a checking account and write checks when you want. Why would having more mean you have to give it more though t and concern?
Warren Buffet seems pretty happy. Or is that the sweet spot you are talkin g about, $10 or $20 billion?
Rick C. Rick C.
fredag den 25. maj 2018 kl. 15.14.39 UTC+2 skrev snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com:
afaiu he drives a different on every day so they all get roll a bit now and then ;)
That might sound obvious, but it is not the case. Some people can handle having more money - others have problems (especially if the money came rapidly, such as from wining lotteries). Once you get uncommonly rich, there are plenty of new things to worry about in life. When you have expensive cars, houses, etc., it is not uncommon to worry about them more. You don't just lock your house, you have alarm systems, safes for your expensive jewellery, etc. You have your complicated tax returns, your investments to fret over. You can't chill out on a Saturday evening, because you are expected to go to charity balls, or gallery openings, or all sorts of other things society expects of you. You can't have the same relationship as you used to with people who aren't rich. Beyond a certain point, your whole family can get pestered because of your money.
I am not going to give any suggestions about where too much money starts being an issue - it is going to vary hugely from person to person, society to society. For some, it will never be an issue - for some, it happens /really/ quickly.
But try to imagine what you would do if you suddenly gained $10M. How much happier would you be? You'd be quit some concerns in life - but gain others.
If I ever have enough money that it starts to be a worry for me, I will let you know the details. In the meantime, I am happy that money is of little concern to me - it is not a "sweet spot", but more of a "sweet plateau".
Do you know Warren Buffet personally, or are you just picking some random rich person?
I know some older people who are obsessive about their investments. They manage a stock portfolio themselves and check things all day.
We have an advisor firm that manages all the employee 401K stuff. They say "decide your risk profile and then ignore it" which seems to be as good as constant fiddling.
I have no idea what my net worth is +-40% maybe, but it's probably enough. My wife has a good job, and I get a social security check every month. Money is boring; I could ignore far larger fortunes just as well. Electronics is interesting.
-- John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc lunatic fringe electronics
Some people are cursed by having a lot of money. Lottery winners, actors, athletes, people who inherit a lot. They can be rich and idle and can destroy themselves. Many famous actors made huge fortunes and managed to get deep in debt, assisted by lovers and alcohol and drugs.
-- John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc lunatic fringe electronics
Nothing you have written is substantiated. There are people who worry abou t the $200 they have hidden in their mattress. There are people who's fami ly get upset with them because they didn't buy them a nice enough Christmas present at Walmart. There are people with fancy alarm systems in their $2
00,000 rancher. I know, I used to put them in. Usually it was the barn do or, horse gone sort of thing. Having more money just makes all this easier to deal with.As others have indicated, once you get past a point of worrying about payin g the bills and knowing you will be fine in retirement, more money may not make you happy, but there is no reason why in general it will make you unha ppy. Anyone can be unhappy.
So it's not the money at all, is it? Some people deal with life well and o thers don't.
You mean my net worth tripled? Not much impact at all. I'm pretty bored w ith the money I have. Money is not causing me problems and I don't have pr oblems money will fix.
To be honest, money does cause me some trouble... or really, gaining more m oney. When I get orders I have to work. Not much, but still, it's work. Otherwise I am retired and not doing much.
Yeah, he was over for dinner just last week.
About the same as all your arguments, based on pretty much nothing other th an his public appearances.
Rick C.
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