Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: What Would You Do If You Were Suddenly Wealthy?
An anonymous reader writes: There are a few articles floating around today about comments from Markus Persson, aka "Notch," the creator of Minecraft. He sold his game studio to Microsoft last year for $2.5 billion, but he seems to be having a hard time adjusting to his newfound fame and wealth. He wrote, "The problem with getting everything is you run out of reasons to keep trying, and human interaction becomes impossible due to imbalance. ... Found a great girl, but she's afraid of me and my life style and went with a normal person instead. I would Musk and try to save the world, but that just exposes me to the same type of a$#@%&*s that made me sell minecraft again." While he later suggests he was just having a bad day, he does seem to be dealing with some isolation issues. Granted, it can be hard to feel sorry for a billionaire, but I've wondered at times how I'd handle sudden wealth like that, and I long ago decided it would make the human relationships I'm accustomed to rather difficult. So, how would you deal with Notch's problem? It seems like one the tech industry should at least be aware of, given the focus on startup culture.
Hey slashdot. Can we edit/delete our posts please? FFS, this site is almost 20 years old and you still don't have this capability?
That is because it is the way Slashdot was designed. It is intentional, as if you could go back and edit your posts, you can change their tone afterwards.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
You are correct that a million will net about $60k. That's in a diversified portfolio of long-term investments, a fairly reliable income. Actually $600K per ten years is reliable - year to years gains will fluctuate and that's okay - your spending doesn't have to fluctuate to match each year.
What will ALSO net $60K spending money is earning 100K, saving 12% for retirement, spending 15% on your mortgage, etc. Once you retire, you're no longer saving up for retirement. If you pay off your house before you retire, you're no longer paying mortgage. You're probably not saving for your kids' college anymore. Therefore a $1 million retirement fund will provide approximately the same lifestyle as a $100K / year job.
This assumes you're under 55 currently, so you don't count on any social security at all. *
* You know based on how people are 55 today that 20 years there will be more 75 year-olds than there is money to pay benefits.
I know you're trolling a bit here, but if you want specific evidence of something Carter has done right, check out the Guinea Worm Eradication program. The Carter Center is a major part of this initiative, that is reducing (with the goal of eliminating) a painful and debilitating parasitic condition. Cases of Guinea Worm have dropped from over 3 million yearly in the early 80's to less than 100 so far this year (W.H.O. stats). The Guinea Worm life cycle requires human infection, so once this thing is gone, it's totally gone.
What you said, and more.
Six diseases are being fought by the Carter Center
http://www.cartercenter.org/he...