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If You Get Rich, You Won't Quit Working For Long (bbc.com)
An anonymous reader writes: You'd think striking it suddenly rich would be the ultimate ticket to freedom. Without money worries, the world would be your oyster. Perhaps you'd champion a worthy cause, or indulge a sporting passion, but work? Surely not. However, remaining gainfully employed after sudden wealth is more common than you'd think. After all, there are numerous high-profile billionaires who haven't called it quits despite possessing the luxury to retire, including some of the world's top chief executives, such as Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg. But it turns out, the suddenly rich who aren't running companies are also loathe to quit, even though they have plenty of money. That could be, in part, because the link between salary and job satisfaction is very weak. According to a meta-analysis by University of Florida business school professor Timothy Judge and other researchers, there's less than a 2% overlap between the two factors. In the long run, we derive job satisfaction from non-monetary sources, which include positive peer relationships, the ability to work on meaningful projects and even leadership opportunities.
Mo money mo problems?
...but exactly what it is you "work" on will quite likely change since you're now free to choose something you find enjoyable or fulfilling.
I suggest you watch that last Family Guy episode where Stewie takes a job at a printing company. That's the average persons job. No rich person would tolerate that kind of work for 5 minutes. What rich people call work the rest of us call "a dream come true." I'll happily do Jeff Bezo's job for 25 cents an hour.
The only reason I want to get rich enough to never work again is so that I can work on what I want.
I'll be the exception.
Maybe the kind of people who would quit are less likely to get rich?
I don't know if sudden wealth has that effect, but in the interest of science, I'm willing to find out.
If you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life.
-Marc Anthony
home
Enough said
Though I would probably switch careers, or potentially simply get involve more in my hobbies, or else pursue things I've not had time to. But in the end, I'd definitively still be 'working' - I would just have the luxury of choosing exactly what that work would be, at any moment.
AC comments get piped to
The notion that there's no correlation between the paycheck and satisfaction is absurd. How many people would keep enjoying those "peer relationships" at the office if their paycheck was cut to 10%?
... start rocket companies, etc.
For the VERY SMALL number of people who have a had a large windfall but continue to do higher-level executive work, it is indeed the labor-of-love thing, or the awareness that what they know and can do can generate even more piles of money so they can do things like
But those are vanishingly infrequent circumstances. The average or even upper-middle-class employee may not describe their salary as THE thing that makes them happy, but you can bet that if it was slashed to the bone, it would be the thing that makes them unhappy.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
This is quite obvious and has been covered since the days of ancient Greece.
I've said it before.
Humans need to feel love, a sense of competence and a sense of purpose.
The amount of money you get beyond roughly 75 000 Euros per year has near to no influence on your happiness.
In fact, if you tie your happiness to riches, you'll get depressed quite soon, even if you don't lose your wealth.
I'd probably work even more if I'd win the lottery.
Albeit on projects that I fund myself because I care about them.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
positive peer relationships, the ability to work on meaningful projects and even leadership opportunities
Yep, that's why I go to work at the Amazon fulfillment center. Definitely NOT to keep a roof over my head and food on the table.
If you get rich and you feel the need to be engaged and productive, go work for a charity. Continuing to work just to make other people richer is head-slappingly short-sighted.
Take a salary, it will be a shit salary, but that paycheck will keep your head in the game - you'll feel an obligation to work through the hard parts of the job rather than walk away since you don't "owe" them anything.
FWIW, that's what I did.
If you count working in my garden as work, then yes, I would continue working for the rest of my life (or at least as long as I'm physically able to).
I'm not rich and I walked away from my tech job. I do not suffer from self actualization ever. I live a fulfilling life.
I live pretty cheap. I have a lot saved for retirement (>1 Million). If I could figure out medical for my 3 kids I could walk away.
Perhaps because the average person wouldn't take the tsunamis of shit flowing downhill and an equitable society would make too much sense to be ruled by a bunch of entitled assholes.
Universal income.
Who gives a shit about money once you reach the level where you have more than you can spend?
What makes these people continue working is the, perceived or imagined, power their "employment" gives them. You think they'd continue working for someone with that kind of money? Or in any real job, for that matter?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
It's about doing what I want to work on. If I were suddenly flush in cash I could go back to school for stuff I want to learn, afford to build a full shop with the tools I want to work with, and not worry that "failure=lose house" if I wanted to start my own business
No individual human being should be allowed to accrue wealth beyond a reasonable limit indexed to inflation - say $10 million.
Otherwise wealthy people are going to constantly leverage their wealth to distort economies in their favor at the expense of civilization.
A limit encourages reinvestment in public entities - businesses, NGOs, foundations, et cetera - and encourages individual pursuit of more than just wealth for wealth's sake.
We as a species have the capability to provide clean water, feed, house, educate, and entertain everyone on the planet; we have not yet as a species had the courage to unify behind a platform that would do this, at the expense of a relative few.
And if you keep using the word "you" in headlines, I'll get sick of the clickbait.
I, for one, would certainly not keep working if I made a few million. But the kind of people who tend to make a few million are exactly the kind of people who work and make money for the love of work and making money, of which I am not one.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
I am in a similar boat. Two kids, half a million saved up at age 43 and looking at options to switch to something more meaningful. Obamacare was a great option, but now that Herr Trump is in charge, that may not be possible soon. Health Care has me hostage right now. With our overpriced insurance options, I am uncomfortable switching from my current employer for a while longer.
Dear valued employees, in order to maximize the amount of job satisfaction you receive we have diverted 10% of your base pay and established a more robust company picnic program. You are welcome :D
If I could figure out medical for my 3 kids I could walk away.
Don't worry. Der Trumpenfuhrer has promised that he will replace the evil Obamacare with something really great. It must be true, because HE PROMISED. And Republicans have only controlled Congress for 18 of the last 22 years, so its clearly not THEIR fault that we have shitty healthcare.
If I ever won the lottery, I'd still go to work every day, and make sure my work colleagues knew that I'd won the lottery and didn't actually need to ever work again.
Why? Because it'd really piss them off.
Summation 2
and even leadership opportunities
I certainly would not be doing that, I could see myself working for free in my current position if I could just do the SW related stuff, but all the crud I seem to have to deal with from marketing/program management types because they can't be bothered to learn our product would be right out as would any tier one customer support.
I'd love to be able to just fix all the known bugs that never get attention because they're not understood by management or implement automated testing on a larger scale.
I don't understand why people with significant wealth would want to run a company or organization rather than work on the project directly, but each to his/her own.
I've had people tell me for years the same thing: "If I had Bill Gates' money I'd quit working". Okay, then you would *never* get Bill Gates' money because you would quit long before you had billions of dollars.
Do you have ESP?
goddamn it, can't find the relevant troll, you know the one, so I'll just have to post the original story : ESR Writes on "Surprised By Wealth"
Ugh what a one-sided report / study.
Obviously even if you're paid a lot, flipping burgers at mcdonalds isn't going to make you happy even at high wages as other jobs would, but there is a minimum.
Your basic needs and some extras need to be covered without stress of running out of money.
1. Home you enjoy living in
2. Food of your choice
3. Vehicle in good shape
4. Money for vacation and entertainment
etc etc.
If you can't afford those things,then you'll be less satisfied with your job.
Let's say salary can have a minor impact in improving job satisfaction from the base satisfaction of the job itself, however salary can have a significant impact in lowering job satisfaction from the base level.
If you gave a job a 6/10 for work satisfaction but the wages were low so you were struggling each month to make ends meet, you might rate the job a 4/10 or such.
If the wages were way more than you needed, you might still give it a 6/10 or 7/10.
Plus their studies probably all related to higher paying jobs in the first place. "Oh I see, you're a surgeon, and you're roughly just as satisfied as this surgeon who makes more / less than you. Hmm interesting...both the same level of satisfied with their luxury home and yacht..alight..seems salary isn't that important"
When you fall into money, usually it is mostly luck. People who work just as hard, in the same field in similar circumstances sometimes have wildly different outcomes.
However, those that *feel* their hard work has earned them their money and not luck, often have the type of personality that seeks some sort of validation (either internally or from other people) and thus will often not stop working.
However, those that *feel* that their luck has earned them their money generally think that it is an unrepeatable event and probably aren't as likely to keep working. This is the "lottery" winner type, but could be "inheritance" or other windfall. Unfortunately, this type of life is really not easy as it complicates social interaction so it tends to be isolating. Your friends and family still have to work so their time isn't as flexible, and after a while, those that actually matter will probably end up resenting any handouts. However, some folks like isolation, so it isn't necessarily bad, but probably bad for many people, more than they would like to admit. For those that don't seek isolation, they probably need to keep working in some capacity, but often they don't know how and that is a problem in itself.
...but it sure makes misery easier to live with !
Non-Linux Penguins ?
Take it from someone who achieved FIRE(Financial Independence, Retired Early) through marriage, I have a chronic illness that precludes me from working even a part time job, it's hard enough to do stuff around the house even at times. I watch TV, browse the net, read stuff, and play PC games all day, and I'm losing my goddamn mind. I have hobbies I want to do that are very difficult because of a lack of energy, biking, hiking, kayaking, skiing, snowboarding. I also have practical hobbies, such as making a homestead, like gardening, raising goats/horses/chickens, but all that is extremely difficult or nearly impossible because of my health.
I know this is a big side rant, but any of you that whine about welfare or basic income making lazy people, fuck you, I have all the money I need and I want to do so much but physically can't and it's killing me psychologically, and I am confident the vast majority of people under the same circumstances would feel the same way.
Even though there is a percentage of society that is content with it, idleness is not, never has been, nor ever will be the default human condition, if it were, we would still be apes in Africa.
I have been without work for 2 years in a row twice and the only reason I went back to work was money. I would have had money, I sure would have not gone to work. That does not mean that I was sitting on my sofa eating nachos. I just did more of what I wanted to do when I wanted to it.
Ask people what they do in their free time and they will come up with "Movies, hanging out with friends and fitness". None of these are things you can do all day for a longer period of time (months on end) and the friends part will be limited as they work and will not be available most of the time.
So I do believe that many people would go back to work, but not because of money, but because of boredom and lack of fantasy.
So what did I do? I spend a lot more time with Open Source. No, I do not want to do that as a job as I would want to do my hooby in my free time.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
When you have that kind of money that the billionaires mentioned have, it's not about money anymore, it's about power.
Crivens! I kicked meself in me own heid!
The guy who started Ikea - super filthy rich beyond most peoples wildest dreams, walks around with casual clothes, sometimes people say that he looks like an old homeless person. But yet he has worked every day of his life, and STILL does at the age of 90.
The thing is - rich people don't work for the man - they're THE MAN, we're not talking about their kids who literally fell into daddy's riches, we're talking those who follow the philosophy of earning more than they spend. Everyone can get rich, it's all a matter of attitude.
This is exactly why lottery winners often end up poor again, because of poor money management skills. We had a TV show about a couple that won 4 millions in a super lottery, they ended up on a program called "The Luxury Trap / The Money Pit", these people thought it was now okay to spend more than usual, they didn't plan for the future but was basically thinking that with money like that - they had endless unlimited means, which...of course, they didn't. They in fact ended up with 2 millions in DEBT instead, and that was just after 2 years.
I actually like to brag a little, so I will - I'll take myself as an example. I'm one of those people who doesn't like to work, unless I feel it's super meaningful...in which case I don't even consider it a job, but as an example. I'm a real cheapo, I am stingy too. This lifestyle helps me get what I want. I live in a large 3 story house and sometimes I'm unemployed for long periods of time - no wellfare income, but I get the odd jobs here and there that helps me pay the utility bills. But I don't live a life of pure luxury, I don't endulge by visiting luxury restaurants or purchase the latest and the greatest. When I see something that can reduce my living costs like a new mobile-phone plan, or cheaper internet - I jump right on it and reduce my costs right away. I purchase food in bulk and save up. And I repair my own house, I never hire people. I save and penny pinch, but yet I got tons of cool stuff, my great lab filled to the brim with components bought from shops closing down or someone giving up their hobbies - the secret is - I don't ever purchase at full price, and of course - I never purchase anything by borrowing money from someone or the bank. I keep costs down, and that way...I don't even have to be rich.
Yet...I'm richer than most of my neighbors in the entire town, with their luxury cars, and jet-set lifestyle travelling all over the world, slaving away at a job they hate.
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
I may be naive and not understand the whole picture here, but I have seen stories that are similar to this and have had a hard time believing them. Specifically, I've seen a couple of studies showing that people who are incredibly rich don't tend to be happier. As someone who's comfortable (not broke, but still worrying about money) I'm always looking over my shoulder for the next layoff/offshoring exercise...how in the world could you not be happy??? Having the freedom to do what you want, when you want, regardless of cost seems like a paradise. Never having to worry about paying a bill, how much a car repair costs, making your tax/mortgage payments on your houses? Sign me up...I guarantee I'll be happy. In my mind, anyone who goes from worrying about how much something costs, to where their next vacation will be and how they will get there, has a pretty good life. I forgot where I heard it, but the quote "whoever said money can't buy happiness doesn't know where to shop" comes to mind.
Honestly, this should be everyone's goal in life -- to get enough wealth that you can live off the investment/interest income for the rest of your life, regardless of how you spend it or how the market performs. I'm sure there's more than a few people slogging through the world of investment banking or corporate law firms chasing this very same goal...and those are the only people for whom this is still possible, barring a lottery win or inheritance.
A lot of the guys I worked with at Apple could have retired at any time after 2005 or so. They kept working because they liked what they were doing.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
I quit as soon as I became financially independent and never looked back. It's been a dozen years of pure bliss so far. It's possible I will get into trouble, but very unlikely. If everything upon which my early 'retirement' is based were to fail, I would have a whole lot of company. If the actuarial tables are accurate, then no worries. I'm really sorry people need the daily grind to feel fulfilled and happy.
How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
I doubt either of them can/will/would have fix(ed) it. Trump's plan will just be the GOP's disastrous answer to the Democrat's disastrous answer.
No way. I'm tired of getting shit on.
1. They spend money as fast as they make it, so they can't afford to quit.
2. They can afford to quit the daily grind to pursue something they actually enjoy doing. I know a guy who became an auto mechanic after retiring from a Fortune 100 at a relatively early age, with a handsome retirement plan and a fat bank account, simply because he enjoys working on cars.
Was discussing this with people I work with. We agreed that if we won it big in the lottery we would still work together. Just much less hours and under more relaxed conditions. (ie: 4 hour work days, no calls, no weekends, have a greeter at the front door, etc.)
Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
That was a fantasy at my last job, especially if I could pull of the "get rich" part without it being on TV news.
Our offices were on 8 floors of a public office tower and there was an underground parking ramp. High-level execs had spaces leased there, and I figured if I was rich enough I could lease a spot down there for my high-end car and "accidentally" run into some of the people down there. I also thought it would be fun to have a designer re-do my office over some long holiday weekend with expensive furniture and art.
But the real key was to keep working there totally without regard for anyone's opinion. Yes, business unit leader, your ridiculous idea is a total waste of money and is only designed for self-aggrandizement. Please, try to fire me over this. I have the top 5 employment law firms in town on retainer and a make-your-life-miserable
Otherwise, I can't say that staying at a job when I'm totally rich would make any sense. When I could afford to travel the world at the highest standards of accommodation, I'm supposed to put up with my paltry vacation time or work's idea of when I should schedule it? That's crazy.
About the only work I can see doing is getting so deep into a hobby I decide there's some business to be built there and I have enough time and money to explore it.
I wouldn't quit working, but I'd definitely quit my job.
People who start companies and then become billionaires through those companies are a different kind of person from the average windfall winner; they frequently keep on at the same "job", but the sort of personality which takes a company from scratch to being worth billions isn't likely to see what their doing as a "job" so much as an obsession. That and being at the helm of the ship has gotta be a lot more interesting than being chained to an oar.
Log in or piss off.
Within certain personalities and types (such as those who attain the billionaire status), greed is unending.
Across the aggregate, greed is a disease that has infected humanity, and will likely be its ultimate demise.
I know a lot of folks, now retired, who only kept working so they wouldn't take too big of a cut in their government pension by retiring early. Remember that the only money some people will ever get once retired is their old-age pension.
Oh, wait. I see now that this "research" was lead by a university professor. Well, the premise may be true in academia, but why not get Mr. Professor to interview some blue collar workers who are making themselves sick, struggling to make ends meet.
I think it comes down to keeping busy. I know people that retired only to go back to work part-time doing something that helps keep them busy and stem off boredom.
Though with a lotto winning amount of money, I'm not so sure I'd go back to work, as much as go back to school part-time just to keep learning something new.
I don't think this is entirely true... certainly if you do not feel that you are being paid fairly for the work you are doing, then you aren't going to be satisfied... so at least among lower income levels, I would suggest that this link is actually quite strong... I suspect that the relationship between salary and job satisfaction may resemble a logarithmic curve, where increased salary past a certain point offers diminishing returns on increased amounts of satisfaction, but just because there may be a negligible relationship between job salary and job satisfaction at the highest salary levels does not mean that the link between them is necessarily weak in general.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I honestly have no interest in quitting my job if I find myself suddenly rich. What WILL happen though, is that the way I treat my job and the power dynamics there will drastically change. I will be far more emboldened voicing opinions about things that go on because I no longer am at the job because I "need" to be, but rather because I "want" to be. That makes a very big difference. I won't have near as much of an issue telling our director that he's being stupid when he is in fact demonstrably being stupid. Right now, there is always the spectre of being fired haunting me if I speak up when management makes a bad decision. I usually speak up anyway, but if I get shushed, I let it lie. I won't have to do that any more. Want to fire me? Fine, give me a call in a few months when you see I'm right, I don't need you as much as you'll see you need me.
I hope you end up doing some work you really enjoy, something that "gets your juices flowing". Like this person said:
https://news.slashdot.org/comm...
Whether they're politicians, business executives, athletes, or entertainment celebrities - people at the top of the food chain crave money and power. Bezos, Zuckerberg, Clinton, Trump, Ballmer, LeBron, whoever - they won't give up the ego boost unless they are forced to.
Basic income now!
I'd like to test that theory. Somebody make me rich, please.
Robin Williams was paid $20 million for Bicentennial Man, $5 million for Night at the Museum, $3.5 million for the Crazy Ones. Money does not make people happy. Lack of money, or more specifically spending more than you make, can certainly cause stress, but most everyone on Slashdot is already in the top 2% richest people in the world. Being even richer than rich in no way guarantees any level of happiness.
I notice pretty much everything you say starts with "Bull shit!". You don't *sound* like a joyful person. Maybe you haven't yet found what really makes you happy long term.
So why do we give the most amount of money to the executives and claim if we didn't, they wouldn't do a good job? Why not just give them more work?
It's not like they produce much of the product as it is, and their job is less likely to be outsourced. Neither is it like we have a paucity of people wanting high pay and prestige with light workloads.
But it sure as hell solves a specific class of problems that most non-rich struggle daily with.
My former boss was wealthy (>$100million net worth). He and his family had much the same problems as everyone else--apart from paying for their home, food, clothes, cars, and school.
In addition, being wealthy adds a new class of problems. Until you've been both, comparing which class of problems is worse or more stressful is impossible.
Most of his problems simply had bigger price tags involved and affected thousands of people (whom he cared about).
Useless post...
Two chicks at the same time, man.
I already had to make that decision. I have enough money that I could take early retirement, so now I only work for organizations I actually like. That means I end up doing things like six months pro-bono for a leadership campaign, and then three years with a start-up, because they were inherently worth doing. Now I'm with a hardware company, because I love their product.
davecb@spamcop.net
After all, there are numerous high-profile billionaires who haven't called it quits despite possessing the luxury to retire
I think whoever wrote this has missed the point.
For these gazillionaires "work" is just another way to pass the time. It doesn't provide them (any more) with the necessary money to live on, so they have other goals for the work they do and the money they earn. Whether that is a rather adolescent "measuring up" contest, a messianic attitude to life, the desire to go down in history as past philanthropists have, or merely to have Mars' capital city named after them is irrelevant.
I would suggest that lottery winners (to take a simple example) who return to work when they have the means to live comfortably are showing a monumental lack of imagination or simply are scared of change - the unknown life of a rich person and the choices it requires. However, for most people the idea of not having to perform in the daily 9 - 5 is all they would wish for.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
See subject: My money works for me. I chose "ability to work on meaningful projects" for more speed, security, reliability + anonymity via what you already have NATIVELY in FASTER kernelmode vs. SLOWER usermode "so-called 'solutions'" that are security issue riddled (local DNS/antivirus) using FAR MORE RESOURCES doing less (addons that don't work fully anymore in "AlmostALLAdsBlocked" http://www.businessinsider.com/google-microsoft-amazon-taboola-pay-adblock-plus-to-stop-blocking-their-ads-2015-2/ or inferior imitations UBlock (uses hosts but provides no dns issue solutions) that are ILLOGICALLY "Bolt on 'MoAr'" inefficient & inferior + SLOWER http://superuser.com/questions/686041/which-leads-to-faster-browsing-an-ad-blocker-or-an-edited-hosts-file/
APK
P.S.=> My project = APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-4 32/64-bit https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&biw=&bih=&q=%22APK+Hosts+File+Engine%22+and+%22start64%22&btnG=Google+Search&gbv=1/
It is a fun social experiment to see how many people are now suddenly nice to you.
God spoke to me
After my startup was acquired, I took a year off. I got to working out a lot, was in the best shape of my life, but eventually it got to a point where I missed being wanted or needed by anyone. Most people you saw out and about were elderly or parents were young kids. I just wanted a purpose again, so I got back in the game. I'm not super wealthy or anything but I don't really need to be working.
When PowerBall had a $1B jackpot, I bought some tickets like everyone else. But I gave serious thought about what to do with $500M after taxes in a lump sum. I wouldn't change my modest lifestyle or even quit my government IT job. My role model is Ronald Read, a janitor whom everyone thought was poor but left an $8M fortune to the local library and hospital upon his death.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/get-there/the-remarkable-life-and-lessons-of-ronald-read/2015/04/24/7c12a26a-e944-11e4-9a6a-c1ab95a0600b_story.html
There is great confusion between working for a living and making something the work of your life. My ideals of life are not to have enough resources to sit and shit all day.. As humans we have developed the ability to raise above instincts and we give meaning to existence with agency and control over how we lead our lives. If you're successful you're also probably educated enough to know this.
I don't think I'd continue a regular 40 hour a week job. OTOH, I wouldn't want to sit on my butt all day either. Maybe I'd do some kind of freelance stuff, whenever I got bored, and take a break when I wanted to.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
The problem too many people have is a desire for a wealthy *lifestyle". That's a very different thing from wanting "nice things", IMO.
on a $100K salary, I could finally pay all of my bills comfortably, without worrying that I had to stick way too much on a credit card one month, stressing about how I'm going to get that paid back down in the coming months. I'd be able to make bigger than the minimum payment on a couple of my existing loans, to get them paid off more quickly and free up a little extra money to do more fun things with, too. And I wouldn't have the problems I have now where in really cold winter months, my electric bill is sky high and really cuts into what I can afford to buy as holiday gifts for people.
That's the kind of wealth I want ... not millions of dollars that force me to start dressing in expensive, fancy clothes for social events I'm expected to attend because of the new crowd I'm around, and the pressure to have an impressive sized and styled home, so those people don't think less of me when I invite them over.
"Two chicks at once."
UK resident here. A few years ago, I made maybe $15M after taxes when the company I helped to found was acquired. I invested $6M so I could retire one day, am just about done spending $5M on a really nice new home, have maybe $1M liquid cash and the rest tied up in my current home and a few other things. I assume most here would call this "getting rich" although maybe it's a low end example. Anyway, I could quit working forever, but...
a) I don't feel bullet proof (that would take twice what I have, and maybe - if it happened - twice again...) - can't tell you why!
b) I'm an engineer, and I love designing software and hardware. I love my job. (Maybe the best luck I ever had.)
So I'm working quite hard. Late into the night, through the weekend. Harder than I worked in the year or so before I got the money. It feels good to play a part in the world, to make a (small) difference. Maybe it's a better example to my kids. Of course I'm doing it because I want to, not because I have to (like almost everything, for someone in my very fortunate position). Guilt is a fairly regular problem; I do some things under the radar for good causes, that helps a little.
I am now certain that no amount of money would stop me working. But when I drive somewhere for a meeting, I'm driving a Tesla, which is nice.
we derive job satisfaction from non-monetary sources, which include positive peer relationships, the ability to work on meaningful projects and even leadership opportunities.
Wait, you can get those from a job?
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
You forgot the main reason for continuing to work: getting away from the wife and kids for 8 hours.
> remaining gainfully employed ...
Remaining gainfully BUSY... is what makes most people happy. Volunteer work, association memberships, hobbies, passing forward what they've learned, being involved with things bigger than themselves, etc.
Don't tell us that commuting to work, juggling with deadlines and incomplete resources, all while attending obligatory meetings, etc. is preferred to other involvement with life. Busy? Yes. Clocking in? No. That person just hasn't found their further calling yet.
It's about the power, and the ability to stay in the limelight and feed ones ego.
Every met anyone disgustingly rich? I mean Jeff Bezos level rich? I have. Dirtbags, all of them. Yes, they might put on a friendly face, but everything they do has an ulterior motive behind it.
Sooner or later a 100 million/yr salary stops being about the money, and starts being about the power you can wield with that kind of money.
*That's* why they continue to work. Power, self-serving, and ego. Anyone who says otherwise is selling you something
So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
Loath = unwilling, reluctant
Loathe = deep-seated hatred
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
I agree that sitting at home all day will get quickly boring, but money represents freedom.
If you don't need to work to live, then suddenly you can choose to work on what project makes you happy, not what earns money.
Count me in those that would quit IMMEDIATELY. Like my work area, nothing against my bosses/company/peers/etc, but I would prefer going to beaches and banging my wife than typing on a keyboard all day. I would not look back.
You've got people who aren't working and don't have any money. Could we figure out a way to meet in the middle?
I think a lot depends on what you define as "Work" or going back to "Work".
For example should I win say 5 million dollars, I wouldn't need to work for money really. Perhaps I always wanted to be a writer, however could not due to the fiscal risk involved. Maybe I make it as a writer, maybe I just waste my time, but it would be something I'm doing that presumably makes me happy. Does that mean I'm "working" again? I suppose so, however it isn't quite the same as going back to being an office drone or something.
Perhaps one of your hobbies becomes your passion and you pursue that. Maybe it's wood working, and you make artisan furniture... Pretty soon you'll have a barn full of furniture, do you sell it, break even, give it away, donate it to charity, again does all that classify as "work"...
So I guess I'm one of the guys that you "can't imagine". I find work fulfilling.
People are different.
Retirement doesn't mean you stop working.
It means you stop choosing your work based on the salary. (So you switch to a more rewarding job, or you pursue a hobby full-time, or you hang around the house - whatever feels best to you.)
In a real sense, those tech CEOs with billions ARE retired.
They are mentally ill. They don't see all the money they have as being enough. They think they need more so they keep working.
Like old people who lived through the depression. They have plenty of money, but keep and reuse tinfoil because they think they need to.
1. pay off the bills & repair everything -= $200,000 would do it (close out mortgage, student loans, and a few long term odds and ends and pending maintenance).
2. fund for children to finish college -= $100,000 ($50,000 per child - 2 children)
3. fund for wife and myself to further our educations -= $100,000 ($50,000 each) (education is very important - never stop learning)
4. diversified investment fund: $2,000,000 --- stocks, bonds, money market
5. entreprenurial fund: $2,600,000 -- would retire from current job early, and use these funds to start my own businesses. I would continue to work every day until I run out of these funds, or die - whichever comes first. Profits would pay our annual bills (food, taxes, maintenance/replacement etc), and otherwise be rolled back into the fund. This would be frugally managed.
Can't imagine not having something valuable to contribute. If I was insanely rich (billions of dollars) I would definitely be investing in organizations and businesses that I believe in - and probably could justify upgrading some things to make that easier to accomplish.
Would there be some parties, vacations, and trips abroad in there? You betcha. However, I can't see just partying or wandering aimlessly. Life has to have meaning, and meaning comes from within.
Lodragan Draoidh
The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
Believe it or not, I actually ENJOY working. Gives me purpose in life.
The rich get richer because they continue doing what made them rich.
Ditto for the poor.
"there's less than a 2% overlap between the two factors. In the long run, we derive job satisfaction from non-monetary sources"
Great, now I can start with the massive pay cuts without worry.
- Some PHB
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned these issues yet. There would be three worries:
1) How to keep that money, this is doubling troublesome for people who've never learnt to save money; who see it as something that disappears at the end of the month.
2) How to deal with friends and strangers demanding expensive gifts. Suddenly one is a responsible for other people's entertainment and problems.
3) You can keep busy if want to, you can define yourself by your job if you want to: Being rich doesn't change that. What it does change, is you are no longer one of the little people; waiting for your next pay-cheque, sacrificing your little luxuries so a family member can have that surgery/medicine to to improve her life, dreaming of the day you've saved enough to have an overseas vacation. You no longer have the troubles of a working stiff and that has a big toll on your social life.
People LIKE working. They LIKE doing things. I'm always wary of people that say that people with a basic income would just be lazy and do nothing, because it sounds to me like they're projecting THEIR laziness on the people that are getting an income.
I have so many things I'd like to do. I'd go back to school, work for charities and non-profits that would normally be impossible for me because they don't pay enough to support an adult or two. I've already got a plan for lottery winnings (on the rare occasion that I play the lottery) where most of it goes into investments and just pays me a salary from the interest I make on investments. Protect the majority of the capital and invest the rest, pull a small-ish salary and never worry about whether the job I'd love to do pays too little.
Let's try an experiment. You give me $20 million, and we'll see if I show up to work next year. No takers? didn't think so.
Give me 50 mil lotto winning. I guarantee I will be in a hammock the rest of my life.
That could be, in part, because the link between salary and job satisfaction is very weak. According to a meta-analysis by University of Florida business school professor Timothy Judge and other researchers, there's less than a 2% overlap between the two factors.
Because we trade away one for the other in context, say you're a doctor. You could run a private clinic for fat cat clients and make big bucks. Or you could work for "Doctors Without Borders" doing humanitarian work for shitty pay and great job satisfaction. But you wouldn't go flip burgers at McDonald's for shitty pay and shitty job satisfaction. This could get very confusing for a statistician, because if you average it out the low wage earner seems pretty happy but really it's a mix of no choice and deliberate choice. That means we tend to get happier when we increase our potential, being eligible to get a $60k job and picking a $30k job will be completely different than when a $30k job is the most you can make. And if your priorities change you can probably find a $60k job later. Having attractive job skills is never a bad thing, even if you're not profit-maximizing.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
I'll never be rich but I love my job and I'll do it for the rest of my life or die trying.
If you are rich enough, you can buy your employer. Funny things can start there.
Always open to sound financial advice, I began reading this in earnest. Somewhere in the first sentence I realized that this information is not useful to me.
I'm working longer hours than if I'd started working for a company, and I'm paid less per hour than a company job (in my country, PhD positions get a salary.) I probably won't be making more money than people working for private firms after I graduate either, assuming I keep going into fundamental physics research. But I'm still here, doing what I want to do. If I won a million dollars, I'd still keep doing the same thing, I'd just be less worried about the financial situation.
If I could make 60k/year until I'm 90 without working, I'd be comfortable with never working again. Even if I live longer than that, I'd put away any money I didn't use, and there'd probably be plenty. I didn't grow up really poor, but we weren't all that well off. It's taught me to be a bit on the frugal side. I made $13k last me almost 2 years of unemployment quite happily. I like gaming, outdoor activites, and animals. The closest thing to work I'd probably do some volunteer work to an animal sanctuary.
My father died and left me more than enough so that I never wanted to work again I don't have to. The earnings on the capital annually is more than I earned each year by working. So instead of paid employment I split my time between volunteer work and things to sell. Stuff I always wanted to do, but couldn't. I'm visit than ever and enjoying every minute of it. It's given me a glimpse of what a world on a universal basic income could be like. Positice, constructive people doing positive constructive things..... And negative, destructive people free to fund their own destruction. Hopefully there would more of the former as time went on.
Only boring people are ever bored.
Kind of a silly article IMO. You've got to do something. The question is whether and to what extent you can purposefully structure your own time. I'm not rich, but I'm in a position where I'm free to choose my own projects whether they pay well or not. So I do the work I want to. I also take time to exercise, which I wasn't doing enough of before.
My transition was hard, partly because it coincided with the death of my mother and a move, so I was completely unmoored. I thought of pursuing new full-time work; I still do occasionally. But most of the time I value the freedom I have to work on whatever I want to work on, and if there's a day when I'm unmotivated and can't get it going, I'm OK with that. But mostly I'm happy filling my days with satisfying work on projects that interest me. I've given up on trying to make my mark, and on caring what other people think, outside my tiny circle.
When we say "stop working" it might help to first determine what "work" means in this context. For most working class people this surely means "exchanging some of my time for enough money to afford a modest lifestyle." So in that sense, no, no one keeps "working" after they are rich; they might exchange their time for something else (a cause they care about, or fame, or whatever), but not for money. They can afford their lifestyle without additional money; that's what being rich means.
But to say we'd stop working in the sense of "doing anything important" is absurd. Humans like to contribute, and like to build things. Look at any hobby club; look at the things you've probably made in your free time. The truth of the matter is that there are things that are worth doing that don't make money or shouldn't make money. I know personally I'd rather everyone have enough time to be an amatuer musician than to have a few professionals who turn it into a money-making endeavor. There is research that can't get funded that people would love to do. I know I'd love to spend a few hours a week doing cutting-edge AI research, a few hours exercising, a few hours playing music, a few hours teaching people how to use computers.
The fact is that most of what's meaningful (and I'm using meaningful here to mean useful to someone 50 years from now) actually doesn't make money. And rather than trying to make all of society into neatly-defined "jobs" and "career paths" maybe we should just admit that hobbies provide real benefits, that just aren't measured in monetary terms.
The likelihood that someone would pay you to do math research is basically none, but the potential value of that research is huge. If you have money and understand that, you're going to work your ass off, it's just that you'll be working for a reason other than money.
And if eventually we could move to a society where we have robots powered by e.g. geothermal energy that do all the work for us, we'll have to contend with everyone being "rich" by this definition. And there will be no economically benefical work to be done. But I don't think that'll be a problem; I think it can be a golden age, so long as an elite few don't control all the machinery. We're not there yet, but we're closer than people think. Society would not collapse if we all took fridays off.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs
Casteism
You've got several issues here.
1. Many of those mentioned aren't just wealthy, they're in powerful positions. Stop working...lose much of that power, even though you've retained the money.
2. For many others who could easily afford to quit work, having something meaningful to do is still important. If you love your job...why quit. Anecdote: I could retire comfortably now, and plan to leave my company in a couple years, when I can collect full pension. But, I'll still find something meaningful to do with my time...volunteer work, most likely.
3. And, we've all heard of the lucky few who've hit it big in the lottery, or got some other windfall, only to be broke a year later. There are many articles and studies on this. It all comes down to the simple fact that the vast majority of people simply don't know how to manage money, or have the self discipline to live on a reasonable budget.
Just another day in Paradise
from my point of view the critical POSITIVE is that cost aside, I CAN actually buy health insurance.
I lost my Corporate job in 2015. I have medical 'history'. Before the Affordable Care Act, once Cobra ran out I probably would have been unable to buy insurance at all. Under the assumption of the continued availability of coverage under ACA, I have been building up my own independent enterprise.
Trump says he favors retaining the prohibition against insurance disqualification for preexisting conditions. I hope so... Expensive insurance gets built in to the consulting rates. "I'm sorry, but you might actually USE it, so No Insurance for You" probably destroys my business, and puts me back in someone else's cube.
I understand the viewpoint of those who complain "I'm healthy why should I pay for your problems", but think that viewpoint flawed. Consider that most people who have medical issues were themselves once healthy and may in many cases become so again (my own surgery was 12 years ago, I am now doing quite well, thanks for asking).
The infrastructure (physical, institutional and financial) needs to be built and maintained so that if you DO need it, it is there. That costs money. In the USA, it costs far too much vs the rest of the developed world, but we must deal with the world as it is until change is made to happen.