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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.
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 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
I don't think you can retire on $500k, especially given the fact that the government is getting ready to slash the social safety net and SS and Medicare. I don't think I'd attempt it for less than $2m. Remember you are going to be on the hook for your own health care.
This is a common story, particularly among those who have been poor their entire life. It's all down to a mind set. If you have never had much money, money is something that you spend. Either simply on living, or on luxuries before it gets eaten away by basic expenses. Money is not something you consider long-term and save or invest. But if you're used to having money above that of living expenses, money is something you are used to planning about. You don't go straight out and spend it.
Very few people have a job that they really enjoy. So they think "If I had a lot of money I would immediately quit working". But, the truth is, doing nothing all day is actually quite boring.
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
I find comments (and internet articles) like this interesting. There are so many people out there who are dirt poor and somehow manage to live through retirement. I know that people in the world are increasingly more material and require more money but somehow, the majority are getting by without having millions or even 100s of thousands saved for retirement.
The same thing goes with the cost of raising kids. Studies will tell you that you need tons of money to raise a kid but somehow, my parents raised 9 of us and they didn't spend the millions that studies suggest they would have needed.
How much money does it take to retire (or raise a kid)? It costs however much you want to spend on it. (Which is different than however much the next guy is going to spend).
If I hit the lottery and had enough money where I'd never need to work again, I'd leave work so fast I'd leave skid marks out the door!! ... I work for one and ONLY ONE reason, to make money to support the style of life I enjoy when not working. ... I have lots of hobbies....I'd like to spend time traveling, doing photography, chasing women, etc. ... I just don't get it why anyone would still work if they didn't have to. ... I have no love for my work or vocation.
There are plenty of reasons to continue working.
Let's say you win $5M. After taxes you get about $2.5M. Assuming you're in your 30's that gives you 50K per year, except that when you account for inflation you are probably closer to 30K or 20K per year when you get old. Which will suck. So even if you get lucky and have an enormous windfall, you will want to spend it slowly. Maybe pay off your current house or get a slight upgrade, and perhaps step up to a 2017 model year car. You'll want to spend it slow enough that when you reach old age you can still pay for everything. Financial planning is important.
As for reasons to continue working, you get social aspects, there are benefits like insurance benefits in countries that have private insurance (an area where USA sucks), there is a constant mental challenge. The work environment is not only about income. There are many mental / psychological / social benefits as well.
I also know several people who became rich through various means. None of them work full time or put in overtime, they end up working 20 to 30 hours each week, and they take frequent extended vacations, but they are still working. You mention photography. If that is your true passion in life then it might become your new part-time job.
If you're looking for a notable example of this, Minecraft's Notch, Markus Persson, wrote that after becoming a multi-billionaire selling Minecraft his life became a living hell. His social life was destroyed because money effected everything, he didn't have his work or his life passion, he spends time waiting for his friends (who have jobs and families) to have time, and he occasionally writes here on reddit about his struggles to keep his life interesting or feeling motivated to keep his life filled with interesting things.
Personally, if somehow my bank account had 9 or 10 figures I know I would still keep my job, but instead of a 40 hour work week it would probably become a MWF 10-3 kind of job. Enough that I could keep my sanity and my social benefits, and enough it would still make me emotionally value my free time.
//TODO: Think of witty sig statement
I knew a guy that was a seasonal worker. He'd work for ~6 months in the spring/summer so he could hit the slopes wherever and whenever he wanted for the rest of the year. While I like my job and coworkers, I'm actually a bit envious that he was able to do that.
Go ahead and ask any retiree too, that "free time" gets filled up quick.
This is kind of the reason we dont like hiring people with family money. They have no commitment to the job. We need to be able to plan on the person being around to do their job when the going gets tough.
In other words, we want them desperate, not invested!
OK, here's your purpose: find a purpose. Make a full-time job out of it.
Look around. What interests you? people, things? animals? making stuff?
If you like dealing with people, consider some of the old standbys. Toastmasters, the various "Loyal order of Water Buffalo" organizations, food banks, Habitat for Humanity, check out Meetup for local groups and see if any of them are doing things that interest you. Maybe join a local amateur sports team.
If you like things, how do you like them? making them? collecting them? both? Here again, there are places you can go and/or stuff you can buy and play with - since you apparently aren't entirely lacking in funds.
Same with animals. Work on/buy a farm or ranch, consider raising alpacas, volunteer at an animal shelter, whatever.
Or travel, explore. Even if your budget is limited, you can travel virtually for free these days.
Grow things, even if it's just a balcony garden. Draw, craft, become an Internet curmudgeon - there's no expertise required beyond what you claim for yourself. Since you're already cooking, tune into some of the cooking shows on TV/Internet and learn how to cook like a pro from the pro's.
Become an artist - people will think you're unemployed anyway. Buy a 3d printer and play with it. Sculpt, paint, bend wire, draw, make art using chainsaws and/or explosives.
If you're depressed, and can't explore, then you can spend your time and money talking to mental health professionals. It's good for the economy.
It's a big world and there are plenty of things to do. Finding a direction and getting started is the hard part.
Also depends on your lifestyle and how much waste you have in it.
You don't need a new iPhone/Galaxy every year. You don't need $100+ dollar a month cell/smartphone plans. You don't need cable subscriptions to every channel in the universe... a lot of "How much do I need to retire?" questions need to be scrutinized through the lens of "What kind of lifestyle do you expect to have?"