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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've seen people hit the lottery for $5 million, quit their job, and come back in a year poor. I can retire on a tenth of that, even planning for long-term inflation.
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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.
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There's research that shows that there's a point where your salary desire is sated, and more money while nice ceases to be the primary reason you work. In other words, once people are compensated at 100k/year they are more likely to be motivated by ping-pong tables and free soda type perks than 101k/year, even if the 1k is worth more.
Obviously, the majority of people have not hit that level yet.
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This is exactly true. I do many things for a buck, but I wouldn't do what I presently do. I would like to think I'd be productive and busy, but I would be doing the parts of the job I want to do, and either abdicating or paying someone to do the nasty stuff.
The salary thing is a red herring. HR usually uses that to justify low (i.e. "market") wages. But they neglect engagement and retention. When paid market wages I tend to optimize the "life" part of work/life balance, and consider my job to be fairly disposable (i.e. I won't put up with a lot of crap, and don't think twice about calling a moron a moron). If I were rich I would never take such a job, which is ironic considering I don't need the money, but such places tend to have very bottom line attitudes about the parts of the job I enjoy too.
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.
Exactly. I was suddenly rich I wouldn't stop work. Well, only for a year or so. But the work I went on to do would then be something I enjoyed, no matter how badly paid it was. I would forever be in the position of never having to worry about losing the job, or being able to quit if I decided I didn't like it.
This is why born-rich politicians (pointing no fingers) will never be able to understand the working lives of the rest of us. They've never been in the position where losing a job is disastrous. They've always had the luxury of choosing what job they'd like, to what degree, and taking a break from it all whenever suits them. That freedom truly changes the nature of your working life entirely.
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 frankly don't know if I'd even notify them I was leaving I might just never return....
Ok, I'd tell them, I'm not *that* much an ass, but it illustrates my feelings.
I work for one and ONLY ONE reason, to make money to support the style of life I enjoy when not working. Period, cut dried simple.
If I had enough money to never have to work again, I would not. I have PLENTY of things I'd rather be doing with my time. 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've heard of people that for some reason, associate their self identity with their work...and I've actually seen this happen, often to older men who retire and just seem to lose part of themselves. I thought, however that this was mainly the product of older generations.
But my work, and I made a very decent living, is purely mercenary. I don't care about the work, other than doing it of as high quality I can to get paid for it. If the customer is happy, then they pay me and keep me around.That's it. I have no love for my work or vocation.
I'd certainly NOT be doing any of this at all if I didn't have to do it for a living.
I just can't imagine the mindset of someone, that could not find the world entertaining enough, to find things to do if they had their fiscal needs met for a lifestyle they like, and not have to work any more.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
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.
You know, a few years ago, I had about a 7 month gap in between contracting gigs.
My typical day was, wake up, walk the dog....jump on my motorcycle and hit the gym for a couple of hours.
I'd come back home, have some lunch, look for jobs about an hour or so, and then often after showering and dressing, I'd jump on my motorcycle and run around town (living in New Orleans). I spent days seeing the art museums, WW2 museum, all sorts of neat things. I might have left out earlier and met friends for lunch somewhere....
Usually by about 3-4pm, I'd usually meet some friends at one of our MANY fine drinking establishments, for a few...and then come home, etc.
For 7 months, lather, rinse, repeat. I had NO problem finding things to do.
I thought to myself, "Man, if I won the lottery, this would likely be a large part of my life, and hell, if I got tired of this, I could always take a vacation.
Seriously....how could anyone get bored with all the money they ever need, and a bit of imagination?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
for about 17 years that was my case.
I recently was laid off as my team moved to Israel (among other things) but in fact I felt like I was paid money to go play all day.
I only *worked* maybe 4-8 hours a month (meetings... ick), the rest of the time I did things I found so engaging and fun that I would often forget to take breaks, go to lunch, go home... I literally had to set an alarm on my computer to remind me of such things.
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I hit the proverbial startup lottery to the tune of ~$12M two years ago (was very early employee at a company that eventually IPOed). I'm still gainfully employed in the same job I had before. Dunno what else to do with myself. Have a wife and kids and just don't like the prospect of quitting and doing fuck all. Might eventually start my own company at some point, but haven't figured out what I'd do yet.
To be honest, you'd be surprised how much things go back to normal in terms of your psychology and long-term plans if you can make it through the first year post-windfall without doing anything foolish (which I mostly did).
I can honestly say I'm no happier or fulfilled now than I was before this happened, though I live in a slightly larger house that I own (instead of rent) and I drive a newer car. The financial things I worry about are shifted as I no longer have to worry about saving for college or a house, but all the other things in my life are mostly unchanged and still present challenges (e.g. getting along with spouse, worrying about kids development, losing weight, staying healthy).
Now that I've been on both sides, I can say that money doesn't solve a lot of problems, but when we don't have much, we tend to assume it will solve more problems than it actually does.
I sold out of a company a few years back and got a bit of cash (though not enough to retire) and lots of free time. I did that stuff for a little while, but then got bored and started another company. Basically, you are right, but the inherent problem was that all my friends were not in the same position as myself. I could imagine back at the start of my career, when everyone didn't have families, mortgages etc, it would have been a lot more fun. But people get really busy in middle age and basically you either have to go hang out with retired people, or get used to hanging out by yourself a whole lot.
In contrast, many friends who had worked themselves into senior positions at big companies had extensive social lives based almost entirely around their workmates and business activities. Personally I found that a bit odd but it is just the way things are now, particularly in tech. If you have made it yourself outside such circles, then it is quite a lonely existence, and this was part of why I just went back into business much earlier than I really needed too.
Let's say you win $5M. After taxes you get about $2.5M.
You take it as an annuity and record it as income of at least $18,000 plus 2% inflation (so at least 40,000 over 40 years). That $18,000 goes into a 401(k), either by satellite employment or by creating a sole proprietorship and financing yourself. With an SP, you can put up to $120k into your 401(k) as a 100% match of your declared salary to yourself.
When you reach retirement age and take it out, you pay retirement-age taxes on it. That's usually less, notably because that $18,000 is the top of your tax bracket, and it comes off the bottom of an inflated bracket. For us non-lotto-winners making e.g. $60k-$100k, the top $18k faces 25% in Federal taxes excluding social security; in retirement, the bottom tax bracket will be $20k instead of $9k for today's new entrants, so they'll put $18k in and save 25% on it, then take $50k out at a rate of $12k x 0% (standard deduction, single, 2060) + $20k x 10% + $18k x 15%.
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There are so many people out there who are dirt poor and somehow manage to live through retirement.
How many of those people deliberately planned to live "dirt poor" in retirement? Not many.
After my mother passed away from breast cancer, my father sold everything and bought a trailer home for $10,000 and paid $400 per month for trailer spot. He lived on his $1,000 per month pension, banked his $1,000 per month Social Security benefits for eight years. When he was diagnosed with throat cancer and died six weeks later, all the money he saved from Social Security paid his hospital bills and funeral expenses.
For my father, this was an ideal retirement as he died with no debts and wasn't a financial burden to the family. For my older brother, he thought it was embarrassing that his step-father died poor from not pursuing the American Dream of having it all. For me, I thought my father was a perfect example of living a modest lifestyle.