We never seem to have enough money… ever.
At least two other blogger friends recently addressed this issue, with reference to this New York Times article about millionaires who don’t feel *rich*, and expressed somewhat similar thoughts.
Lazy @ Lazy Man and Money says:
It’s human nature to want to live in the style of those in your surroundings.
Wanda @ Well-Heeled says:
… but our perspective is born of the environment we live in. Growing up in a middle-class family in the U.S., I am wealthier than 80% of the population in the world. Yet how many times during the day do I take a step back and appreciate that fact?
I think it goes beyond just our present environment. It’s some kind of a drive (greed?) that keeps us humans striving for more wealth. Once you are richer than the people around you, you will try to move to a *richer* neighborhood and then start competing with even richer people.
First, the environment changes your perspective, and then your modified perspective makes you move to another environment and the whole thing starts again.
It’s not like these rich folks do not appreciate that they are making more money than most other people in the world, it’s just that they can’t stop competing with the richer guy next door.
One of the Silicon Valley workers mentioned in the NY Times article succinctly describes this phenomenon:
.. it all looks like a marathon with no finish line.
“Here, the top 1 percent chases the top one-tenth of 1 percent, and the top one-tenth of 1 percent chases the top one-one-hundredth of 1 percent,†he said.
Also, I don’t think this tendency is limited to the Silicon Valley, or to the US for that matter. People all over the world are trapped in such rat races when it comes to money, precious metals, real estate, and other material possessions.
Now, it’s a pity that this persistent struggle to be better than the rest comes only out of the want of more wealth. For everything else we have strict definitions of “enough” - for example, “enough” charitable donations to minimize your taxes and things of that sort. 
Anyways, here are some questions that are floating around my mind since I read the article:
- Where does the rat race for wealth end?
- When do you know that you are “wealthy enough”? - wealthy enough to not worry about accumulating more money, wealthy enough to stop working 70 hours a week, wealthy enough to follow our dreams instead of the moolah.
- Is the rat race really about wealth? or is it about ego? or is it about envy? or is it about “showing off” your wealth gathering capabilities to the rest of the world? or is it about reassuring yourselves about your wealth gathering capabilities?
Care to shed some light on this? When would you know you have enough?
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Can we please move on to another topic. If I see another post on this NY times Article, I will vomit.
and I think this “rat race” or how do we measure wealth topic has been blogged to death.
passerby: You probably need to chill out a bit.
Why don’t you watch some Jim Cramer for a bit of entertainment. Here is the link:
http://www.thetaoofmakingmoney.com/2007/08/07/465.html
need to Chill out? yeah maybe…
But I think my comment is still true, there has been more than enough PF blog coverage on this one article.
And the topic on Rat race and wealth measurement… more than enough posts on it, too.
But I think people like repeat themselves. so have fun!
passerby: I hear you. There is repetition among PF blogs (and at times, I myself don’t like it much), but we need to keep in mind that at not all the audience of these blogs overlap, views and opinions on issues differ - at times, it gives rise to a very rich discussion with numerous other readers sharing their input - so yeah, it sucks to have content repetition, but it helps to look at the positive side.
When will I have enough? When I can dump it all into CD’s and just live off the interest.
Fortunately I’m not much into “things” so it will probably take me a little less time than some of my contemporaries.
I’ll know I’m wealthy enough to stop working 70 hour weeks when my boss tells me so, and not a minute sooner.
Unfortunately, my boss also signs my paychecks.
The problem is that you will never get enough. I did the experience myself by working 2 jobs. Here was my plan: I was making 30K with my regular job and 12K with my second job. So it was as simple as quitting the second job when I reached 42K with my first job. I took 2 babies and the fact that I am starting an MBA to quit my second job. I worked 2 jobs for 6 years despite the fact that I was making 42K 9 months I started my first job. The lesson is: we always find something we want, so appreciate what you have and try not to kill yourself at work!
What you have will never be enough until you decide it is enough. We did this a while back. We started defining our priorities and seeking the minimal level of expenditures that provode a feeling of satisfaction. It’s an amazingly freeing practice.
Fear of death, my friend, fear of death.
Personaly, if you have 10 million net worth and are still working… you just plain like to work.
Perhaps instead of trying to accumulate wealth just for the sake of net worth, try to accumulate “cash flow”. When you build your passive cash flow to the point that it meets your expenses, then you will truly have options on what to do with you life. Money is not worth spending all your time doing something you don’t enjoy.
My observation on that NYT article was one of the guys at one point had an “on paper” worth of something like $50,000,000 and then it went way down to today where it’s “only” $5,000,000 yet he still has a huge mortgage to pay for.
What’s up with that?
If I hit it big with stock options or whatever, you can bet I’d cash out enough to pay cash for a house.
There’s no way you could convince me to carry a mortgage if I had the means to pay it all off.
Part of me thinks they deserve the life they are living if they still feel that way.
But among these financial blogger communities, it’s clear the majority feel differently than these “silicon valley poor rich.”
We never seem to be able to move past this article….ever.
But, yes, it’s relevant to people who are working themselves to an early grave. For what? You don’t take a dime of it with you when you die. Work on your soul instead, since you will be taking that.
Someone said, “Rich is hard. Just when you think you’ve gotten there, you realize you don’t quite have enough.” The person who knows how much “enough” is and can say s/he has it - THAT person is truly rich.
Golbguru,
Here’s one of my favorite quotes on the topic:
The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat. - Lily Tomlin
At some point, the choice is not whether to win or lose, it’s whether to continue being a “rat.”
Passerby has a point about it being everywhere. I almost didn’t post it because of that. Then I figured it would be wrong since I’m in Silicon Valley.
Anyway, I don’t see why people would want to move to a richer neighborhood. Maybe there’s a perception that it’s safer. Or maybe it’s because your peer rub off on you. Got smart peers? You’ll learn a thing or two. Got rich peers? Maybe it’ll rub off on you. Want to raise intelligent children? Give them a head start in a good school system.
Just wanted to point out that I only read this article today for the 1st time (a link to this blog from MillionDollarJourney) so I’m grateful for this post.
Even if, as I posted on his blog, the article made me throw up a little…in my mouth.
telly,
Then I think you need to read more newspapers or other sources of information than PF blogs.
passerby and passerby2: Does this ring a bell: “My Financial Blog”? It’s interesting that you would not encourage people to read PF blogs.
Totally agree, no matter how much money we have, we always change our lifestyle to meet that amount. So, we are in a constant state of always needing more money.
I am not encouraging people not to read PF blogs, I am encouraging people to read more other than PF blogs.
Not a bad thing to get more information in my opinion.
Passerby,
You’ll have to excuse me, as a Canadian, I tend to read Canadian based newspapers and Canadian PF blogs (where I found this link and none of which have discussed this article).
Did you read today’s article on Canada’s jobless rate report in The Globe & Mail? I didn’t think so.
I do hope you’re a little more polite & less presumptuous with your readers…
It is always better to work 60+ hours a week for 6$/hour and never get enough money. Why do you think that being rich is something very good? You think of it because you haven’t seen it from the other side. When you have a lot of money you are constantly thinking how and where to invest them and at least double them.
The best thing is being debt free.Agree?
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