Probiotic said...
The $50 k Cutoff is a bit low IMO but the idea applies at some point.
'
Agreed. I used to think like notsosicklygirl. Fly myself in my own gulfstream jet to Hawaii. Each morning good intentioned people make presentation for this orphanage or that school etc. Then money men come in and tell me how they are going to 'grow' my money. After lunch however my best friend comes in with the gameplan for fun for the rest of the day and I pay him handsomely to do that as his sole job and it needs to often involve attractive women.
But the reality is people loaded have more to manage and if they have less connectedness, less family less on the job FLOW etc they will be less happy. I could have married a millionaires daughter I dated thru high school and college and was seeing recently. She runs the business now and has surprisingly few friends and I do not think she has what it takes to be happy. She has a million dollar home and lots of money but not sure about
the basic ingredients for happiness.
You can easily be loaded and be miserable. I was surprised how much more work was required when I dumped 960 sq ft pad where I mailed out huge alimony checks and moved into 4,000 sq foot home. I remember the year I had my personal best income over 1/4 million and I impulsively bought a Meanstreak 1600 motorcycle and drove off the showroom floor leaving my truck behind. My whole life that chrome and black hog represented FREEDOM to me but it did not feel like freedom once I owned it. Cannot take anything home from store, have to strap your computer/backpack to it, dwarfed by automobiles. Rough idling V-engine. Jerky throttle from big engine - probably would like a BMW better thats how little airplane engines are made horizontally opposed and smooth. Death trap too. I can get my need-for-speed in a plane or a convertible and survive a wreck - not so in a bike accident.
Money can buy you out of misery - but it cannot buy you true happiness.
True happiness comes from things you create. Expanding your abilities, creating relationships and helping people move down the road in life.
I often tell my daughter that happiness is not something in life you can move directly toward. Shove coke up your nose and booze into ovblivion depression and suicide. Go indirectly toward happiness, increase your abilities HELP other people and next thing you know your feeling really good about
yourself and noticing how "Happy" you are.
I got pulled away but wanted to return and close by saying I blew through my personal best income year and the parts that made me happier were the things I created, I built an enormous beautiful 2nd story deck with mountain views off my kitchen entirely by myself. All the crap I bought did not really have a net return after unexpected costs associated with them. I do not remember most of what I did with the money - well I do remember the 70k tax bill that abruptly ended the run.
Post Edited (aguywithuc) : 6/20/2013 2:14:16 PM (GMT-6)