I was just reading an article about formerly wealthy people who lost all their money. The article was discussing whether they’d have been better off never having been wealthy in the first place.
On the one hand, a year of living the good life is like a free gift. On the other hand, it could make the rest of your life seem worse in comparison than it would have otherwise.
So here’s the offer. You have an opportunity to live far beyond your means for exactly one year. You will live a lifestyle equivalent to about a thousand times above your current financial level. You can live in a mansion, cruise on a yacht, have a full staff of servants, travel around the world, eat gourmet meals, go out clubbing every night, buy yourself a complete line of action figures, whatever you’d want to do if you were a multi-millionaire.
The catch is after one year, you go back to where you are now. Anything you bought has to be returned.
Would you find the loss of all these luxuries to be more painful than the enjoyment of having had them?
Would I know that I’d lose it all in a year? Sure. I would make sure to remind myself every morning that the wealth is only temporary. I think that would be much better than losing it all unexpectedly.
It would be interesting to see what kinds of people you met that year - and still stayed friends with afterward.
If you could travel the world for an entire year and do absolutely anything with all of your friends and family in tow, with absolutely no repurcussions at all, would you?
Not at all. I doubt I’d buy all that much in a year - I’d probably spend it traveling the world instead. I assume I get to keep the memories and experiences.
Agreed. The main problem in those scenarios is that they didn’t know it would happen.
Now, if the question was being really rich for a year, and being well-enough off over a much longer time, I’d take the latter in a heart beat. But when either way the results will be the same come next year, why not take the one that lets me have more fun?
Sneaky plan, I suppose. A year’s sabbatical studying and working on open source software would do wonders for my career.
I’ll take a room at a (or a series of) quiet resorts, a state of the art laptop, multiple monitors, a comfy chair, room service, all the hardware (smartphones etc. ) I feel like playing with, all the dev kits etc…
You can take back the stuff but you can’t take back the knowledge - unless you were planning on wiping my memories and somehow erasing all my notes (which won’t be as easy as you might think…)
Sure I’d do it. I’d meet lots of people, make lots of contacts, and, after the year was up, I’d still have the memories, and maybe the contacts can steer me right.
But that’s only half the reason. They’ve done studies on this. People are extremely loss-averse. They do not react well to sudden downward shifts in their standard of living. Even very small changes in this standard are felt very deeply. I wouldn’t want to put myself through that.
I think I would, but not because “it’s better than nothing”. I would treat my family to the traveling mentioned already by others.
I think I would have to keep working that year, because I would not want to lose touch with all my clients. And I am gonna need them when the year is over.
I plan on getting lots of medical work done I can’t afford now. I also plan on hiring personal trainers to get me as far ahead as they can in health and tutors for as much as I can handle learning for a year. You can’t take the results away.
I admit the ‘‘traveling for a year’’ scenario is very tempting. There is something to be said for the intrinsic value of experiences you couldn’t otherwise afford. Some very wealthy relatives once bought me a luxury cruise along the Mediterranean coastline, and I lived like a truly rich person for three weeks. I saw things I otherwise would have never seen – La Sagrada Familia in Spain, Michelangelo’s David in Florence, the Acropolis in Greece, the streets of Venice. Now that it’s over all I can think is, ‘‘I’m so grateful I had that experience. It was breathtaking.’’ Increase that three weeks to a year, and I can see it being a good thing.
It would be harder to maintain that sense that ‘‘this isn’t permanent’’ for the duration of a year though. That’s what concerns me.
I would be fine with it. I don’t care about having things but I’d love to have a year of traveling.
One thing though. I really need surgery. Would I be able to have that? Would what I’d have removed be put back at the end of the year?
Ah heck yeah I’d do it either way! It would be FUN. My girls would have some awesome memories. I’ve been in a fairly financially stable marriage, so I had my time having money then lost it. I adapted just fine. I’d adapt again just fine.
Being as the consensus seems to be yes, a follow-up question.
How much would the fact that you knew you only had a year of wealth effect how you spent the year? Would you try to get things done off some bucket list or would you try to relaxe and take it one day at a time?
I’d certainly take the year of living grandly.
Question:
If during my rich year I give all sorts of nice stuff to various people, do they have to give this up when the year is over?
If so, this scheme doesn’t work - all those folks with whom I spent vast amounts of money are suddenly screwed.
If not, then my plan is obvious: buy vacation homes, fancy cars, airplanes, artwork, wine cellars, etc. for all my friends. (If necessary, this would be in the form of a transaction: “Here’s an absolutely pristine P-51 and a hangar at your local airfield in which to keep it. In return, you have to buy me a nice dinner.”) At the end of the year, I’m back to normal circumstances, but have enough super-grateful friends to keep me welcome for quite some time.
It’s already been stated, but yeah. For the travel. I’d try to avoid buying a lot of things because of the loss factor, but I could essentially take a year off of work and see the planet. I don’t see how I’d pass that up.
There are plenty of things I would love to do that I’ll probably only get to do once in my life. I’m fine with that.
