I knew a guy (via the internet) a long time ago who seemed to be fairly successful in IT and real estate. He was making low/mid 6 figures for a lot of years. Since no one lies on the internet about anything, especially finances, I assume he was doing pretty well financially.
He once said something along the lines of money is really only good for 2 things, freedom and luxury. Money allows you to travel and not be chained to a job, and it also buys you a higher standard of living with more options.
Thinking of this recently, I don’t agree that is all money can buy you. Among other things it buys you power/influence and resiliency.
Paul Allen (co-founder of microsoft) has a mother with Alzheimer’s disease. So he went out and donated a small fraction of his wealth (maybe 1-2%) to starting neuroscience research institutes to figure out how the brain works, and making the research public. If a regular person gets interested in that kind of subject for whatever reason, the best they can hope for is writing a letter to the editor of a paper and donating some disposable income. Bill Gates too, he is interested in global poverty so now he gets to go out and make a meaningful difference on the subject. Rich people can influence politicians, fight diseases, fund social movements, make a difference in a cause they believe in, etc. Stuff most people can’t do on their own.
Plus if something bad happens, people with money always do well (resiliency). In the global recession the rich are doing better than they were before while everyone else still suffers. If climate change causes mass suffering, most of that suffering will be among poor people (in the developing world), wealthy people will not be affected.
This is tossing aside a saga in a sentence. A higher standard of living, finding someone nice to procreate with, and providing for the resulting crotchfruit are what motivate 90% of people’s actions.
I’m going to go with your internet buddies ‘freedom’. Certainly luxury goes along with that, but to me money is the means to open up ones choices and give one the freedom to make those choices. I make pretty good money. Nothing like what I made during the dot com boom times, but adequate to my needs. I still have to work, however. My one shot at independent wealth died when the series of companies I was vested in and had large amounts of stock in went from 48/share to something like .21/share. I received a check for around $12,000.00 when the chapter 11 was done, and I was out of a job, along with a lot of other network engineer types. Feel free to do the math. The point, though is that I have to work to make a living. However, my salary opens up options for me and my family. I can, for instance, vacation pretty much anywhere in the world, and try and do at least one cruise a year to different places. If I had more wealth I’d have more options. Less wealth and I have less options. Simple as that.
No, it doesn’t buy happiness. I know quite a few wealthy people (my dad is one), and I can say from experience that wealth doesn’t make one happy. Most of the wealthy people I know are, in fact, driven people who obsess about work (my dad is one), and their wealth doesn’t translate into automatic happiness. What it DOES do, however, is give them greater freedom for their choices. They can, within the limits of their wealth, live where they want to…where they choose to. They can, again within their limits, go where they want to, and buy what they want to, and live their lives as they want to, cultivate the hobbies or interests they want to, etc etc. That’s what money actually gets you, IMHO…that freedom and wider range of choice.
You can buy a legacy in any number of ways – have a statue built to yourself, or build something so large and permanent that you will be remembered (but not forever - see Ozymandius). I know people who have used their considerable funds to adopt children through a complex international adoption process. They have a legacy not available to other couples their age (when it becomes difficult to conceive) without those resources.
IMHO, you’re not looking at this in quite the right way…
Money doesn’t provide ANYTHING. Money isn’t even wealth.
All money is…is a tool. It’s a tool with which one can control ones environment. With money one may acquire goods and services (wealth) as well as influence others and alter the world. However, like any tool, without intelligent direction, the largest pile of money in the world can accomplish little of any value.
True. As Homer Simpson would say, money can be exchanged for goods and services. And what a person can do with those are very complex.
But again, it seems like there are a finite number of productive things you can do. You can get freedom, a higher standard of living, power/influence and resiliency.
And even on a non-joking level, money certainly helps. Money is like good looks - it doesn’t guarantee you’ll find true love but it greatly increases your dating pool and improves the odds you’ll find true love.
Only rich people get married and have kids? I think sex motivates people far more than a higher standard of living, assuming they have become comfortable where they are.
This. I don’t care much for luxury or display. Money buys peace of mind. Having money means you don’t have to worry about an unexpected expense, or being able to retire. I’ve never lost a night’s sleep because of money in the past 30 years, and that is reason enough to be happy.
Ehh, I always thought the added people would be pretty meaningless, since (to me) it would, by definition, be made up of people who only cared about the money — i.e., someone who’d take you for all they could and then dump you for someone they were actually physically attracted to.
It’s all about status. And it’s been with us pretty much for as long as we’ve been human. Higher status males (or females) have a larger pool of potential mates than lower status males/females. That doesn’t mean that lower status males/females don’t get mates, just that the potential pool is smaller for them. The higher up you go on the status chain the more choices…the lower, the fewer choices. Having more choices doesn’t mean you will automatically be happier, nor does having fewer choices mean you will be miserable.
I can only speak about my personal experience, but I’ve come to realize that money can buy more money. Yep. Let me explain.
I’m comfortable financially, no where near wealthy, but comfortable, and since starting my business last year I’ve become slightly more so. I’m pretty much the same guy I was 25 years ago. The differences are that I am no longer broke, the amount of experience I have, perhaps a little more confidence, and the perception I leave clients, potential clients, and potential investors of my and my company’s ability to make money.
For just one example of what I mean, I find when I take a potential client on my boat that it is easier to sell them on my services, that I have to jump through fewer hoops, and that my dog and pony show requires just one puppy. Now, I’m not a charm machine, never have been. I’m not a great schmoozer, and definitely not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I do well with people who make a lot more money than I do partially due to a perception of my company and, to a lesser extent, me, that we and I make money. My point is without the trappings of success it is doubtful the doors opening to me now would be. Whoever it was who said ‘nothing breeds success like success’ was correct. The more money you have, the more money you can have, and obtain it easier.
The broke, studio apartment dwelling, subway riding, student loan laden, daily cup-a-soup eating me of 25 years ago could not have achieved what I can today. Of course I’m not everyone, and there are well-to-do 20-somethings, but I wasn’t one of them, and it wasn’t for lack of trying, let me tell ya. I worked as hard then as I do now. It was for lack of moolah.
Larry King once asked Burt Lancaster a similar question. King pointed out there were only so many steaks one could eat etc. Lancaster said the money bought him time. For example, he could pay people to take his luggage ahead and check into hotels for him. Claimed that with all the time freed up by being able to pay people to provide mundane and some not-so-mundane services, he had the time to live the equivalent of two lifetimes.