Money can't buy happiness

[purbeast0]

IMO, with money comes great responsibility. Why do most lottery winners go broke? Because they don't know shit about money. They become irresponsible. And, it leads to conflicts. I also think it depends on where one is in their life. A 25 year old given a ton of cash is more likely to blow it on parties, a fast car, exotic vacation, etc. A 50 year old will probably let safeguard the money. I'm making generalizations here. But, you get my point.

Lottery winners go broke because the reason they are playing the lottery in the first place is they are poor and broke and aren't financially responsible or smart. Otherwise they wouldn't be playing the lottery.

 

[Exterous]

i can never do one of the "sit by the water and drink" vacations. if i'm not driving during vacation, i'm walking or hiking 5-10 miles per day.

We like to offset our busy ones with a relaxing one every 3rd or 4th vacation. We're long overdue for a relaxing vacation though - we were going to spend some time on Caribbean beaches next spring but a stupid cheap airfare to Italy came up. I guess we'll rest when we're dead or something like that...

Lottery winners go broke because the reason they are playing the lottery in the first place is they are poor and broke and aren't financially responsible or smart. Otherwise they wouldn't be playing the lottery.

Thats not necessarily true - plenty are robbed, kidnapped and killed, often by family and friends. Awhile back there was a story about how there are groups that follow lottos closely so they know who to go prey on - everything from constant break ins to 'falling' on the sidewalk. Winning the lotto in a state where you have to be public carries a pretty high level of risk

Dampier was kidnapped and shot in the back of his head by Jackson (sister) and her boyfriend around seven years after winning the jackpot.

Urooj Khan: Poisoned with cyanide. The 46-year-old Chicagoan dropped dead the day after he won $1 million in 2012. An autopsy revealed that Khan died of cyanide poisoning. Both his sister-in-law and her father were suspected to be involved in his death but no one was ever charged.

William "Bud" Post III:his own brother was arrested for hiring a man to kill him.

Abraham Shakespeare: Murdered by a newfound friend

 

[JEDI]

I read through a bunch of lengthy AskReddit threads one time on various wealth questions...what's it like being rich, how has going from poor to rich affected your life, etc. The TL;DR takeaway was "money doesn't make you happy, but it sure makes living in misery a lot more comfortable." One of the more interesting stories I've read in recent times was about Notch, who sold Minecraft to Microsoft for billions:

http://www.wired.co.uk/article/notch-net-worth-isolation-twitter-outburst

Some choice quotes:

"When we sold the company, the biggest effort went into making sure the employees got taken care of, and they all hate me now."

whoa.. why do his employees hate him now?

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

I'm definitely not more miserable, but if there is one thing I have noticed since I've become more wealthy - I start to hate spending money.

Perfect example: Wife wants a new car - there is no real good reason for it, it's not an emergency, her car isn't broken down - but she wants a slightly bigger car that can carry our infant easier, and she just wants a "newer" one. In my mind, all that is running through my head is how cars are the most depreciating asset one can buy, so I'm already counting my losses.

In the end I'm just weighing my pros and cons, I'll drive my beater till the wheels fall off, and I consider the expense worthy for the sake of making the wifey happy.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah I'm the same way when it comes to cars, even though on paper I could probably afford to buy new, I just can't justify that cost. I rather save up and buy a used car with cash and not have any kind of debt on it. Cars depreciate too fast and whether they are new or old they all need to get repairs etc .

 

[brianmanahan]

"When we sold the company, the biggest effort went into making sure the employees got taken care of, and they all hate me now."

whoa.. why do his employees hate him now?

i think because they only got a few hundred K each and thought they deserved way more

 

[Jeeebus]

Something else that money can buy... toilet ass raping. Perhaps the most terrifying experience of my life, but it was there, so figured why not?

 

[Jeeebus]

dibs on Jeeebus stuff. That cliff looks scary tall. No way I would voluntary jump off that. They would have to kill me first and then throw me off.

didn't make it to the beach today. We did a boat ride around the Napali Coast which was amazing. Saw where some scenes from Jurassic Park were filmed. Worth every penny for the tour. Had a pod of around 500 spinner dolphins around us for 20 minutes.

 

[brianmanahan]

Something else that money can buy... toilet ass raping. Perhaps the most terrifying experience of my life, but it was there, so figured why not?

dude, you owe it to yourself to buy a bidet for a home toilet. best sub-100$ purchase in my entire life, no contest. maybe the best sub-500$ purchase.

i got one for 30$ on amazon and it revolutionized my life.

every time i go to a hotel without a bidet i feel like a savage.

 

[brianmanahan]

didn't make it to the beach today. We did a boat ride around the Napali Coast which was amazing. Saw where some scenes from Jurassic Park were filmed. Worth every penny for the tour. Had a pod of around 500 spinner dolphins around us for 20 minutes.

 

[Red Squirrel]

dude, you owe it to yourself to buy a bidet for a home toilet. best sub-100$ purchase in my entire life, no contest. maybe the best sub-500$ purchase.

i got one for 30$ on amazon and it revolutionized my life.

every time i go to a hotel without a bidet i feel like a savage.

It's crossed my mind to get one, maybe whenever I build a bathroom in the basement I'll do it. If I like it, I'll swap it with the upstairs toilet. Can they still be used like a normal toilet though? I'm thinking for like if I have guests who may not want the full water experience. 😛

 

[highland145]

I'm definitely not more miserable, but if there is one thing I have noticed since I've become more wealthy - I start to hate spending money.

Perfect example: Wife wants a new car - there is no real good reason for it, it's not an emergency, her car isn't broken down - but she wants a slightly bigger car that can carry our infant easier, and she just wants a "newer" one. In my mind, all that is running through my head is how cars are the most depreciating asset one can buy, so I'm already counting my losses.

In the end I'm just weighing my pros and cons, I'll drive my beater till the wheels fall off, and I consider the expense worthy for the sake of making the wifey happy.

Thank God my wife doesn't "need" new cars.


She will drop a few grand on a trip though.🙁 "Hey, there's a conference that I need to go to." O.K. "I booked our flights and fb'ed your help. She's happy to cover for you." Shit.

Something else that money can buy... toilet ass raping. Perhaps the most terrifying experience of my life, but it was there, so figured why not?

Hey, the rich people do it so it must be the bomb. Right?

 

[Kaido]

"When we sold the company, the biggest effort went into making sure the employees got taken care of, and they all hate me now."

whoa.. why do his employees hate him now?

i think because they only got a few hundred K each and thought they deserved way more

Nah, iirc he always paid his employees well. When he got a $3 million dividend back in 2011, he distributed all of it to his employees. I think there were only around 40 workers when Microsoft bought them in 2014, so everyone probably got a nice $75k bonus:

http://www.minecraftforum.net/news/7645-notch-gives-3-million-to-mojang-employees

The only thing I really saw on the hate was this tidbit:

When we sold the company, the biggest effort went into making sure the employees got taken care of, and they all hate me now.

...

One Mojang employee responds that he only hated Persson during the initial shock of him leaving, but Persson rejects that, saying “nobody reached out and said it was just initial shock.

Microsoft bought out the stakes of the top three guys for like $2.5 billion (I think Notch got something like $1.7 billion) & then they abruptly left. So imagine working at a startup, the startup goes huge ($80 million within 2 years of starting the company) but the core crew stays small, and then two years after that, the three founders suddenly disappear with huge payouts. I've read he gave each employee like $300k when he left, so it's not like people didn't make out financially (which, as employees, was not a payout they were entitled to). But I saw a BTS video of working at Mojang back in the day & it seemed like a pretty tight-knit crew, so I think it was most of how the culture changed from having their fearless leader disappear out of the blue.

I really feel more bad for Notch. It sounds like the employees got a nice payday and basically a lifetime job at Microsoft, whereas Notch made bank but lost his work friends & pretty much got isolated from everyone else due to his wealth. I remember reading articles about him buying a $70 million home in California, throwing lavish parties, and realizing nobody was really there to be his friend, but just for his money. We're social creatures...even us introverts talk online on forums & chatrooms to get our social fix now & then. Flying solo into billions & getting cut off from society like that would probably make a lot of people get kinda depressed, especially if you don't have a tight family background or close friends or a S.O.

 

[shortylickens]

We like to offset our busy ones with a relaxing one every 3rd or 4th vacation. We're long overdue for a relaxing vacation though - we were going to spend some time on Caribbean beaches next spring but a stupid cheap airfare to Italy came up. I guess we'll rest when we're dead or something like that...



Thats not necessarily true - plenty are robbed, kidnapped and killed, often by family and friends. Awhile back there was a story about how there are groups that follow lottos closely so they know who to go prey on - everything from constant break ins to 'falling' on the sidewalk. Winning the lotto in a state where you have to be public carries a pretty high level of risk

I never understood this. If it sucks so bad to have money why dont they dump it all in a Swiss bank account and keep living normally?
Or do they not realize it sucks until they are in deep shit?

 

[Tweak155]

I never understood this. If it sucks so bad to have money why dont they dump it all in a Swiss bank account and keep living normally?
Or do they not realize it sucks until they are in deep shit?

Likely because just having the money can cause the problems. People view you differently if they know you're beyond wealthy.

I always thought the ideal situation would be that I somehow inheritied a ton of money (I.E lotto let's say) and no one knew about it but my wife. But even as I think about that, I couldn't help out close family members without them asking questions. I can see where the isolation comes from.

 

[shortylickens]

Likely because just having the money can cause the problems. People view you differently if they know you're beyond wealthy.

I always thought the ideal situation would be that I somehow inheritied a ton of money (I.E lotto let's say) and no one knew about it but my wife. But even as I think about that, I couldn't help out close family members without them asking questions. I can see where the isolation comes from.

Yeah it seems like the main problem is the publicity. But the lotto commision NEEDS propaganda to keep the machine running. People wont buy tickets if they never see anyone winning.

 

[purbeast0]

Thats not necessarily true - plenty are robbed, kidnapped and killed, often by family and friends. Awhile back there was a story about how there are groups that follow lottos closely so they know who to go prey on - everything from constant break ins to 'falling' on the sidewalk. Winning the lotto in a state where you have to be public carries a pretty high level of risk

I'm betting those examples of people you gave were poor and stupid before they won the lottery, which is why they played it in the first place.

 

[Exterous]

Likely because just having the money can cause the problems. People view you differently if they know you're beyond wealthy.

Yeah its the knowledge of who won not the money itself. People get weird about money and many are more prone to jealousy and envy than they realize

 

[Exterous]

I'm betting those examples of people you gave were poor and stupid before they won the lottery, which is why they played it in the first place.

Right - because there are no examples of the same thing happening to wealthy and smart people when they get huge sums of money from inheritance or selling their company. 🙄

 

[purbeast0]

Right - because there are no examples of the same thing happening to wealthy and smart people when they get huge sums of money from inheritance or selling their company. 🙄

I'm not sure what relevance that has to do with anything I said. I didn't even say anything about wealthy or smart people.

 

[Exterous]

I'm not sure what relevance that has to do with anything I said. I didn't even say anything about wealthy or smart people.

You said they go poor and are broke because they are poor and not smart. Yet not only is it frequently due to factors completely unrelated to their intelligence or previous wealth there are plenty of cases where people go broke after getting large sums of money despite being smart and wealthy.

 

[purbeast0]

You said they go poor and are broke because they are poor and not smart. Yet not only is it frequently due to factors completely unrelated to their intelligence or previous wealth there are plenty of cases where people go broke after getting large sums of money despite being smart and wealthy.

But they never would have played the lottery in the first place if they weren't poor or were smart. That's my point.

 

[brianmanahan]

But they never would have played the lottery in the first place if they weren't poor or were smart. That's my point.

i know at least 5 people who aren't poor who play the lottery

 

[purbeast0]

i know at least 5 people who aren't poor who play the lottery

They fall into the stupid category then.

 

[brianmanahan]

If I like it, I'll swap it with the upstairs toilet. Can they still be used like a normal toilet though? I'm thinking for like if I have guests who may not want the full water experience. 😛

yeah the cheap amazon ones are just an addon fixture to a regular toilet, operated manually off to the side.