You didn’t win the lottery; you worked for a long time and earned it. That’s right you made your magic number! You reached critical mass! What is rich anyway? It means different things to different people. Is a millionaire rich? What is your definition of rich?
Whatever your definition, your reached your goal. What does it feel like? Is it what you thought it would be? What are you going to do now? Are you going to be like the multi-millionaire professional athletes, entertainers, rappers or Internet entrepreneurs? As soon as they came into their millions, they start collecting cars, buying houses, clothes and generally spending money. Are you going to change?
You reached your goal! Doesn’t it feel good? Are you going to do anything to reward yourself? I worked very hard for seven years to reach my goal and I thought it was time for a reward. A trip to Europe was in order, a piece of jewelry or a new car? What do you think? I did all of the above! I no longer own the car, the European vacation was by far the best of my life and I still own the watch. That is my reward, what would you do?
Would you quit your job? Maybe, you just sold your Internet company and you will live off the proceeds! Will you start over again? Invest in different companies, become a venture capitalist, or just invest the proceeds in the stock market? How you answer this question may affect the rest of your life. Mark Cuban started MicroSolutions and sold it to Compuserve for six million dollars. Then he started Broadcast.com and sold that company to Yahoo.com for five billion dollars. He took some of his proceeds to buy the Dallas Mavericks basketball team. He is still investing in various entertainment ventures. Apparently five billion dollars is not enough!
What is enough? I cannot answer that question because I keep increasing my goals. What is enough for you? This is an important question because it is tied to your goal. How will you know that you made it? I suppose you could write it out and that way you will know when you made it. The problem is goals change! You start out thinking you need X dollars to retire or achieve financial independence, but inflation or some other external factor affects your goal. The recent financial crisis certainly changed things for many people.
Maybe you exceeded your dreams, would you become a philanthropist? How would you give away your money? Maybe, set up an educational foundation for underachieving students? What purpose would your foundation have? Would you just use existing foundations or charities to give away your money or give your riches purpose? You could follow Bill Gates giving away most of your fortune to change education or health issues around the world.
Does money make you happy? Was it the money or reaching your goal that makes you happy? Now that you achieved your goal, are you going to spend any of it? How do you plan on spending it? Would a new car, bigger house or nicer vacation make you happy? What would make you happy? I learned money does not make me happy, but lack of money can make me very unhappy. Money is security, a scorecard, and a way to increase my experiences. What does money mean to you?
Does money change you? Will you just kick back and relax? In my case, I made gradual changes as I earned more money. When we would go out for dinner, we went from fast food to casual dining and occasionally fine dining. You change over time which means you get used to having money. This is important in contrast to instant lottery winners, a professional athlete or entertainer. You should be able to handle the transition better! So will you be like Mark Cuban and keep going, but in another direction or do nothing? Let me know what you are going to do?
Photo by: paul (dex)
A very thoughtful post! I don’t think I will ever be really rich. I am better at saving and the defensive strategy than making a lot of money. I wouldn’t change much because my frugal habit is set now. If I ever get rich, I would keep working for myself part time to have something to do. I don’t think I can just kick back and relax all day forever although the past month has been really nice. 🙂
Remember rich is however you define it! We could all use a little R & R, but not as a steady diet. If we did, our brains would go to mush.
Sometimes I think that the people who end up with the highest paid jobs are the people who are super passionate about their jobs. That means that even though they have the money to, they don’t try to save up and retire early, because working the day away is what keeps them happy…. It’s hard to commit your full energy to a job when you are also committing yourself to using that money to leave the workforce ASAP.
It is funny, because we made gradual changes just as you did as our income increased. When we first started going on vacation, we would stay a few blocks off the water to save money. Now we won’t go unless we can stay on the ocean. Our choices seemed to evolve over time, and you don’t even realize it.
I don’t think I will ever feel rich. One day, we will feel like we can afford to retire, but I think I will consider ourselves comfortable, and not rich. (Although by many people’s standards, we would probably be defined as rich at that point.)
I agree! As I asked, what is rich? It keeps changing for me.
I think you can do both! It may mean you just don’t leave or you just cut back. Although I plan on retiring (for the second time) from teaching, I am not sure I will. I will assess the situation when I am closer to it.
I donno what rich is b/c i don’t need or require much. Maybe rich is like $5 mil cash or $10 mil…. we don’t need that much to live a happy life!
Rich is however you define it! Money in itself never makes you happy, however lack of money can make you very unhappy.
I am not sure at which figure I would define rich at. Money to me is a means to provide the needs of my family and enough wants to keep life fun. My happiness comes from spending time with my family and friends and having a good time together in the backyard or playing a round of our favorite games in the house. I would consider myself rich when I can pay all my bills without worry, be completely debt free and have a savings account with enough to handle any emergency that may come my way. Even then I think I would continue to work or do something as I really don’t like being idle.
Rich is however you define it! As you reach your goals, you will raise your expectations, but keep your thoughts about the important things you do with your family. Those things are what really make us happy.
Rich to me is waking up and doing what I want, when I want, while still having health insurance.
Either you are the boss or self employed! The only other choice is retired from the very few careers (government) that offer lifetime medical. Either way, rich is as you define it. Are you working on it?
Money does not make me happy. Having and reaching goals does. Interacting with family and friends does. Seeing my hard work extend into the future does.
Are you saying money would not change you? For you, money would be security or freedom? I see it as a scorecard or a measurement of how well I did.