Why do people with millions of dollars still work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m not reading everything posted so far - but for me ($30m in bank)

I still work - personal fulfillment, leading ppl, teams. Sense of accomplishment and purpose.

Life is not only about getting up late; puttering around your house.

What is your legacy?

What does your business do. Most high income people are just helping movie money around in boring ways. They don't need us.

Real value is created for people who can't afford to pay cash for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Something to do. The life of idle luxury isn't as appealing as it may sound. The only people who get away with genuinely idle luxury are the very rich because they have an entire world and social set built around full time leisure.

Having 5-10M in the bank doesn't classify you as very rich, which means anywhere you live all your peers and neighbors will be working or doing something productive. So what are you going to do?

Recovery my health, volunteer at school or community project, mentor children, write about expertise, pro bono consulting in field...

[Anonymous]

People who have not idea what to do with their lives when no one tells them what to do, have to stay in the rut they've dug.

[Anonymous]

White males with professional jobs have the shortest life expectancy after retirement.

My two uncles who both retired at 75 one is alive at 91 the other died at 86.

My other 9 uncles. (My parents had big families all retired between 50-60 all dropped dead by 70.

Seems white men live 5-10 years after retirement regardless of age retired.

Also my job I have a big office, it is 9-5, one day a week WFH, I don’t make DCUM money but I get paid 250k a year and have medical, dental vision. I have no hobbies as I don’t like hobbies. Work is my hobby I guess.

I will do it till 67-70

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Go on the Reddit FATFIRE forum.

5 to 10 is not much to do anything and everything you want to do. Also depends on your lifestyle.


50… That’s the number I can get behind.

10M is still fatfire. $300k/year is absolutely fatfire. Especially if you have no mortgage and are no longer supporting children, both of which will be true for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For me it’s not even my work that I dislike, it’s everything else about it - the waking up early getting out of your warm bed on a cold dark winter morning, crappy long commute, have to answer to other people, being compelled to to go work even when you’re not feeling it that day, 5 days week, not having enough time for hobbies, exercise, home cooking, travel, spending time with your family - at least not without feeling like your life is hectic. WFH was supposed to fix some of this but now it’s going away in most places. Also NEEDING to live in a HCOL area with terrible traffic and everyone around you is an obsessive overachiever sucks too.

I ONLY work for money at this point, as soon as I have a few mil I’m gone. I don’t get people with 7+ million dollars who still choose to grind away their young healthy years in the rat race in, to be honest, a crappy city like DC (or any other HCOL area for that matter).

We have about 3.5M in various assets. I’d love to quit. I am only working for the money. The problem is just because we have that money we don’t have access to it. There would be tax penalties. I’d also not be able to afford to do the fun things. I also had kids late in life so still not sure what their needs will be. How would I pay for health insurance? What is there is a medical emergency or health problem.

It sucks. It is like I have enough but I don’t. I hate my job. My boss is mean. It is very busy. I have to do the work when they want me to do the work and not on my own time.

It totally get it. It would be too risky to quit. I am 50. Might never find something else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Something to do. The life of idle luxury isn't as appealing as it may sound. The only people who get away with genuinely idle luxury are the very rich because they have an entire world and social set built around full time leisure.

Having 5-10M in the bank doesn't classify you as very rich, which means anywhere you live all your peers and neighbors will be working or doing something productive. So what are you going to do?

Recovery my health, volunteer at school or community project, mentor children, write about expertise, pro bono consulting in field...

Those are all variants of working. You're just not paid for it. OP is asking why people still work.

[Anonymous]

I want to get to $1 billion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For me it’s not even my work that I dislike, it’s everything else about it - the waking up early getting out of your warm bed on a cold dark winter morning, crappy long commute, have to answer to other people, being compelled to to go work even when you’re not feeling it that day, 5 days week, not having enough time for hobbies, exercise, home cooking, travel, spending time with your family - at least not without feeling like your life is hectic. WFH was supposed to fix some of this but now it’s going away in most places. Also NEEDING to live in a HCOL area with terrible traffic and everyone around you is an obsessive overachiever sucks too.

I ONLY work for money at this point, as soon as I have a few mil I’m gone. I don’t get people with 7+ million dollars who still choose to grind away their young healthy years in the rat race in, to be honest, a crappy city like DC (or any other HCOL area for that matter).

We have about 3.5M in various assets. I’d love to quit. I am only working for the money. The problem is just because we have that money we don’t have access to it. There would be tax penalties. I’d also not be able to afford to do the fun things. I also had kids late in life so still not sure what their needs will be. How would I pay for health insurance? What is there is a medical emergency or health problem.

It sucks. It is like I have enough but I don’t. I hate my job. My boss is mean. It is very busy. I have to do the work when they want me to do the work and not on my own time.

It totally get it. It would be too risky to quit. I am 50. Might never find something else.

I'm sorry PP. Can you figure out a retirement date? It might help to see the light at the end of the tunnel?

[Anonymous]

I have much less— 2 m and change maybe, not counting our house— and i ask myself why I work. My husband i both work in nonprofits. I like the mission of my org but it’s not what drives me. It’s the mental exercise of the work, and the reason to put clothes on and shower (at least the two days in office.) my colleagues are meh, there’s not a great culture, there are some terrible people. I also work to make more for my kids, but honestly that for drive me either. We have enough, by our own measure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:White males with professional jobs have the shortest life expectancy after retirement.

My two uncles who both retired at 75 one is alive at 91 the other died at 86.

My other 9 uncles. (My parents had big families all retired between 50-60 all dropped dead by 70.

Seems white men live 5-10 years after retirement regardless of age retired.

Also my job I have a big office, it is 9-5, one day a week WFH, I don’t make DCUM money but I get paid 250k a year and have medical, dental vision. I have no hobbies as I don’t like hobbies. Work is my hobby I guess.

I will do it till 67-70

Anecdote =\= data.

Males have lower life expectancy than females.
There is a correlation between retirement and death but that’s in part due to casual factor that some people retire for health reasons.

No evidence that healthy early retirees die sooner or that race has anything to do with it.

[Anonymous]

For my part, $3.5 million and still working. Ask me again at $7-10.

[Anonymous]

Inflation. Anything under $10M is not necessarily comfortable.

[Anonymous]

I do BUT I'm fully remote and have flexible schedule. I'm a little neurotic type A and need structure and a (safe) place to be competitive and bossy. I don't want to be that PTA mom.

[Anonymous]

We are 58/53 with about $7M. I (DH) am done. I personally have no desire to work. Don't miss anything about it. DW still works at a high stress job out of choice and loves the punishment. More than likely we won't be touching the $7M for a while.. maybe another 7 years, by which time, I hope it's doubled. Even if that's not the case, inflation fu*ks things up, etc, we can always move back to where I came from since kids are all launched.. Have a house there and enough money to support an UMC lifestyle, but that's the backup plan.

I have no problem spending my time doing close to nothing and traveling occasionally.