Why do people with millions of dollars still work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in my mid-40s with about $3 mil. I plan to work at least 25 more years. Only in the last 5 years or so has our HHI approached 7 figures and I gotta say - I like this level of income, a lot. I'm able to save well, but also just do these amazing things I could never do before. Big trips with our family and not stressing out while on those trips about what things cost. I like being able to buy whatever clothes I want to buy without factoring in cost that much. I love living in a beautiful home and being able to furnish it nicely and improve it when it needs improving. I love being able to treat others - take my kids and their friends to a major league game, take my mother on a long weekend together and cover all expenses. Someone commented earlier that no one needs more than $140k or something like that and I agree, I don't NEED more than that to survive, but now that I've experienced this higher level of income, my goal is to not take a step back. In order to do that, I've got to keep working. We'll hit $1 mil HHI for the first time this year and we save, all in, about 20% of that each year. It's a lot of savings, but we're going to need well into 8 figures to generate an income comparable to what we earn now in retirement. So that's my answer to your question. I work because I earn a lot and I love the lifestyle those earnings afford me. I'm going to need many millions saved to continue this lifestyle through retirement. Also - I enjoy my career. Would I still get up and go to it if I hit the lotto for $100 mil? Probably not. But I like going to work, I'm proud of my career, I feel appreciated, I'm not overly stressed out, I have time for family and other things I enjoy.

This is the only thing that would keep me working, if my earning power scaled with my net worth growth. If I have $10M but somehow can earn millions a year I might decide to keep working, but if I have $10M and only earn 250k… not worth it. If you earn 1M+ a year and “only” have $3 million, you’re leaving a lot on the table by quitting. But if you only make 50k and have 3 million, it’s not worth it financially to work.

This is a really good point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work for myself as a reseller and have been a stay at home parent since my first kid was born thirteen years ago.

People work because, especially in this area, people look at you like you have two heads if you don't.

We live in a workaholic world and you're pretty socially isolated / a pariah if you don't have a normal work life to talk about.

I'm a high earning woman and I disagree with this. I have a good amount of SAHM friends and in no way are those women socially isolated or pariahs. I'm a bit fascinated by them and, sometimes, envious. I wonder what it would be like not to have the responsibility to earn money. To be a "lady of leisure." Not saying I would trade places with them, necessarily, because I like my work and I'm not sure I'd be comfortable depending on someone else, but I find them interesting and I admire a lot of things about them. I'm definitely not looking like them like they have two heads. That's ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work for myself as a reseller and have been a stay at home parent since my first kid was born thirteen years ago.

People work because, especially in this area, people look at you like you have two heads if you don't.

We live in a workaholic world and you're pretty socially isolated / a pariah if you don't have a normal work life to talk about.

I'm a high earning woman and I disagree with this. I have a good amount of SAHM friends and in no way are those women socially isolated or pariahs. I'm a bit fascinated by them and, sometimes, envious. I wonder what it would be like not to have the responsibility to earn money. To be a "lady of leisure." Not saying I would trade places with them, necessarily, because I like my work and I'm not sure I'd be comfortable depending on someone else, but I find them interesting and I admire a lot of things about them. I'm definitely not looking like them like they have two heads. That's ridiculous.

+1

Been a SAHP for over 20 years, with a few years of PT fun work mixed in when the kids were in ES/MS. I have plenty of friends, both SAHP, PT working parents and FT working parents---you just get together at different times if they work FT.
I'm a highly educated woman two BS degrees from a T10 uni, MS from a T20 university. But decided staying home with the kids was the right path for our family. Was making 6 figures by age 29 when I "retired" to be SAHM and had the potential to easily be making double that. Never regret my decision. You have to do what works for you and your family. And you have to trust your partner in order to make that decision

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife is home all day assigning chores with a pet I am allergic to.

If I want to cough, sneeze, choke while cleaning up garage, scrubbing toilets, going to supermarket all day I could stay home.

I go to office 5 days a week with a semi remote job.

sounds like a healthy relationship

Some people subscribe to the "It's cheaper to keep her" philosophy.

I have two choices divorce lose everything or put up with it. Pretty much describes 90 percent of men.

Men work cause they don’t want to be home. Women stay home as they don’t want to work.

Most men are older than wife yet work many years longer.

At work there is freedom and respect.

Covid taught me that retiring and being home all day with my wife would kill me or at least create severe depression and/or addiction(s). It probably is 90% of men.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is why I’m a SAHM, but most people on dcum would say I’m lazy and living off my DH. Oh well, you can’t please everyone. People who’ve checked out just keep to themselves more.

I don't know if you're lazy, but you technically are living off of your DH. If it works for your relationship you don't need to make excuses to anyone.

How do you know she's not independently wealthy? That's how I understood her answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of very wealthy people I know are very wealthy because they love to work and win at work. So they don’t want to retire. My DH doesn’t care about spending his money. In fact he’d prefer not to spend it and instead make more money with what he already has. He just wants to keep playing the game and winning.

Sounds like your husband prefers "winning" instead of spending days with you at home, I wouldn't be bragging about it. I love it when idle wives of high earning men chime in how their spouses just love love love to work all day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife is home all day assigning chores with a pet I am allergic to.

If I want to cough, sneeze, choke while cleaning up garage, scrubbing toilets, going to supermarket all day I could stay home.

I go to office 5 days a week with a semi remote job.

sounds like a healthy relationship

Some people subscribe to the "It's cheaper to keep her" philosophy.

I have two choices divorce lose everything or put up with it. Pretty much describes 90 percent of men.

Men work cause they don’t want to be home. Women stay home as they don’t want to work.

Most men are older than wife yet work many years longer.

At work there is freedom and respect.

Covid taught me that retiring and being home all day with my wife would kill me or at least create severe depression and/or addiction(s). It probably is 90% of men.

It's different when you work from home vs. being home when retired.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in my mid-40s with about $3 mil. I plan to work at least 25 more years. Only in the last 5 years or so has our HHI approached 7 figures and I gotta say - I like this level of income, a lot. I'm able to save well, but also just do these amazing things I could never do before. Big trips with our family and not stressing out while on those trips about what things cost. I like being able to buy whatever clothes I want to buy without factoring in cost that much. I love living in a beautiful home and being able to furnish it nicely and improve it when it needs improving. I love being able to treat others - take my kids and their friends to a major league game, take my mother on a long weekend together and cover all expenses. Someone commented earlier that no one needs more than $140k or something like that and I agree, I don't NEED more than that to survive, but now that I've experienced this higher level of income, my goal is to not take a step back. In order to do that, I've got to keep working. We'll hit $1 mil HHI for the first time this year and we save, all in, about 20% of that each year. It's a lot of savings, but we're going to need well into 8 figures to generate an income comparable to what we earn now in retirement. So that's my answer to your question. I work because I earn a lot and I love the lifestyle those earnings afford me. I'm going to need many millions saved to continue this lifestyle through retirement. Also - I enjoy my career. Would I still get up and go to it if I hit the lotto for $100 mil? Probably not. But I like going to work, I'm proud of my career, I feel appreciated, I'm not overly stressed out, I have time for family and other things I enjoy.

This is the only thing that would keep me working, if my earning power scaled with my net worth growth. If I have $10M but somehow can earn millions a year I might decide to keep working, but if I have $10M and only earn 250k… not worth it. If you earn 1M+ a year and “only” have $3 million, you’re leaving a lot on the table by quitting. But if you only make 50k and have 3 million, it’s not worth it financially to work.

This is a really good point.

+1
Or the potential for Stock options to turn into something....unless you really hate your job, most want to continue in hopes those become something, many times 10s of millions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We take a lot of baller vacations that cost a lot and I'm not willing to give that up anytime soon, lol

Same. We have a little under $40m.

Maybe work a few more years….would be happy at $75-100.

What kind of vacations do you take? Rent a yacht at 100K a week? Own multiple vacation homes that are $$$$ to maintain? I am trying to imagine what type of work someone does who has NW like this that they love outside of managing a successful business where employees run it and there is no day to day work. I know some successful business owners like this who don't go to work every day, but they still have enough stress that they dream about selling it and retiring. What is it that you do that you love so much that gives so much money without you dreaming about retiring with a very healthy sum to afford luxury lifestyle, but needing multiples of this for what exactly? Are you investing actively, that's all you do?

The most important question to ask is how those who work a lot to earn major coin have time to take these many lavish vacations.

CEO
We go away at least 4-5.5 weeks a year (not counting weeks at summer home ; working remotely there).

Generally working everywhere but all good.

+1
CEO as well. Will spend at least 8-9 weeks away this year, working during some of those trips.
Could easily retire, but the hope of more $$$ (another $40M+) and just enjoying the job keeps them at it. Will likely retire once the younger kid is out of college and launched

This is crazy. Why not slow down and enjoy the $$$?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work for myself as a reseller and have been a stay at home parent since my first kid was born thirteen years ago.

People work because, especially in this area, people look at you like you have two heads if you don't.

We live in a workaholic world and you're pretty socially isolated / a pariah if you don't have a normal work life to talk about.

I'm a high earning woman and I disagree with this. I have a good amount of SAHM friends and in no way are those women socially isolated or pariahs. I'm a bit fascinated by them and, sometimes, envious. I wonder what it would be like not to have the responsibility to earn money. To be a "lady of leisure." Not saying I would trade places with them, necessarily, because I like my work and I'm not sure I'd be comfortable depending on someone else, but I find them interesting and I admire a lot of things about them. I'm definitely not looking like them like they have two heads. That's ridiculous.

+1

Been a SAHP for over 20 years, with a few years of PT fun work mixed in when the kids were in ES/MS. I have plenty of friends, both SAHP, PT working parents and FT working parents---you just get together at different times if they work FT.
I'm a highly educated woman two BS degrees from a T10 uni, MS from a T20 university. But decided staying home with the kids was the right path for our family. Was making 6 figures by age 29 when I "retired" to be SAHM and had the potential to easily be making double that. Never regret my decision. You have to do what works for you and your family. And you have to trust your partner in order to make that decision

But stay at home parents are working. They are doing childcare.

I don’t have kids, came into a large trust fund lately, stopped working during COVID due to health concerns - did not seem worth risking my life to go to in person job when I didn’t need the money.

I also had two stints of unemployment in my life.

It’s weird when you don’t work and don’t have kids. You don’t have a way to answer the “what do you do” question. And it can cause jealousy.

[Anonymous]

Most people who have enough money to not have a job have some sort of “job.” A lot of the most fun jobs have low or no pay.

Look at Jessica Springsteen, right? She’s a professional show jumper. She’s very good at it! She went to the Olympics! But it cost millions upon millions for her to do that job. If you aren’t rich yourself you have to find a patron. Nobody at the top of that sport can do it just from the proceeds of the work. You need a sponsor with money from somewhere else.

On a much smaller scale, lots of wealthy women have nonprofit jobs or fashion jobs or other jobs that don’t pay their bills, which is a form of checking out but it’s not quite “not working.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work for myself as a reseller and have been a stay at home parent since my first kid was born thirteen years ago.

People work because, especially in this area, people look at you like you have two heads if you don't.

We live in a workaholic world and you're pretty socially isolated / a pariah if you don't have a normal work life to talk about.

I'm a high earning woman and I disagree with this. I have a good amount of SAHM friends and in no way are those women socially isolated or pariahs. I'm a bit fascinated by them and, sometimes, envious. I wonder what it would be like not to have the responsibility to earn money. To be a "lady of leisure." Not saying I would trade places with them, necessarily, because I like my work and I'm not sure I'd be comfortable depending on someone else, but I find them interesting and I admire a lot of things about them. I'm definitely not looking like them like they have two heads. That's ridiculous.

+1

Been a SAHP for over 20 years, with a few years of PT fun work mixed in when the kids were in ES/MS. I have plenty of friends, both SAHP, PT working parents and FT working parents---you just get together at different times if they work FT.
I'm a highly educated woman two BS degrees from a T10 uni, MS from a T20 university. But decided staying home with the kids was the right path for our family. Was making 6 figures by age 29 when I "retired" to be SAHM and had the potential to easily be making double that. Never regret my decision. You have to do what works for you and your family. And you have to trust your partner in order to make that decision

But stay at home parents are working. They are doing childcare.

I don’t have kids, came into a large trust fund lately, stopped working during COVID due to health concerns - did not seem worth risking my life to go to in person job when I didn’t need the money.

I also had two stints of unemployment in my life.

It’s weird when you don’t work and don’t have kids. You don’t have a way to answer the “what do you do” question. And it can cause jealousy.

That's why you hear people in your position say they're a writer working on a novel. The novel just never gets completed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most people who have enough money to not have a job have some sort of “job.” A lot of the most fun jobs have low or no pay.

Look at Jessica Springsteen, right? She’s a professional show jumper. She’s very good at it! She went to the Olympics! But it cost millions upon millions for her to do that job. If you aren’t rich yourself you have to find a patron. Nobody at the top of that sport can do it just from the proceeds of the work. You need a sponsor with money from somewhere else.

On a much smaller scale, lots of wealthy women have nonprofit jobs or fashion jobs or other jobs that don’t pay their bills, which is a form of checking out but it’s not quite “not working.”

They're called hobby jobs. Stylist, wellness consultant, working at a boutique - all hobby jobs for wealthy women.

[Anonymous]

I could explain it to you but couldn’t understand it for you.

[Anonymous]

I wish I had a job that would keep me working. I work part time and the work is tolerable. I could retire if I spent less. I like spending less just like some people like working more.
I work because I have a few people who I'd like to spend my time with- family/good friends and they are not in a position to work less. I'm doing it for them (actually myself), but only part time. Helping my family to pay off they house, so they can take it easier. Giving a friend a years salary, so he can concentrate on opening his business and doing what he really loves and is good at.