HangTime said:
.... Essentially you need the self discipline to reach a level of wealth that you are satisfied with so that you don't keep striving to make more and more money ....
Yes. Money needs to be seen as a means to an end, not an end in it's own right.
HangTime said:
When these kind of discussion take place, people usually like to throw up examples of rich people who became unhappy. But those people are almost invariably celebrities to some degree. What about all the millionaires we never hear about, with the mansion and loving family?
Indeed. But speaking personally, I certainly haven't said that money isn't generally a nice thing to have, because it is. What I've said is that it doesn't
buy happiness, and is no
guarantee of it. It doesn't usually preclude happiness either and it does, undoubtedly, ease many of the mundane pressures of life,
provided you use it sensibly. If you ease those pressures, you have an easier path to happiness, but (unless you're incredibly shallow), can't buy it. Happiness, to me at least, is about a loving partner and family. I'd rather have that than all the money a thousand people could ever spend, and all the material things that implies. I'd MUCH rather have that family, and that happiness and have a comfortable, surburban standard of living than be a miserable, lonely old billionaire. Of course, having that loving partner and family, contentment and happiness AND a few billion quid is even better.
But however much money you have, trying to live beyond your means is generally a recipe for stress and misery. About the only people exempt from that are that handful of multi-billionaires that are so fabulously wealthy that there is literaly nothing money can buy that they can't afford
without even noticing the expenditure! And
that isn't just "rich", by my definitions. It's super-ultra-mega rich .... and then some.
