Why are rich people motivated by even more money?

[jaybee]

I'll use two simple examples here:

1: Premier league footballers (or any highly successful and hence rich sportsperson).
Kevin De Bruyne has recently been in the papers talking about possibly going to play football in Saudi Arabia. Whilst he spoke of it being driven by being a different country and adventure, he still spoke of the opportunity allowing him to be "able to earn an incredible amount of money". His current net worth according to google suggest over £50 million.

2: The Wolf of Wall Street, or, any highly successful investment banker/trader.
Some make millions. They could stop after a while... yet they keep going.

I'm trying to picture a life where I already have millions, yet I have a desire (addiction?) to obtain more money to improve my life. What in life is limited by having only a few million, in comparison to say having 10 million? 20? 50? 100? Are the differences between them that significant?

Do you know anyone that after they got to a few million said yep, that's enough, and then just enjoyed life? Did they get bored? Is that the issue?

 

[jaybee]

I would say for number 1 or any proffesional athleate, earning while you can is a big one, they have a limited number of prime years and a long time to try to pay for their lifestyle once age kicks in

This is true to an extent I agree, but in a lot of cases they really won't run out of money even if they quit for good tomorrow.

Footballers I understand more - they know their career could end at any minute, and coaching etc might not work out for them. If they've become accustomed to buying £200k cars, then even their strong earnings so far aren't going to maintain them for another 60 years.

I'd say actually they can though some of them. A lot are made for life already and could continue a very nice lifestyle for ever more. Yet they chose to push to earn more. What's the difference really between a couple more cars or boats?

Perhaps the answer is simply because they can and it's habitual.