Why are rich people motivated by even more money?

[Stu999]

Show me on the doll where the banker touched you.

In the wallet....

We've touched on this in other threads.

But I see how an f1 driver would. Less so the money. F1 is something where you get paid a shed load for doing something unique.

Would keep going? F1 driver was the example I was thinking of. If I was Lewis Hamilton on £20m a season (not counting any other sponsorships, promotional work, etc.) then I'd probably jack it in after one season, but that's coming from a position of relative poverty. He even lives in Monaco so no income tax.

On the other hand I'm sure he genuinely loves the driving, he's awesome at it and maybe he has particular targets, e.g. x number of World Driver's Championships.

I also used to work on Mega yachts for billionaires and they aren't much different. Always trying to one up each other with a bigger yacht, yet when it comes time to pay the bills, they all of a sudden dont want to pay.

Were all of the employees banging each other as I've been led to believe by TV?

 

[413x]

In the wallet....

Would keep going? F1 driver was the example I was thinking of. If I was Lewis Hamilton on £20m a season (not counting any other sponsorships, promotional work, etc.) then I'd probably jack it in after one season, but that's coming from a position of relative poverty. He even lives in Monaco so no income tax.

On the other hand I'm sure he genuinely loves the driving, he's awesome at it and maybe he has particular targets, e.g. x number of World Driver's Championships.


Were all of the employees banging each other as I've been led to believe by TV?

Yeah. F1 can't be mimiced, even a billionaire can't just magic up a prestigious TV series with cutting edge cars.

If you love driving fast cars, love the fame.. No amount of money can simulate f1.

So I can see how you keep going, not for money. But for the event.

 

[dowie]

They're not necessarily - but what do you expect them to do otherwise to occupy their time - spend decades just having a constant vacations?

Footballers, pop stars also presumably enjoy the sport/art they have put a lot of effort into performing at a higher level - why quit after one good season or one hit album/tour?

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.
[...]
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?

The Wolf of Wall Street isn't a successful investment banker/trader he was a scam artist/boiler room operator who now seems to be some sort of motivational salesperson.

Some people in finance certainly do make their money and quit though, maybe do something completely different. Look at the guy who founded Stability AI, he'd worked as a trader through his 20s and into his early 30s and amassed 75 million.

There's maybe a distinction to be made there between people running their own firms or who have gained some seniority in a large established firm and people who have maybe made $$$ in a lucrative role as a salesperson, trader etc.. In the latter case they maybe don't want to be doing that into their late 40s, 50s etc. but if they're now in a more senior managerial role then that perhaps changes things.

Likewise, startup founders don't necessarily quit after the first one as they perhaps have other ideas they'd want to build on... but some of them transition into becoming VCs later.

 

[dowie]

I totally accept that some people get bored with no job, but they could easily do 'charidee work mate' for free and use their obvious skills for the greater good, but most don't.

People have some funny notions about charity but for a successful person quitting and switching to charity work is unlikely to do more good, if anything that's a complete waste of their talents if they can instead earn more and just donate.

Like why is someone who can earn millions driving an F1 car or trading oil necessarily going to be worth millions to a charity? Perhaps the trader is a bit sharper than the average charity worker but are the roles available in charities really impactful enough that they're going to bring 7 or 8 figures of value vs the average charity worker? Seems unlikely.

Would keep going? F1 driver was the example I was thinking of. If I was Lewis Hamilton on £20m a season (not counting any other sponsorships, promotional work, etc.) then I'd probably jack it in after one season, but that's coming from a position of relative poverty. He even lives in Monaco so no income tax.

What would you do with your free time instead that would be more fun than being a world-class F1 driver?

I mean it's a pretty interesting lifestyle as an F1 driver - they're competing at an event they presumably love (since most of them have been karting since they were kids). They're traveling the world, they're admired by millions of fans, they date pop stars and models.

You could quit after one season and rapidly become an anonymous nobody with a few million in the bank but what about that lifestyle of an unemployed millionaire would be appealing vs being an F1 driver?

 

[Semple]

Its not about the money, I have an acquaintance who sold his business for north of £10m. He’s been chilling and holidaying for 2 years (mostly at his wife's request) but the man is bored beyond belief. He’s constantly talking to old associates, looking for opportunities, any excuse for a coffee to see how business is going. Its a love of the hustle and doing what he's good at.

When you get a promotion at work, you’ve achieved that goal and automatically start looking at the next one, its the same thing. They just happen to be good at doing deals and making money.

It's a similar story for lottery winners. With theoretically unlimited wealth, there's still only so many places to see in the world. You could travel quite extravagantly and still finish seeing everything the world has to offer in less than 5 years. The rich then go on to do more daring or extreme stuff like journeys to space, or dives to the depths of our oceans.

How many billionaires do you think will be first to jump on a privately funded mission to Mars because way to go down in history.

 

[dowie]

Banking is essentially making loans, which is charging people money for lending them money, which people will then use in the real economy to get real value. Banking is therefore a parasitic activity that piggybacks on the real economy.

You're rather confused here - the OP mentioned Investment Banker.

Investment Banking isn't about making loans, you're thinking of retail or commercial banking.

Investment bankers handle things like helping companies raise money via IPOs, or issuing debt or indeed they can advise on mergers and acquisitions.

 

[Stu999]

What would you do with your free time instead that would be more fun than being a world-class F1 driver?

Hookers and coke mainly.

Seriously though, Nico Rosberg quite after winning the championship and does his YouTube channel, drives fast cars still, does media work. Seems ok to me.

what about that lifestyle of an unemployed millionaire would be appealing vs being an F1 driver?

Not having to speak to Crofty or any other media ****weasels.

 

[dowie]

Seriously though, Nico Rosberg quite after winning the championship and does his YouTube channel, drives fast cars still, does media work. Seems ok to me.

He's 38 and spent 10 years in Formula 1, not 1 season!

Now he's famous and retired after that big career high, but thats rather different, F1 drivers aren't expected to continue competing well into their 40s or 50s - if he hadn't retired then he'd not necessarily have much time left anyway - oldest current drivers are Alonso at 42 and Hamilton at 39.

Would that youtube channel and media work be the same (or would the media work even be available) if he'd quit after one season rather than have a 10 year career finishing as world champion?

It probably is a lot of fun still but I'd suspect that the average fast car YouTuber would absolutely love to have been an F1 driver.

 

[Tetras]

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.

£50 million might sound like a lot, but the more you have, the more opportunity there is.

Like, he could buy an island. Build a mansion for his relatives and friends to live in. Have a private jet for his holidays. Start a fund for the education and upkeep of future De Bruynes. Expand his collection of luxury whatevers. Who knows what plans there are in his head.

When you don't have any money you're motivated by survival, but wealthy people have always taken jobs without needing money. There's a lot more to life and to every individual than only their survival, it is just that very few get the opportunity to find out what that life would look like.

 

[Bear]

The KdB one is weird. He could continue to play at the top level and earn more than enough money, so no real need for him to need to be thinking about a final payday.

Yep, he’s already the highest paid player in the Premier League, somewhere in the region of £400k a week

 

[Mason-]

In a capitalist society it is a symbol of success and a route to power.

So the answer is people want to project an air of success and/or they want power.

 

[Mr Blonde]

I know a few people and families roughly in the £5-£100m bracket from various business sectors and all of them are very down to earth. Some made their money while they were relatively young (Dot Com startups, had a good idea and put in the hard work, took over a family business early etc) while for others it was a slow progression. One is still working at 78 and another sold his business at the age of 32. Other than being middle class, reasonably well dressed from time to time and possessing a decent intellect to one degree or another, you'd be hard pushed to know anything different about them. I have never met anyone in it just for the money at all fortunately.

 

[radderfire]

You're rather confused here - the OP mentioned Investment Banker.

Investment Banking isn't about making loans, you're thinking of retail or commercial banking.

Investment bankers handle things like helping companies raise money via IPOs, or issuing debt or indeed they can advise on mergers and acquisitions.

Dowie I'm not confused about anything. It's still self-serving wealth extraction, often with adverse effects on the general public, e.g. the Post Office privatisation, or overpriced IPOs that then tank, M&A's putting people out of work etc etc.

 

[slinxy]

In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the women..

Cash Rules!

 

[alchal]

No idea, friend of the boss came into work today, sold his firm for 7 million, just bought 8 cheap 2 bed houses and is charging 600 a month apparently rent.

That kind of thing bakes my beans.

 

[dowie]

Dowie I'm not confused about anything.

You clearly were, you were going off on one about loans (we all know about the crypto beliefs at this point) but that doesn't apply.

Dowie I'm not confused about anything. It's still self-serving wealth extraction, often with adverse effects on the general public, e.g. the Post Office privatisation, or overpriced IPOs that then tank, M&A's putting people out of work etc etc.

But if you can be more efficient as a result of a merger isn't that a good thing - apparently you're a bit selective (or rather confused) re: your arguments for "real work" in that you'd still seemingly want people employed for the sake of it even if they're not adding value (just so long as their job title isn't banker).

 

[radderfire]

But if you can be more efficient as a result of a merger isn't that a good thing - apparently you're a bit selective (or rather confused) re: your arguments for "real work" in that you'd still seemingly want people employed for the sake of it even if they're not adding value (just so long as their job title isn't banker).

Yes in general I'd rather people were still employed and service remains better, rather than an investment banker does a "great deal" makes millions, but the company service and value becomes rubbish, e.g. private water companies increasing prices, but there now being more sewage pollution in UK rivers than ever. The company day to day business is real work, i.e. water supply, the investment banking "work" and "efficiency" is often just profiteering with resultant service destruction. This can be particularly bad in the banking sector, where they get bailed out to the detriment of the tax payer, inflation, the cost of living and equality.

 

[Zefan]

We are the descendents of countless generations that survived to reproduce through an intrinsic drive to acquire and project power, and money - either held in wealth or in ongoing earnings - is a token that represents at least one aspect of a person's ability to do this. Simple as.

 

[dowie]

Yes in general I'd rather people were still employed and service remains better, rather than an investment banker does a "great deal" makes millions

It's a bit naive really, Thames water has nothing to do with any M&A, you're just throwing together vague stuff just as you do when you trott out random Bitcoin conspiracies.

 

[alchal]

I know a few people and families roughly in the £5-£100m bracket from various business sectors and all of them are very down to earth. Some made their money while they were relatively young (Dot Com startups, had a good idea and put in the hard work, took over a family business early etc) while for others it was a slow progression. One is still working at 78 and another sold his business at the age of 32. Other than being middle class, reasonably well dressed from time to time and possessing a decent intellect to one degree or another, you'd be hard pushed to know anything different about them. I have never met anyone in it just for the money at all fortunately.

Firm next door, boss decided to retire, gave his engineer ( longest serving member ) minimum required notice then wouldn't pay him to have time off to look for any other jobs ( not sure if legal mind!) Made him work up to the last day despite having zero work to do, wouldn't even put the heating on for him.

He's a millionaire, Ferrari, range rover, Aston martin and some classic cars

Worked for him for over 20 years.

Money money money money