

Ask HN: How important is money to you? - xijuan

I feel I just woke up from a nightmare. In the dream, there are people around me who told me that I should have done a different major which would lead me to a more lucrative career. These people told me that I should not go to graduate school because it is hard to find a job in academia and being a professor won't make too much money. I start to become worried and have doubt about what I want.. Now I woke up and felt how I could let these people affect my passion and my belief...
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smartial_arts
I can't say they are not important to me, but I can definitely see that
importance, or rather pleasure from earning more than certain amount flattens
out for me rather quickly. Very much like in this paper [1].

A bit of a personal story. When I just moved to Australia from Russia, there
was a sudden and pleasant change in both levels of income and quality of life.

I started with mere $50k salary (2006) that I managed to double ($115k) in a
couple of years (2008). This second change probably didn't feel as great as
the first one, although it registered as kind of being nice.

Fast forward to 2012 and $140k of income - I honestly couldn't care less.
Although it wasn't linear increase in after-tax money, yet still it was rather
significant. Did it feel good? Barely. I have a blog post [2] that somewhat
touches on that.

What's more important for me now? Being owner of my time and how I spend it.
Money? Important, but only up to certain limit.

Hope it answers your question.

Thanks!

[1] [http://csi.gsb.stanford.edu/if-money-doesnt-make-you-
happy-c...](http://csi.gsb.stanford.edu/if-money-doesnt-make-you-happy-
consider-time) [2] <http://blog.nimblegecko.com/why-i-quit-my-job/>

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kowdermeister
Don't take dreams so seriously. Think of them as a reality check. You just
asked yourself that "do I really want this?" and if the answer is yes, then
don't worry.

If you do worry about money, stop :) Follow what you are passionate about and
the rest will come.

