
You don't really want a million dollars - ryanwaggoner
http://ryanwaggoner.com/2010/12/you-dont-really-want-a-million-dollars/
======
edw519
Interesting post. Let me rephrase the question:

What amount of money would it take to solve my biggest problems?

Here are my biggest problems:

1\. My father had a massive stroke and died. I miss him.

2\. My mother has severe dementia and now acts like a toddler. I miss her too,
in a strange way.

3\. In the past 8 years, I have lost 5 close friends and family members
including the cousin I grew up with who died very young of pancreatic cancer.
I miss them all.

4\. I have 3 loved ones with significant health problems. I wish there was
more I could do to help. Better yet, I wish the would all just get well.

5\. I love to build software and would like to build more, better, and faster.

6\. The Pittsburgh Steelers (American football) lost yesterday. I'm crushed.

I have struggled with how more money could help (or have helped) with numbers
1 through 4, but I'm not quite sure how.

If I had more money, I could hire a bunch of people to help me with #5, but I
think we're all learning that the correlation between having a lot of money
and building lots of great software is becoming a very loose one.

I need a billion dollars to buy the Steelers and run them the way they should
be run. I need another billion to pay the referees. In the meantime, I'll just
sit and suffer on Mondays like this.

~~~
stcredzero
Donate: <http://www.sens.org/>

Likely this won't help you or me and it won't help your mom or dad, but it
might help a lot of people someday.

~~~
borism
not before reading this
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategies_for_Engineered_Negli...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategies_for_Engineered_Negligible_Senescence#Scientific_controversy)

------
simon_
I really disagree with this. Far from being more than anybody needs, a million
dollars is actually _not enough_ to secure a dignified existence in the US.
Sure... a "trip to Thailand" doesn't require a million dollars, but what if
you want:

Not to face bankruptcy if a major health problem arises? Not to worry about
the cost of college for your children? To own a small home in NYC or SF? To
afford competent legal representation if the need arises?

And that doesn't even touch the reasons people want to be _rich_ \- like
private jets and angel investing and art collecting and space tourism, etc.
Have some imagination!

~~~
ryanwaggoner
_A million dollars is actually not enough to secure a dignified existence in
the US._

Nonsense:

[http://ryanwaggoner.com/2010/08/how-to-retire-
at-30-on-1-mil...](http://ryanwaggoner.com/2010/08/how-to-retire-
at-30-on-1-million/)

 _Not to face bankruptcy if a major health problem arises?_

Health insurance isn't _that_ expensive unless you have a pre-existing
condition [1]. I won't talk about the college and home ownership questions
other than to say that families have figured out how to live happy, healthy
lives on far, far less. Go to a good state school, get some scholarships,
don't live in Manhattan.

And you're only making my point: you don't really want the money. You want the
things that you think only an abnormally large amount of money can buy. Sorry,
but that just seems like lazy thinking to me.

1\. And my sincere condolences to those that do. Seriously, that sucks and we
need to fix the system somehow.

~~~
Locke1689
_I won't talk about the college and home ownership questions other than to say
that families have figured out how to live happy, healthy lives on far, far
less. Go to a good state school, get some scholarships, don't live in
Manhattan._

This is a poor answer. Just because other people are happy with something
doesn't mean everyone is. What do you mean "don't live in Mahnattan"? I want
to live in Manhattan. Who are you to say which of my desires are valid and
invalid?

~~~
mseebach
He didn't say that, he said that you don't need to live in Manhattan to have a
_dignified life_.

Nobody contests that a million dollars can buy you a lot of very nice things.
The point is that too many people spend too much time fretting about going to
Thailand when they get a million dollars, while completely missing the fact
that a trip to Thailand is maybe $1000. It's mostly a question of priorities,
and if you make your whole life about getting a million dollars, guess what
happens once you get there? You're likely to start obsessing about five
million, rather than retire to that beach in Thailand.

~~~
Locke1689
Maybe, but his thesis that most people say that want a million dollars but
don't actually want the things that cost a million dollars is unsupported. I
was playing devil's advocate (I probably don't want to live in Manhattan) but
the idea is that none of us really know how many people actually want things
that cost a million dollars and how many people just want what he terms
"freedom."

------
kenjackson
I think Ryan misses the point for most people. I do want a "million" dollars
for freedom, but it's not just to go to Thailand. In fact I don't really like
traveling, but I'd pay a lot if you could teleport me instantly.

I want the freedom to work on what I want to work on AND to buy what I want.
I'm tired of saying, "I won't get that TV now, because in 12 months that TV is
coming out". Or "lets wait 8 months for the price to drop on that car". Or "do
we really need a view?"

It's not that I need less stuff. I'm fairly certain I want more new stuff (and
I'll happy donate my old stuff). And it's not like I want to hike barefoot
through rainforests. I generally want to spend time doing things like trying
to build a new tablet OS. Or playing a full season of Madden as the Vikings.
Or doing Sunday Times puzzles in less than five minutes. Or spend a month
completely rewiring my houses to have incredible home automation.

I frankly don't see how you do that stuff w/o money. I guess a "million"
dollars or the ability to create things by thinking them up.

~~~
shock-value
What? Building an OS is just the cost of a laptop and test device (~$1000 at
most), playing Madden costs you $60 + $200 console, the puzzle is just the
cost of the newspaper, and depending on what you mean by "rewiring" and your
level of know-how, that project shouldn't be out-of-this-world expensive
either. Not anything like a million dollars, or even $15k for that matter.

To be honest, I think your post illustrates the premise of the article. You
can do these things without a vast sum of money just as easily as if you had a
big wad of cash.

And if your point is that being able to do those projects and ALSO "buy what
you want" (e.g. nicer TV and car) will give you much greater satisfaction from
your life, you are clueless about human nature. You might get a thrill from
these items in the short term, but eventually you'll just want more and better
ones. You'll be in the same place (psychologically) as where you started.

~~~
kenjackson
The things I want to do aren't expensive, but they weren't supposed to be. But
they're things that would prevent me from making money, which means that I
need some other way to pay for the other things that I'm paying for now that I
want.

And while you argue that I'm clueless about human nature, I'd argue that you
are. It's human nature to want more, even if it is only temporary. In fact
most things I want to do provide only short-term satisfaction. I know that and
I'm fine with that. The things that give long-term satisfaction are generally
free, but those aren't the things I want money for.

------
byoung2
One of the hardest parts of just hopping on a plane to some exotic destination
is figuring out what to do with your "stuff" back home. People think that with
a million dollars they'll pay off the house, car, quit their jobs and travel
the world. Instead, they should consider selling the car and house (or renting
it out) and living abroad instead of traveling. I have stayed in the
Philippines for months at a time for far less money than a weekend in New York
or Vegas. If you don't have to pay $1000 a month for a car (loan, insurance,
gas, maintenance), and $2000 for housing in the US (including gas,
electricity, phone, Internet, etc.) traveling becomes much cheaper. Even
better if you can do some freelancing remotely or have a small business that
generates a few hundred bucks a month.

I bet that 9 times out of 10, "I need more money" should really be rephrased
as "I need less stuff"

~~~
henry81
I have a collapsible table, inflatable mattress, laptop, and 24" monitor.
Everything I own can fit in my car. I need more money. Sleeping on the floor
was not fun.

I have money, I'm just kind of uber frugal. It's a _nice_ air mattress,
though.

~~~
ojbyrne
I find your list sort of strange, because you didn't include the car in it.
You have a, b, c, d and a _car_.

------
oz
No, _you_ don't.

I'm really tired of anti-money meme. Why is it so difficult for people to
admit that many things in life come down to money?

This isn't about being Gordon Gekko. You could have the purest heart, but it
_still_ takes cash to care.

Some are fine with minimalism. More power to them. But I don't want to exist.
I want to _thrive._

I'm 24. I realized a few years ago that my highest value in life is
_autonomy._ I want to be able to wake up tomorrow, and say "Hey, I've never
been to Sweden," and just hop on a plane, without worrying about a small
matter called rent.

What if your boss made you miserable every day, but you can't quit because of
the mortgage. Is that any way to live? Me? I think I'd rather die.

Albert Camus said it best: It is spiritual arrogance to believe that one can
be happy without money. And I'm a pastor's son; so I should know.

I like money. I want lots of it. A million dollars? Pftha! That isn't even
what Felix Dennis called comfortably poor...

</rant>

~~~
ryanwaggoner
_I'm 24. I realized a few years ago that my highest value in life is autonomy.
I want to be able to wake up tomorrow, and say "Hey, I've never been to
Sweden," and just hop on a plane, without worrying about a small matter called
rent._

I'm 28, and I could do that today if I wanted to. And surprise, surprise, I
don't have a million dollars. That's my point. Figure out what you want and
make it a priority. Don't spend your life working for a big payoff so you can
then figure out what you want. You'll never get there.

~~~
abstractbill
_Figure out what you want and make it a priority._

I want more things out of life than can be easily prioritized. A million
dollars would go a long way towards making it so I wouldn't _have to_ make
just one thing my priority.

------
Xurinos
I do. From the extremely rich, I heard something along these lines: "When you
have money, money is not an issue."

If you want to have, try, or do something NOW, money can make it happen. No
waiting. Life is short. In exchange for money, I would have time. I would be
liberated to pursue other things, to answer the call of other motivations. I
picture it much like Maslow's Hierarchy: pierce the resource barrier, and you
have ventured into the next level. The acquisition of resources and services
in general is no longer an issue. Now we are in the realm of the rare, and our
internal motivations/desires guide us more.

No need to worry about what kind of insurance you have. No need to pause to
ask if you can afford to take an ambulance. No need to decide between this or
that. No more dreaming about taking a rocket to the moon.

This is another way to say "freedom", but a general "freedom" is incorrect.
There is always the next problem, the next desire. Remove money as a block,
and many issues are resolved, while new issues enter the picture.

Of course, a million dollars does not buy all that, but it could sure get me
out of my debts and bolster my current investments! Yes, I really want a
million dollars. A million dollars buys me time, my most precious resource,
time I did not have to spend making that million.

~~~
oz
Simple as that, my friend. Well said.

One time I was watching HGTV with my sister. A couple bought a new house
because they wanted a kitchen witha view of the ocean. She was incredulous,
but I told her that's the very point of money-doing whatever you want to do.

------
marknutter
The "HN Users, please upvote this" banner at the bottom is disconcerting. If
HN is becoming a place people are desperate to get their stories voted up on,
I fear the quality is going to start decreasing dramatically in the coming
months.

~~~
ryanwaggoner
That's a Wordpress plugin called "WP Greet Box" [1] and this message is only
shown to users coming from HN, not everyone. Also, you'll be happy to know
that I get grief for it every time one of my posts lands on the homepage :)

I understand your concern, but it's really just a reminder to vote the article
up if you enjoyed it. I frequently read good articles and then forget to vote
them up because something else catches my attention. I really doubt anyone is
swayed to upvote an article they didn't think worthy because of this message.
Just the opposite: some hacker types get worked up because they seem to be
allergic to promotion of any kind, and thus won't upvote the article, even
though they would have otherwise. But I'm betting that the balance of people
who upvote because they liked the article AND because they were reminded
outweighs the anti-promotion crowd. Either way, I don't think it's a big deal.
Sorry if it offended you.

1\. <http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-greet-box/>

~~~
frossie
For what it's worth - Every time i click on an HN story I also open the
comment page (in two new tabs - I use the fabulous Tree Style Tab firefox
extension to stop that becoming as insane as it sounds).

That way after I read the story, even if I go away, the comment page is still
open so I can upvote it when I am clearing up later. In that way I rarely if
ever forget to upvote a story I liked.

I don't particularly like having my upvote solicited because it makes the
thing seem too much like a popularity contest - the people who lobby end up
getting more than the equally worthy ones that don't.

~~~
edanm
Funny. I also always open the comment page and the article at the same time
(no tree plugin though). And yet, I very often forget to upvote the article,
since I'm usually eager to dive into the comments.

Interestingly, in _this_ case, I saw the "please upvote" message, said to
myself "ok let's go upvote on the comment page I have open", and _still_
forgot to do it because I started reading comments.

This thread reminded me to do it. :)

------
roadnottaken
_"A young man without power or money is completely free. He has nothing, but
he also has everything. He can travel, he can drift. He can make new
acquaintances every day, and try to soak up the infinite variety of life. He
can seduce and be seduced, start an enterprise and abandon it, join an army or
flee a nation, fight to preserve an existing system or plot a revolution. He
can reinvent himself daily, according to the discoveries he makes about the
world and himself. But if he prospers through the choices he makes, if he
acquires a wife, children, wealth, land, and power, his options gradually and
inevitably diminish. Responsibility and commitment limit his moves. One might
think that the most powerful man has the most choices, but in reality he has
the fewest. Too much depends on his every move."_

\--Mark Bowden, from _Tales of the Tyrant_ :
[http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/2002/05/tales-
of-t...](http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/2002/05/tales-of-the-
tyrant/2480/)

------
cagenut
Nuts to that, I'll take the million please.

A million bucks, moderately levered and invested in rental property = cash
flow for life. You won't live rich, but you'll sure cover your health
insurance and some travel budget.

~~~
maqr
That sounds much more reasonable.

I appreciate what the author is saying, but his thesis isn't really well
supported:

> Here’s the reality: if you’re not the type of person who can create freedom
> without a million dollars, you probably aren’t the kind of person who will
> get a million dollars.

... What? I'd be willing to guess that most people with a million dollars
(which isn't really all _that_ much money these days) probably have not put
money second and freedom first. I know plenty of doctors and lawyers that are
worth as much and work very hard. I don't know anyone who travels around free-
spiritedly and is amassing large sums of money.

------
pjhyett
Growing up with two parents constantly stressed and fighting about money,
having financial security is about the most calming thing I could imagine.

For me, it's less about being able to do extravagant things, and more about
never having to worry about it.

Do you need a million dollars to achieve financial security? Perhaps not, but
it certainly wouldn't hurt.

~~~
timwiseman
I have to agree. Knowing that you have enough money to not worry about money
would be incredibly liberating, even if I only maintained my current standard
of living and changed nothing about what I actually do. Even if I never
exercised the options, having that kind of money would give you options you
wouldn't have otherwise.

------
nicolas_t
Well you know what? I'm 27, I have lived in 9 countries for long periods of
time (more than 3 months for 2 of them, more than 1 year for the rest), I've
traveled around to a few other countries and, well now that I want to settle
down I do want a million dollar.

While it's not the only reason why I'm creating my own business, money is a
big part of the motivation. Of course I love most of what I do [1], wasting my
life doing something that I hate to earn money is also not a smart move. But,
yes money is definitely something I want...

For example, I want to be able to have my house, a place of my own that I can
modify how I want it, not a place owned by some landlord who places a lot of
restrictions on what I can do... I want to be able to go to the expensive 3
stars restaurants, stay at nice 5 stars hotels instead of cheap youth
hostels... I want to enjoy luxuries..

[1] Unfortunately growing my business means having employees and delegating
some of the fun part along with the boring parts. And managing is not my
favorite part of the job.

------
run4yourlives
I find it rich (no pun intended) that a bunch of single folk can somehow
assume it's easy to live these type of lifestyles if you have a wife and 2
kids.

Sorry, but I'd rather have a million.

~~~
p_nathan
I would like to have a million. Two, if I could get it... three I wouldn't
turn down either.

I have defined two very specific and (not too horribly) lavish goals: have
$0.00 month-to-month debt and to own a house with some acreage in the American
Rockies.

But, more money can be put to use: collage scholarships, investing, hobbies,
putting away for family, charities -

If one is not wedded to the urban jet-set lifestyle, one can really stretch
the money.

------
djhworld
Travelling on a shoe string budget is possible for people on modest incomes
but it's not exactly living comfortably is it?

People want a million dollars so they can live a comfortable life rather than
trudging through life and then going to the grave.

Yes, you could blow the lot on a car, house, long holiday etc but they're
short term gains that won't really change your life that much. After all
buying an expensive house will land you with expensive upkeep/running costs.

A sensible person (here in the UK anyway) could pay themselves a healthy wage
(£35k p/year tax free) for 20+ years and they can save the rest for
retirement.

The downside to this though is, once you've done a trip to Thailand and so on,
I think boredom would probably set in so you'd want to spend the time after
that doing something meaningful like working for a charity

------
sayemm
I think Chris Dixon said it best in this tweet:
<http://twitter.com/cdixon/status/13437285168>

"People capable of making enough money to never work again are the same people
who will never quit working."

------
tapiwa
My biggest problem with most of the "I just need $1m" people I have met is
twofold.

One, most of them would have no idea how to use that million in a sustainable
way. Take a look at all the lottery winners that end up broke. The article
does touch on this ... you don't need a million dollars to do half the things
that many people feel they will do when they miraculously land that million.

Secondly, most people are not prepared to put in the kind of work that leads
to a million dollar payoff. No, playing the lotto does not count. Getting a
big payoff takes hard work, luck, and more hard & smart work.

Far too many people are not prepared to pay the price of success.

------
sigstoat
a million would let me pay off the loan on my business, and remodel to
increase lab space, so i could hire more people, and create more jobs.

so yeah, me and all my filthy capitalist buddies will take the million.

------
mattm
This discussion reminds me of a quote:

"Young people trade their time and health for money, only to later trade that
money for time and health."

------
ry0ohki
I think tech people take for granted that other people can be as mobile as us.
If you're currently working for minimum wage at a convenience store, you
probably have very little in the way of skills or education, and there are so
many barriers to just getting out from under your bills. Even traveling very
cheap requires some savings, and most people have $0 in savings and many
thousands of dollars in debt.

------
Swannie
You're right, I want about 5m.

Not to retire on, but to remove the need to work to provide a roof and food.
So I can risk working on all the things that interest me and them tanking big
time.

------
dwc
I think that a lot of people are missing the main point of this article. And
Ryan could have stated it a little more clearly. Here's my take on it:

Some things cost money, but others don't. Many things that people, including
me, want to change about their life require an investment in time, effort and
thought. However, the first things that come to mind could be fixed with more
money, even if those things are really symptoms of something deeper than
_cannot_ be fixed with money. Money problems are easy to think about, so we
think about them more and see the solution quickly. Enough of that and we put
money as a proxy for all solutions.

If you really take a good look at your life and at your hopes and dreams, many
things can be accomplished without that million dollars, and other
things...can't. Having made that separation, there are things you can do to
improve your life _without_ the million dollars. Fixing some of _those_ things
may actually make it possible for you to _make_ that million dollars rather
than wasting your life by _wishing_ to win the lottery.

From kenjackson in this discussion: "I want the freedom to work on what I want
to work on AND to buy what I want."

Oh? And until that happens? What if you rearrange your life so that you can
work on what you want, and then figure out a way to make lots of money from
that? Isn't that how it happens in startups?

------
artmageddon
Good article, but I thought that the title / headline was slightly misleading.
I think a better wording of it would've been, "You don't really _need_ a
million dollars." The impression that I got from it, before reading it, was
that it was yet another instance of someone winning a large sum of money
through a lottery or other contest, and completely blowing it all away due to
lack of proper financial foresight / other bad habits(or even being worse off
because of lavish lifestyles; e.g. Lenny Dykstra).

That said, I agree with some parts of the post. If you can make it work,
working for yourself in this field will give you the flexibility to live the
kind of life you want if you make the proper adjustments. Once you do, seeing
the world isn't as expensive as people may believe if you do the right
research and strike a few good deals.

It's not for everyone, though. While a couple of my friends, who work in
health care(married with kids; one is an RN, the other a radiologist), can
certainly try to make lifestyle changes to save more money so that they can
travel, I don't know how they would be able to work for themselves.

------
dools
I've just been skimming through all the comments here and I really think that
a lot of you are missing the point of this article because you're focussing on
that fact that you know just what you would do with $1,000,000 and how much of
a positive effect all these things would have on your life.

You're focussing on finding edge cases of people who genuinely need exactly
$1,000,000 to pay off a bunch of things that are holding them back that are to
the value of $1,000,000 (but even then, there's plenty of places you can
abscond to if you want to escape debt - you just may not be welcome to return
:)

The essential message in this article is lateral thinking. It's about looking
at the mountain in front of you and noticing that there is a way around it
instead of having to climb all the way up to the top and go back down the
other side.

Of course there are people and situations where this doesn't apply. The title
of the article "YOU don't really want a million dollars" naturally invites
these comments because he's addressing a large audience of people, many of
whom may have legitimate needs for that amount of money.

If it were me writing it I would have maybe phrased it as "Do you really want
a million dollars?" and focused on the fact that the question is addressed
specifically to the guy at the store who wanted a million to solve "all his
problems" in some abstract way.

That million dollars that will solve everything IS lazy thinking. It allows
you to say "unless I have that million, I can't possibly solve my problems"
without ever giving any real thought, or doing any real research, into whether
or not there is an alternative way to solve your problems other than "getting
a million dollars" which for most people is an impossibility.

I personally think that the author could have done a better job with this
article because although I came to agree with it's premise after reading it
twice then reviewing the comments, I was also initially thrown off the scent
by listing all of the things I'd do with a million dollars if I had it.

------
winternett
I'd have no problem finding productive things to do with a million dollars. I
wouldn't sit around wasting away either. If a million dollars fell into my
lap, my biggest problem would be maintaining a straight face when everyone
rushes to me with a sad story... Don't get me wrong, I'd definitely be
charitable, but the hardest part in hanging on to money is preventing yourself
from giving most of it away after that point.

That being said, I don't believe in any sense of lottery providing
opportunities for winning money. I don't trust the lottery system in any shape
or form. And wishes of winning large sums of money only serves to set your
ambition back in life, so I generally avoid it, unless powerball/megamils is
above 200m, that is a thing worth gambling on.

~~~
ryanwaggoner
_And wishes of winning large sums of money only serves to set your ambition
back in life, so I generally avoid it, unless powerball/megamils is above
200m, that is a thing worth gambling on._

The first part of this sentence is so true, and the second part so false...

~~~
winternett
Of course, its added for comedic irony.

------
nchlswu
This is more or less a question of lifestyle or philosophy and not a question
about whether you need a million or not.

I know i don't _need_ a million bucks, but I'd sure like more than that.

A friend of mine never cared about his money and is as happy as he can be.
Right now he's travelling across the states with next to nothing. I envy the
people who can enjoy what's truly necessary in our lives, but saying outright
that those people who live this still have this ingenuity, discipline and
proactivity to be successful is wrong.

Forcing yourself to live a minimal lifestyle is different _actually_ living
it.

------
mfukar
Not to nitpick, but not everybody wants "a million dollars" to leave
everything behind and travel. There's a lot of things one can do with "a
million dollars"; and yeah, I want some of that too.

------
fistofjohnwayne
This is the whitest thing I've ever read.

------
pathik
I don't. A million dollars isn't cool. You know what's cool? A billion
dollars.

------
iuguy
Since scaling my life back and tackling startup debt I've really managed to
scale down my outgoings. Furthermore I've simultaneously lost my lust for new
tech _and_ become the worst guy I know to buy presents for.

I don't really need a million dollars, but if I had it I'm fairly certain I'd
get quite far with it.

------
mgrouchy
I kind of look at it differently. I don't feel the need to own a ton of
stuff(even though myself and my fiance recently bought a small home) my main
monetary goal is to eventually have enough money so that I never have to worry
about having money :)

Sounds kind of weird, but I don't spend my money on much stuff, but I like to
travel once or twice a year and eat out with my fiance a couple of times a
month. However much money it is that I can pay for my current place to live
and do those things and never have to worry about it, then thats the right
amount of money.

------
6ren
When I make a list of the things I'd like to do, but aren't, money is never
the main barrier. It's things like... well... courage, faith, trust.

I've actually had enough money at one point to retire (living on passive
income), and it didn't make me happy at all. In fact, I stepped back from life
a little, and it made me _less_ happy. For me, in my present level of
"spiritual wisdom" (for want of a better term), needing money seems to be a
helpful motivation.

I also observe what so many people do who make a lot of money do: keep on
doing whatever it was they were doing.

------
patrickaljord
You're right, I want a hundred of them ;)

~~~
waterlesscloud
What's that line from the movie DISCLOSURE? "Give a man a hundred million
dollars and you make a frustrated billionaire. "

Seriously, though...so what if having money doesn't satisfy you and leaves you
wanting more? Why is it taken as a given that being satisfied is a good thing?

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petercooper
I agree with the general point but.. I actually do want a million dollars for
something specific ;-)

My family wants to move to the US (from the UK) and I want to continue working
solely for myself. I could come up with a clever investment using the E-2 visa
but that'd realistically take a cpl hundred thousand and then involve
renewing/funding a business/etc. Or I could spend $500k-$1m on an EB-5
depending on locality. Beyond that, we'd need extra money to cover how
expensive the US is. So, yeah, we could do with a million <g>

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sliverstorm
Very few people want, need, or are even wishing for exactly one million
dollars, and zero cents. '1 million dollars' is just a placeholder for 'enough
money' that originated in a time long past.

It's a bias that's not hard to detect. If I examine my own thoughts, I find
that 'millionaire' is almost synonymous with 'arbitrarily wealthy' while
'billionaire' and 'trillionaire' don't really hold meaning beyond the literal
definition.

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nazgulnarsil
yes, yes I do. the average moron might not have any use for money (observe
lottery winner's behavior) but any reasonably educated person should.

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didip
tl;dr - I agree with the article. Get shit done to make yourself happy.

When reading a few responses here, I'm taken back with the comment "It's easy
for you to preach, you don't have kids". In real life, I heard similar
sentiments.

I'm having a hard time trying to understand the feeling when people said such
things. Having kids is a choice, no? The same thing with living über-
minimalistic life. People who don't have kids may have serious problems too.

Me and my wife, we don't have kids. But what we do have in terms of problems:

1\. Selfish, arrogant, and wasteful parents. We helped them a lot and never
received a single thanks. They love to have elaborate parties even though they
are broke.

2\. A 14 years old sister. Amazingly selfish little brat, complete disconnect
between what she wants and what our parents could provide. Fucking android for
14 years old, what for? I cannot imagine her coding up some android app.

I don't have a million dollar and far from it. When I was 26, I swallowed the
"American Dream" Kool-aid bottoms up and really needed that 1 million dollar:

We bought a big house, with .25 acre land. We owned 3 cars. I did all the
stupid things that can only happen if you own a house: upgrading HVAC,
kitchen, etc. etc.

Only 1 thing I did that wasn't stupid: paying for wife's school.

Now, we don't own TV, 1 car, 1 couch, < 700 sqft apartment, 2 cats, and 0-10
minutes commute.

When we went through the transformation, crazy things happen. My sisters
respect me a lot more. When they want superfluous things and I said no, they
listen far more than they ever did. Crazy things happen with the parents too.
They listened, twice, when I told them about the elaborate parties.

Not needing money empowered me far more than money ever did. And I'm quite
sure that I'm not unique in that regard. My future kids won't have lawn to run
around or the latest apple gadgets to pimp around. Their life won't be govern
by money. This plan may or may not work, my real life friends would be the
judge of that.

To drive my points further, unrelated to my life story, several tech co-
founders have told me directly. "The best time to raise money, is when you
don't need money".

Extra brownie point: To buy freedom into United States (the easy way), you
really need a million dollar. <http://bit.ly/9RItQM>

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rwhitman
All the people I know who travel the most and I feel have the most exciting
and interesting lives make less than $60k a year.

Wealth is relative.

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jodrellblank
"You don't want a million dollars, you just want to be happy and if you're
resourceful you can do that without it. Unless you do want a million dollars
in which case you're too stupid to get it or to rearrange your life to be
happy without it. Sucks to be you I guess. Did I tell you about all that time
I spent freelance travelling yet?"

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ck2
Of course you want a million dollars.

You just don't want the burden/responsibility that comes with it.

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Maro
But is it financially a good idea? Is it safe? What if you want to have a
family?

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ojbyrne
But of course you need affiliate links. Kind of undermines the message.

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charlesdm
I'm going to do some travelling this year. I started remote freelancing
recently, so this is pretty much perfect to combine with some travelling.

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Charuru
Nah, you don't want a million dollars. Some people do: <http://maxkle.in/do-
you-really-want-to-be-rich/>

