How the ultra wealthy are not happer than the poor

[MisterVeritis]

Oh yes, I agree. When I got out of law school up to debt to my ears, we bought a house in the inner city of Cleveland. We paid $16,000 but I was paying nearly $700 in law school loans per month. We went to buy a stove, a washer and dryer -- to the scratch and dent corner at Handy Andy. Everything we bought was beat to Pelosi. We were so happy just to have that stuff. The stove slid between cabinets so it didn't show in the kitchen, the washer and dryer went in the basement. Our very first microwave -- the old man I worked for walked in one day and gave us $500 cash OMG WE WERE THRILLED. We bought a microwave, one of those new-fangled things.

Happy times.

If you really believed your tale you know there is a way to return to those thrilling days of yesteryear. Stop doing the job you are paid to do. In a few months you will be unemployed. Become a bagger at a local grocery store. Then you can once again be happy as a poor person.

But you don't really believe your tale. It is a nice fiction based on nostalgia.

[DGUtley]

If you really believed your tale you know there is a way to return to those thrilling days of yesteryear. Stop doing the job you are paid to do. In a few months you will be unemployed. Become a bagger at a local grocery store. Then you can once again be happy as a poor person. But you don't really believe your tale. It is a nice fiction based on nostalgia.

That's not true, maybe. I think there's different kinds of happiness. In 1987 there was happiness in simple pleasures. I had a lot less stress, with a lot less issues. They were very happy times because our options were limited. Our friends were poor, we were poor and though we knew it, we really didn't know it. Now, I run my own law firm, have lots of employees, make whatever I make, have whatever I have, and remember fondly those days when I wasn't the decisionmaker. Maybe it is nostalgia as I age, but things were simpler when our choices were fewer and we were truly grateful for any little thing we got.

[MisterVeritis]

That's not true, maybe. I think there's different kinds of happiness. In 1987 there was happiness in simple pleasures. I had a lot less stress, with a lot less issues. They were very happy times because our options were limited. Our friends were poor, we were poor and though we knew it, we really didn't know it. Now, I run my own law firm, have lots of employees, make whatever I make, have whatever I have, and remember fondly those days when I wasn't the decisionmaker. Maybe it is nostalgia as I age, but things were simpler when our choices were fewer and we were truly grateful for any little thing we got.

LOL. Pure malarky. Nostalgia.

Tell me you never got a rush from being the decision maker.

[DGUtley]

LOL. Pure malarky. Nostalgia.
Tell me you never got a rush from being the decision maker.

Not from running the firm.
I get a rush from making decisions on cases and they come out right. (They don't always)

[MisterVeritis]

Not from running the firm.
I get a rush from making decisions on cases and they come out right. (They don't always)

You could sell your firm to someone else and simply be another lawyer.

[DGUtley]

You could sell your firm to someone else and simply be another lawyer.

Oh how I wish I could. Clients hire lawyers not firms. Without me, my book of business is of no value to my firm -- until I get the two newbies up and comfortable with the clients.

[Captdon]

Here is a quote not taken out of context, "

Mr V I know exactly what it is like to have millions and millions of dollars. I do not have to have it to know what it is like."

That clarifies it a bit more don't you think?

Yea. You do have to have it to know though.

[Captdon]

Oh good heavens MV, the economy could totally collapse and your investments could end up being worthless. Then what? If everything that you have is the only thing that defines you, if you end up with nothing, you are lost.

Everything I am I would still be if I was poor. I still see no reason to be poor and I never did. I'm not poor because I chose not to be.

[Captdon]

Well I already told MR V in another thread that I have had the strange luck to be involved in peoples lives who were millionaires from small time millionaires to mega millionaires. I cant really say anything about it though. But didn't think it's necessary. But I do have first hand knowledge. I will say some of them are relatives. The others were through work. I really didn't want to share that information but I don't want to seem un-genuine. But I was at times involved in their lives and got to see what things were really like. It's nothing to admire.

At least that is how I see it. I am sure there are others who would disagree with me. I know lots of people who would rather be rich and miserable than to be poor. But I have found a real treasure in just being alive.

But I really did like your comment that you said here. I feel the same way. You said it well.

If you don't admire them when they're rich what would you admire in them if they were poor?

[Captdon]

This is exactly right. I used to be in a small apartment when I was younger dirt poor. I had such big wishes. I thought if I could just have a house even a small one with a little piece of land I would be so happy. I didn't realize that back then, I had it all. Later in life when I had a bit more, life was more stressful and more serious. I was in my large house with a yard, and was just looking back admiring the better times when I had what I considered to be nothing. If I had only knew back then that I had it all. I wouldn't have wasted all those dollars on the lotto, and wasted all that time wishing. How silly that was. Back then I was younger had better health, I should have appreciated it better. But I appreciate it all now. Maybe it is a stage we have to go through in order to understand it who knows.

Like when you are really young the older people say wow if only I had that kind of energy, and as a youngster you cant even understand what they mean by that, till you get old. When you are young you just live your life and don't even think about what it is to be young and healthy. But as you get older then you finally realize what you had at the younger age. But while you have it you just live it I guess.

Living some sort of well off isn't by buying lottery tickets and wishes. It's work, plain and simple.