I am not rich. But I just wonder. This being an elite traders forum surely must have people who have been there, done that. Is it possible to work very hard to be rich all your life and after you got it, you realize that it may not be what you want after all? After you become rich, what are things, if any, that make you envious of folks that are not as rich as you?
Quality relationships is achievable. But good looks, youth, sex appeal ... oh dear, you are guaranteed to lose them as you age, rich or poor.
When you're not rich, it sounds like it would be fun to have $100 million dollars sitting in the bank so that you could do whatever you want. What most don't realize is that when you have that kind of cash, you are different now from the people you know. Basically imagine you're wearing a nice suit and you're walking down a street where there are tons of homeless beggars. You can give them money, but they just want more. You eventually find yourself only able to hang around people with the same amount of money as you, and people that have a ton of it like you are pretty busy living their lives and running their businesses. If you are not keeping yourself extremely busy once you are rich, you're going to be miserable. In other words, it's like a snowball effect. You make $100 million and you're not going to be happy until you have $200 million. You have $200 million? then you want $400 million...ect
Wide range in how people value having "enough/lots" of money. All I know for certain... "I've been poor, and I've been rich. Rich is better." If you are one who isn't satisfied unless you have a $20 Million house, a $1 Million Ferrari and a $10 Million Gulf Stream jet... likely no amount of money will make you happy. Being "rich" for most of us is about having enough money so that you get to enjoy the things you like without having to "spend your time toiling at some task and in some place you don't really want to be simply to make money".
Since we all probably know that all opinions are the result of our own experiences, I will share a story about my Fiancee's father. He climbed the corporate ladder of success and became the "North American Sales Director" of a major brand name software company you would all recognize. Along the way he was given company stock options as bonuses and played the game of holding them and selling at the right time very well. HIS GOAL all along was to put ALL 5 of his kids through college so they could each start their post educated life with no debt. Well I happen to be marrying his YOUNGEST daughter so I was there when his dream was realized and she graduated from college. That was a few years ago now, and although he has two paid off homes, two paid off cars, and five "paid off" children's education, he has found himself in a place where he doesn't know what to do. You can only golf so many times a week, you can only visit the kids/grandkids so many times a year, and you can only go shopping for so much "stuff" before buying new stuff gets old. I don't know that I have a moral to this story but what I do know is that he made many sacrifices in the early years of the kids lives to reach his goal, but after he achieved it he didn't have anything else in mind and has since been searching for a new reason to give his life / work PURPOSE. I think about that regularly as I try to find a purpose that will survive before, during and after "RICH" is achieved...