No Stupid Questions

Definitions matter, 18% of American households are millionaires. Many of them live just as you describe.

Ultra wealthy is likely much higher. Let's say $100 million or more. This is unlikely to happen overnight (in the literal sense.)

I don't see how it wouldn't change you. Even giving the money away would change your time use. (If I gave away $10 million, I would be checking on how it is used. And be very critical.)

Even just removing annoyances will change you. A nicer car, then why deal with traffic. Food prep turns into no going to the store, which turns into not knowing about advances in checkout scanners (see George HW Bush during some election.)

Maybe it is not your not changing. The world always changes. Will you change with it?

I think most people who come into money probably say the same thing, but I think it probably depends on a few factors, sociability and impulsivity probably being up there. I think as your standard of living rises, it’s just going to change most people who aren’t well-grounded. Some people blow it all at once, wanting the money to change them because they weren’t happy with their life before, others change over time, but both are changed just from the experience of not having to deal with the anxiety of “survival” anymore.

When you’re not worried about making your rent/mortgage or getting all your bills paid each month, that’s just naturally going to free you up to think about other things. When barriers to life dissolve away like that, you stop having reasons to not do things what you feel like doing. “I’ve always wanted to see London/France/underpants, I should just do it,” or “I could get a nice entertainment system in the living room… and my bedroom… and the bathroom…” At some point, your standard of living is so far removed from “normal” people, that “it” has already happened, money changed you.

Congratulations, you are living your life according to some values and standards, instead of just being envious and dissatisfied all the time.

It depends on how much money it is, and whether you keep it all.

If the amount were, say, less than 10 million, you'd probably do exactly what you say. If the amount were more but you gave a bunch away to have around 10 mil or less, same thing.

If the amount is billions and you keep it all for yourself, that's when it starts doing things to you. In order to keep that for yourself, you have to justify it internally--why is it you deserve this money while others are struggling? The only way to justify it is to demonize the poor--believing that poverty is a moral failing, or otherwise believing that you're better than others.

Extreme wealth hoarding is bad for everyone--both the poor and the rich.

Over the years Ive worked up the salary I earn. I am not wealthy, just earn more than most. I am bad with money at the best of times, but I found my spending just naturally grew as I had more available to spend. If I was suddenly ultra wealthy, at the start I would probably live “normally” but honestly I would likely end up spending vastly more money just because its there

Being rich turns you greedy. Not you in particular, rather: any of us. Almost everyone. You become more worried about hanging on to what you have and less concerned with the welfare of others. The good news is that you can be reminded to be compassionate and it will help. If you are asked to imagine yourself in another's place, you can become more aware of how others feel. If, however, you are left to your own devices, you are likely to change for the worse without even noticing. I am thankful Melinda Gates married Bill and got him to engage in charities. I think a lesser woman may have allowed him to be a horrible person.

There's lots of studies out there, but here's a quick link with the summary of a few of them: https://blog.ted.com/6-studies-of-money-and-the-mind/

Yeah, everyone always talks about having a "hole" they need to fill with something... I'm pretty sure I don't have that. I enjoy stuff, I'm a pretty happy person. But I don't really -need- anything, other than sustenance stuff. I like having more stuff, but it's not that important to me. I live well below my means, so my extra money just kind if piles up. My dad always says money just sitting there in the bank could be "working for you", but then he always lives paycheck to paycheck and stresses about money all the time, that lifestyle didn't "work for me". I'd rather just have that money sitting there and be stress free instead, that works for me.

I like VR quite a bit, so I like to make sure I have a current headset and computer. But those are both pretty cheap. Computer is like 3% of my yearly income, but I only need a new one every 5 years or so, and the old one still sells for decent. And the headsets are less than 1% of yearly income.

If I won a lottery or something, I would probably just become a secret philanthropist, well, more of one. But don't tell anyone, it's a secret. I do like just randomly helping people with stuff. Money makes that easy, but I help with whatever I can. Despite being autistic, I am somehow inexplicably also strongly empathic. So I'm ultimately a people pleaser, but very much an introvert with heavy social anxiety. So yeah, I like to make people feel good, without them knowing it was me, cuz getting credit would suck for me.

I don't think we really get to choose alot of our behaviour, we are mostly a product of our genetics plus our life experiences. I'm honestly not even sure about free will. Did I actually make any choices that could have been different, or was the answer I eventually settled on always going to be what I was going to do based on everything that happened leading up to it and my perception of those events. I suppose ultimately, it doesn't matter. I like the way I am, and I wouldn't change anything if I could, so it doesn't matter if I probably can't anyway.

I think most people who win the lottery for example, make bad choices and end up losing that money anyways.

I'd say it's possible to a degree. But it's certainly not easy. If you own a bigger house, you need someone to clean it. Same for other nice things like a big pool. A large, well-maintained lawn etc. There will be people envying your wealth and you got to deal with them. You need someone to manage your money and assets, or have lots of spare time to deal with all of that. And it'll be at the cost of your hobbies. If you have too may people doing stuff for you, you need people to manage those people...

If you did get a seriously large lump of cash… after a settling in period a lot of changes will happen, and you will be happy they did (IMHO).

The reason is that one of the biggest gifts that wealth gives you is TIME. A lot of the day to day crap that the rest of us need to deal with just evaporates. No need to shop (there are people for that). Want to travel… people will organise everything. There will be no waiting in lines at airports, at restaurants, at government offices… there are people for that. Someone to clean, someone to pick up the kids (unless you want to of course), someone to cook, holidays on a fuck-off huge yacht with crew to manage everything, or just to zip to Paris for the weekend.

You will probably really appreciate not having to deal with most of that crap. Also, while you probably don’t want a stupid large house, you do want privacy and so will want to get a house on 1000 acres in a gorgeous landscape (plus perhaps apartments in various cities that you like).

Imagine moving from a food insecure lifestyle to a secure lifestyle where food, safety, housing is always there. Would you want to keep your old food-insecure lifestyle? No. Same with going from a food secure lifestyle to a time-and-resource abundant lifestyle.

Where do you start from? You're on lemmy, most likely work in tech but are too leftist to get promoted, to the drive a Tesla and get stock option paygrade

If you enjoy your job, and get enough income struggle to fulfill your basic needs, more money is just some extra comfort. Sure you could spend you holiday in a hotel rather than a camping and get designer furnitures rather than IKEA one. You could finally have the free room in you house to set up a lab.

So compared to people who don't even reach the (full time) minimal wage, you are way in advance.

Most rich people don't have such an extravagant lifestyle. And many people who show off areren't that rich( they could become if they stop getting debt and showing off)

If you're not a wage slave and have a bigger home, think of all the hobbies and interests you can pursue, new things to learn, time to meet people and space to host them, charity work... And you have the energy for things that a job would drain from you otherwise. I think life would be drastically different.

I honestly think most people would do what you think you would do: Just reinforce what makes you happy and remove stressors.

We just notice more the ones who believe happiness is showing off how big they are.

In addition to what you listed I think you'd probably travel more and consider hiring people to do regular house cleaning and garden maintenance.

I'd think you would end up living differently just because of the scale.

Let's say you were suddenly handed 100 million dollars. Lottery, inheritance, whatever.

I don't know what your annual salary is, but for me, that's 694.4 years worth of annual income.

So "paying myself" my current annual salary, which NGL, is pretty comfortable, it would take 694.4 years to burn through $100M.

Of course interest changes that as well. Capping yourself at whatever your annual income is would likely see your wealth continuing to grow and never shrink.

All of a sudden, a world of possibilities opens to you. Vacation rentals? Screw that, vacation HOMES. AirBNB them 96% of the time (50/52 weeks a year) and that's more money on the pile.