Wealth

I have said something on the air a few times which I want to repeat here.

Wealth is wasted on the wealthy.

Now before anyone calls me Johnny Wealth-Redistribution, most wealthy people understand the book value of the money they have, and many of them have good lives, because they can.  My whole point consists of one thing;  many people with 10's of millions of dollars, 100's of million's of dollars, and even billions of dollars, are fools because out of ignorance, stupidity or near maniacal drive, they don't just walk away from the constricts of life.

Have you ever taken the time to think about how much money someone would need to own to ensure they lead an amazing life without ever having to do anything they didn't want to do, ever again?  I peg it at $50 million.  Once a person has $50 million after taxes, they could lead a very comfortable life (please!).  You're eating out every meal (a nice one too), you never have to make a car or house payment again, you have good tickets to every theater performance and sporting event in your town, you could travel in style, dress anyway you want and see pretty much anything you ever wanted to see.  Heck, you could sit in bed all day long and surf the internet.  Where people with $50 million get into trouble is when they get outrageous with what they do, like put a shark tank in their garage, build their own space plane or sleep with a certain celebrity.  If you can keep the obscene bucket list to a minimum, you can lead the first class life and never have to worry.  If you are a little frugal with your $50 million, you can leave a nice chunk of change to the kiddos.  If you have ten figures or higher, you have so much money you can sleep with that celebrity in the shark tank on the space plane.  Obscene away!

Yet how many of these uber-wealthy people still get up every morning, get dressed (in a suit no less!), drive into their office, and work.  Yeah, actually work.  I understand they're more than likely not over seeing the day to day numbers of their company or investments, but they are taking calls, having meetings and and reading reports and analysis.  Why?  Sure I get the type-A personalty thing, and it is hard to turn off the business switch, but how many people would choose to jump through other peoples hoops when they owned that much money?

I also understand there are people who will dismiss me under the guise of the lottery mentality.  "Sure Matt, $50 million would be great in a lump sum but it's a different feeling when you earn it.  You just can't walk away that easily."  That's my point, YES YOU CAN!  You can walk, put on your favorite pair of shorts, the t-shirt of your choosing and wave to your kids every morning as they head off to private school.  You're right. I have not had to keep up the image of a luxurious lifestyle, and that $50 million, with my modest suburban house, practical cars, and frugal life would have a very different spend pattern for me.  But there is the problem, you've been so busy chasing the brass ring, you don't even realize you've been grasping it for awhile.

And don't get me started on multi billionaires who still go into the office.  What are you doing? You've won!!!  Challenge quit years ago!  Go buy your own country and impose yourself as lifetime ruler, give your money away to charitable groups so for centuries your name will be associated with benevolence, or find a hollow volcano you can turn into your lair and await Bond.

Wealthy people, ask yourself these questions:  How are your kids?  Are they happy?  Are they always trying to get your approval, sacrificing everything to do so?  Do they understand the value of the life you have earned for them?  Are they spoiled brats with a machiavellian level of entitlement?  Will they bitterly fight each other to the death after your gone because they all learned from you that unless you have all the money you're a failure?  If you feel as if you would answer those questions negatively, then quit.  Quit and work as hard on your family as you did to get the money you cherish.

I appreciate hard work.  I respect the heck out of someone who starts with nothing and ends up in the upper echelon of the economic sector, but what are you doing it for?  What else are you trying to achieve?  Wealth is wasted on the wealthy when the wealthy realize, too late, that even though they could have stopped working decades earlier and lived an amazing life, they didn't because of a attempt to create a legacy few would appreciate.  Instead, the only legacy they leave behind is the one about the fool and their money.