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Not having debt can be very, very freeing. Same goes for expenses. I'm still a software developer because it pays well, not because I really want to be slinging

Not having debt can be very, very freeing. Same goes for expenses. I'm still a software developer because it pays well, not because I really want to be slinging code anymore. If I didn't have a mortgage and child care to worry about I would have a lot more freedom to switch jobs to do something I would enjoy but pays significantly less.

EpicEng 8y ago
Sure, that's certainly valid, but it's an emotional perspective. From a financial perspective I'd rather have my money working for me.
- loso 8y ago
  A lot of times the emotional impact trumps the financial impact. If thats one less thing I stress about then that makes more room in my mind to make more money if I wanted to.
- i_made_a_booboo 8y ago
  TL;DR - there are other things to optimize for than the maximum amount of money possible. It might not even be a sensible goal. An extremely common theme heard from people with a lot of money is to get your money working for you. Another extremely common theme is you hear from the same people is after a while they realized it just didn't make them happy like they thought it was going to. Theoretically there is a certain maximum level of feeling good that's possible in a day. My goal these days is to optimize for that. I'm not there yet, but I can see a path to it. At some point the pursuit of money puts pressure against some of that happiness in one form or another. At least that's been my experience and observations. It's not an absolute rule but a reasonable hueristic. If from an emotional perspective it wasn't possible to feel any better than you did, what would more money actually do for you? IMO a lot of people need to dig much deeper on their 'why' for chasing the maximum amount of money possible. It's not 'wrong' to do so, nor am I judging anyone for doing it, I just think it's quite a one sided perspective that that should be the goal and that alone. It's mostly about status and getting laid at an instinctive level. I realized this after already having a child, so I've technically passed on my genes and recently a vasectomy, so I can't even pass on any more genes. Yet my instincts are still the same. Chase after status, position yourself to be the fittest mate possible. We just can't turn those drives off, so once we've earned enough money and our happiness is no longer increasing as a function of getting more money at some point after that we actually hit an inflection point and things start to go the other way. I can totally see how a roof over your head that can't be taken away from you and low AF overheads makes life feel like a breeze. That's actually worth a lot, just not in Dollars.
- jexah 8y ago
  "Life is to be spent, not saved."

EpicEng 8y ago

Sure, that's certainly valid, but it's an emotional perspective. From a financial perspective I'd rather have my money working for me.

loso 8y ago
A lot of times the emotional impact trumps the financial impact. If thats one less thing I stress about then that makes more room in my mind to make more money if I wanted to.
i_made_a_booboo 8y ago
TL;DR - there are other things to optimize for than the maximum amount of money possible. It might not even be a sensible goal. An extremely common theme heard from people with a lot of money is to get your money working for you. Another extremely common theme is you hear from the same people is after a while they realized it just didn't make them happy like they thought it was going to. Theoretically there is a certain maximum level of feeling good that's possible in a day. My goal these days is to optimize for that. I'm not there yet, but I can see a path to it. At some point the pursuit of money puts pressure against some of that happiness in one form or another. At least that's been my experience and observations. It's not an absolute rule but a reasonable hueristic. If from an emotional perspective it wasn't possible to feel any better than you did, what would more money actually do for you? IMO a lot of people need to dig much deeper on their 'why' for chasing the maximum amount of money possible. It's not 'wrong' to do so, nor am I judging anyone for doing it, I just think it's quite a one sided perspective that that should be the goal and that alone. It's mostly about status and getting laid at an instinctive level. I realized this after already having a child, so I've technically passed on my genes and recently a vasectomy, so I can't even pass on any more genes. Yet my instincts are still the same. Chase after status, position yourself to be the fittest mate possible. We just can't turn those drives off, so once we've earned enough money and our happiness is no longer increasing as a function of getting more money at some point after that we actually hit an inflection point and things start to go the other way. I can totally see how a roof over your head that can't be taken away from you and low AF overheads makes life feel like a breeze. That's actually worth a lot, just not in Dollars.
jexah 8y ago
"Life is to be spent, not saved."