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I've never understood why most millionaires don't use the money to do interesting things at all
by cptaj 5y ago
I've never understood why most millionaires don't use the money to do interesting things at all
- ausudhz 5y agoFear or loosing them all
- jdavis703 5y agoAn average house in most Bay Area counties costs over $1,000,000. That’s even outside SF and Silicon Valley. Being a millionaire is hardly enough money to do interesting things that require intensive capital.
- chacho 5y agoIn the US. Different story in Europe or other places
- alisonkisk 5y agoLand is expensive, not houses. Land is non depreciating, financed by loans, not substantially part of wealth. Houses are mostly under $300K depreciating consumables.
- dragonwriter 5y ago> An average house in most Bay Area counties costs over $1,000,000. Not unless 2 (San Francisco and Santa Clara) is more than half of 9. > That’s even outside SF and Silicon Valley. Nope, its pretty much exactly SF and Silicon Valley. https://cdn.nar.realtor/sites/default/files/documents/2021-q1-county-median-home-prices-by-state-06-21-2021.pdf https://cdn.nar.realtor/sites/default/files/documents/2021-q...
- adamvalve 5y agoSeriously, most billionaires are so fucking boring. Imagine all the interesting things you could do. Most of them just buy homes and yachts. Who’s spending billions on a future tech iron man suit or building a utopia under the sea? Not that those are worthwhile but it would at least be interesting.
- duped 5y agoWhy go to space when you can influence elections and government policy without accountability
- burlesona 5y agoMost Billionaires are only Billionaires because of the value of the company they own a huge number of shares in, and they’re busy running that company which consumes all their time and energy. They also can’t cash out their shares (or at least not most of them) without risk of losing control of their company, so they don’t actually cash in on their vast wealth. Instead they’re happy to be a Billionaire on paper and “merely” live as a Millionaire. Edit since I’m getting downvoted: yes the ultra rich can and do live off debt with their stock as collateral, but that gets you to the “merely” living a luxury lifestyle point. It’s not a viable mechanism for funding SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, etc, which is the kind of “interesting stuff” this thread was talking about.
- alisonkisk 5y agoThis is not true. They can sell a fraction of shares, or get loans against collateral, and have $billion of cash is to spend.
- v7p1Qbt1im 5y agoNot really. They just get loans at incredibly low interest rates, using their equity as collateral. They can deduct dept/interest payments from taxes and never actually have to sell a lot of their stock. That way their wealth can accumulate and they don‘t really generate income. Almost like the tax code is skewed in their favor.
- burlesona 5y agoMillionaires don’t have enough money. Branson is a billionaire. Most Millionaires do all kinds of interesting things, it’s just that those things are in the same realm that ordinary people can. Eg they go to Aspen and ski, which lots of non-millionaires do, but unlike the plebes they stay in a super high-end hotel or condo, or just buy a vacation home there if they visit often enough. Being a millionaire, < 10M net worth, is not actually that rare or exceptional.
- nine_k 5y agoBringing SpaceX to the first spaceflight only took about $100M, firmly in the "millionaire" range. Falcon-1 was not capable of carrying a human to space though.
- spacedcowboy 5y agoThat's 100x what you need to be a millionaire. I'm a millionaire, a few times over in fact, but there's no way I'm launching a space plane.
- nine_k 5y agoStill $100M is a literal order of magnitude away from a billionaire status, mentioned upthread. In any case, a millionaire can technically have wealth spanning 3 orders of magnitude; no way this could be a homogeneous category regarding what's a "millionaire" is capable of financially.
- Johnny555 5y agoPretty much the only person who can throw $100M at a "fun" project that may never amount to anything more than a hobby is someone at the billionaire level. Few hundred millionaires are passionate enough about something to spend their entire fortune on it.
- lifty 5y agoAre you doing anything else interesting? Genuine question out of curiosity.
- nine_k 5y agoMaybe they do, but those things are not very interesting for us, or not very showy. (Also, a millionaire is technically someone with at least $1M net worth; thanks to inflation, this title is now more accessible than ever. Just owning a semi-decent house in the Valley affords you that.)
- zeroonetwothree 5y agoRather owning any house
- Johnny555 5y agoJust owning a semi-decent house in the Valley affords you that. Of course, many of those people don't really own the house, the bank does... and for many of them, their million dollar equity in their house exists only on paper.
- orzig 5y agoThen you will love this documentary of an early Google engineer jumping from the edge of space in a custom suit: https://www.space.com/alan-eustace-stratospheric-skydive-film-netflix.html https://www.space.com/alan-eustace-stratospheric-skydive-fil... His wife’s commentary is the best part
- inglor_cz 5y agoSome interesting things are scary, though. If I were a millionaire, I would still be afraid to try out deep diving or rock climbing, even though I greatly enjoy reading about them or watching the videos. My experience is that I will panic in certain situations and that could easily be fatal. Just yesterday we had a thread about the famous cave rescue here. Brrr, the very idea is attractive and repulsive at the same time. Perhaps Branson has a lower than average threshold of risk aversion.
- sobellian 5y agoThere's a joke that the quickest way to become a millionaire is to be a billionaire with a rocket company. Musk certainly bucked the trend in that regard.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- KineticLensman 5y agoTechnically, my wife and I are millionaires. This is a combination of the (anticipated) value of our house, our pension funds and some investments. We are retired and living comfortably but within our means. Our funds have to last for the rest of our lives. There is no way we could suddenly use our 'wealth' to fund a 'millionaire' project.
- throwaway803453 5y agoI have argued this point with my old married former union-employee relatives that see themselves as "poor". Combined they have a $6000/month pension. When I explain I will need to save $2M+ to achieve that income they suggest that I am just greedy/out-of-touch millionaire who should be giving more money away.
- Applejinx 5y agoThis math seems wrong. In particular, I can't tell whether your $6000/mo is meant to be interest: in which case you expect to be paid forever and die without ever touching the principal. If you earn no interest and expect to spend $6000 a month forever without ever gaining any passive money accumulation on your principal, you'd go for 27 years before you'd spent your two million. There are also many things you can do with your life if you have $2M (or indeed $1M) that aren't available to pensioners. I'll grant you, they've got some pretty sweet pensions: that seems unusual, but hey, collective bargaining gets better terms for workers and that certainly qualifies. They're not poor unless they're catastrophically bad at money management, but you are indeed a little out of touch: the idea of living off the interest on your wealth is pretty insane and unattainable to any remotely normal person.
- fma 5y agoIt's called safe withdrawal rate...and usually 4% is what people use. $2 million safe withdrawal rate = $6666 per month. Not sure why you are seem to be offended and saying they are out of touch, or insane and unattainable when this is the goal for many people who wish to, and are, living financially independently. Also I'm not sure why you say someone with $2M can achieve something that someone with $6000 pension a month can't...you can definitely borrow against your pension and grab a large lump sump...
- xwdv 5y agoBecause being a millionaire simply is not enough to do “interesting” things. Most people in tech become millionaires around age 30. It’s not uncommon.
- SeanBoocock 5y agoNo they don't? Most people in tech don't live/work in SV, or even the United States. Even for those that do work in SV, most aren't working for FAANG or elsewhere for comparable comp.
- odiroot 5y agoDavid Solomon, the CEO of Goldman Sachs is an electronic music producer.
- dragonwriter 5y agoBecause a million dollars isn't that much money compared to the cost of interesting things. Multibillionaires are a different story.