3 ms·

This is normal. You will get used to it, and you will likely bounce to your personality before the windfall. You have solved one problem in life that most peopl

by diego 5y ago

This is normal. You will get used to it, and you will likely bounce to your personality before the windfall. You have solved one problem in life that most people never solve, and that puts you in a very small group. However, the rest of the problems are still there. The need to work for money can no longer distract you from them. You still need human connection and purpose. You still will age, have to worry about your health, etc. There are many jobs you will not want to take because you know that you don't need to, and that makes it hard to put up with all the bullshit of a typical job. Ultimately you may want to focus on creative pursuits, perhaps investments, maybe start a business or a nonprofit to do something you find fulfilling. Right now I'd say be patient, get used to your new life, focus on investing the money wisely. I'd say buy a place to live and invest the rest in a conservative portfolio designed to keep up with inflation. Roboinvesting is the easiest, or you could do it yourself via traditional brokers: a mix of bond and stock index ETFs, perhaps a small amount of crypto (I'd say no more than 10%) if you still believe in it.

spuriousfox 5y ago
Yeah this really resonates. It's like for most of us, money is a motivator that distracts us from dealing with the problems or issues that are always there anyways. We are bred to believe if we just solve the money issue, everything else will fall in line. And becoming rich is a great way to realize how much of a myth that is.
- Hoasi 5y ago
  > We are bred to believe if we just solve the money issue, everything else will fall in line. And becoming rich is a great way to realize how much of a myth that is. Exactly. Not to mention the additional rich people's problems that poor or even merely well-off people don't have and could hardly imagine.
mcshicks 5y ago
I was going to make a similar comment. Basically don't do anything for a few years to get used to the money, although I might rent for a while before I buy unless I really knew I wanted to live in that place. It's a good time to figure out what you want to do in terms of investing, and more importantly why you want to invest that way. You don't necessarily have to do anything with your money or your life. Your instinct not to talk about the money to anyone is correct. You might consider working part time for any friends or close colleagues you have who could use your help. I find helping people I care about is a good source of motivation for me. Good Luck!
MuffinFlavored 5y ago
s/EFT/ETF
asimpletune 5y ago
I don’t mean to distract from the main thread, but could or anyone else elaborate on their experiences with roboinvestors?
- phamilton 5y ago
  Yeah. Dump your money into betterment or wealthfront or even just a vanguard target date fund. Fees are pretty low. Some will say it's unnecessary and you can avoid those fees if you do X on your own, where X is some form of buying index funds directly. I my experience the anxiety and uncertainty of doing so makes people delay and the loss of returns from not investing at all greatly outweighs the difference in fees (at least in the short term). TL;DR; If you aren't investing at all, robo advisors are great. If you already have a diversified strategy then that's great too. They add value mostly by lowering the knowledge barrier to entry.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
throwaway2331 5y ago
Note: "OP" is in reference to the GP/original poster of this "Ask HN." The greatest irony is that everything that was beaten into your unconscious mind as to what you "should do," and all the ways you learned to seek out human connection: all go out the window when you get a massive windfall. The greatest two "shapes" our culture warps our spirits into are: a need for money (for its own sake) or a need for recognition (preftige) -- once the basic material necessities have been acquired (viz. stability of income and mind, reliable shelter and food, routine sleep, etc.). None of this is relevant anymore. You don't care what anyone else thinks about you, because you're completely self-sufficient. Just dump all your money into a balanced portfolio, and live off the income generated a la dividends and interest for the rest of your life. You no longer need anyone to satisfy physical needs. No boss to placate, no spouse to manage, and no "bridges" to tend. Similarly, it becomes impossible to socialize with the majority of people. The things that their minds focus on, the habits they have, the lives they live are completely unrelatable when you have enough money to never doing anything again (yes, €7m is enough, if you're not a degenerate or foolish). It's like you're both from different planets, speaking completely alien languages, and unable to ever really understand one another. This assumes you'll find anyone truly interested in genuine socialization for pleasure alone; because as soon as those who still need to carry out the "daily toil" find out about your NW, the agendas come out in full force. You'll find that no, you never really had friends (or family). You simply had associates with mutual interests -- a give and take, transactional relationship was all that connected you. OP, the only reason you were driven to do all those things was because you wanted to climb the social hierarchy. You saw your fellow apes with more money, more brains, and more status, and just like all those chimps before you, you thought "I need that. I gotta keep up. If I don't, I'm worthless. A loser, and no one will like me. I won't feel good about myself." But that's just an evolutionary trick nature pulled on us, because more-often-than-not animals with deep social hierarchies survived and reproduced more than those without. Once you've escaped the gravitational pull (see: the need to "fit" into a tribe in order to survive), you'll find that it was a scam all along. That all this shit around you exists to keep you busy so you don't start thinking too much about things, and can carry out your genetic directives (usually to the benefit of others), and then die. The tragedy with you, OP, is that you're a young kid who never had to train his nervous system to become another "robot" that could continue successfully functioning in his society, until he became a corpse. You didn't work for that money, and so your spirit was never molded into the two most-successful "shapes": a need for more money, or a need for more prestige -- as you see with people that once started out with little, but forced themselves to work towards more (even when they're in the top 1% in either, they'll still keep going after more, because that's how they've molded themselves: to be a machine stuck in a loop -- coincidentally, staving off depression and other such "meaninglessness."). You're basically on the same level as a trust-fund baby. What exactly do you do besides indulge in hedonism? If you're one of the aforementioned "keep on chugging," work-robots (an evolutionary-fit path) that have trained themselves to keep busy, then creative pursuits, investments, a new business venture, or non-profit/charitable work is what's in the cards. But OP isn't. Those things will never be satisfactory for him (remind me in 10 years). All that's left for the modern nouveau nobleman's son is hedonism -- spending away all that money on pleasure-pursuits (drugs, sex, expensive items) just to feel something at all. If he was raised middle class, he'll probably still have the ingrained "shame" about such things, and will instead focus on more sedentary (see: "boring") habits, slowly wasting away. But if he was raised lower class, then he'll most likely fall into hedonism, the same as the accidents of the upper class. That's the truth: OP's life will be aimless, because he doesn't have decades of experience "aiming" at something, and going after it. The only thing left is that, in a time long ago, aristocrats would send their sons off to learn the classics, and get an "education," so that they wouldn't become flagrant hedonists, wanton raping, murdering, and making an all-around mess of things; instead their energies would be pushed in other, more "acceptable" directions, decided by pedagogists. TL;DR OP: May I recommend dropping out of the sciences and other "hard" or niche topics? Go study with the ivory-tower academicians in a field you are actually interested in. Perhaps look into philosophy, or other "soft" topics, where nothing ever gets "done," and you can burn through the rest of your time on this earth, forever "working" on it. Maybe even go learn Ancient Greek, and see if you can rekindle some sort of greater humanity within yourself (doubtful, if that's not where your values lie). Whatever it is, you will not find any meaning. Even if you decide to throw away all that money to be "rid" of it, you're forever a changed person -- and you can never go back. Find some tolerable pursuits that keep you busy, and don't leave you much time to think and ruminate. Something pleasurable, but not devilishly indulgent. Something sustainable.

by diego 5y ago

spuriousfox 5y ago

Yeah this really resonates. It's like for most of us, money is a motivator that distracts us from dealing with the problems or issues that are always there anyways. We are bred to believe if we just solve the money issue, everything else will fall in line. And becoming rich is a great way to realize how much of a myth that is.

Hoasi 5y ago
> We are bred to believe if we just solve the money issue, everything else will fall in line. And becoming rich is a great way to realize how much of a myth that is. Exactly. Not to mention the additional rich people's problems that poor or even merely well-off people don't have and could hardly imagine.

mcshicks 5y ago

I was going to make a similar comment. Basically don't do anything for a few years to get used to the money, although I might rent for a while before I buy unless I really knew I wanted to live in that place. It's a good time to figure out what you want to do in terms of investing, and more importantly why you want to invest that way. You don't necessarily have to do anything with your money or your life. Your instinct not to talk about the money to anyone is correct. You might consider working part time for any friends or close colleagues you have who could use your help. I find helping people I care about is a good source of motivation for me. Good Luck!

MuffinFlavored 5y ago

s/EFT/ETF

asimpletune 5y ago

I don’t mean to distract from the main thread, but could or anyone else elaborate on their experiences with roboinvestors?

phamilton 5y ago
Yeah. Dump your money into betterment or wealthfront or even just a vanguard target date fund. Fees are pretty low. Some will say it's unnecessary and you can avoid those fees if you do X on your own, where X is some form of buying index funds directly. I my experience the anxiety and uncertainty of doing so makes people delay and the loss of returns from not investing at all greatly outweighs the difference in fees (at least in the short term). TL;DR; If you aren't investing at all, robo advisors are great. If you already have a diversified strategy then that's great too. They add value mostly by lowering the knowledge barrier to entry.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

throwaway2331 5y ago

Note: "OP" is in reference to the GP/original poster of this "Ask HN." The greatest irony is that everything that was beaten into your unconscious mind as to what you "should do," and all the ways you learned to seek out human connection: all go out the window when you get a massive windfall. The greatest two "shapes" our culture warps our spirits into are: a need for money (for its own sake) or a need for recognition (preftige) -- once the basic material necessities have been acquired (viz. stability of income and mind, reliable shelter and food, routine sleep, etc.). None of this is relevant anymore. You don't care what anyone else thinks about you, because you're completely self-sufficient. Just dump all your money into a balanced portfolio, and live off the income generated a la dividends and interest for the rest of your life. You no longer need anyone to satisfy physical needs. No boss to placate, no spouse to manage, and no "bridges" to tend. Similarly, it becomes impossible to socialize with the majority of people. The things that their minds focus on, the habits they have, the lives they live are completely unrelatable when you have enough money to never doing anything again (yes, €7m is enough, if you're not a degenerate or foolish). It's like you're both from different planets, speaking completely alien languages, and unable to ever really understand one another. This assumes you'll find anyone truly interested in genuine socialization for pleasure alone; because as soon as those who still need to carry out the "daily toil" find out about your NW, the agendas come out in full force. You'll find that no, you never really had friends (or family). You simply had associates with mutual interests -- a give and take, transactional relationship was all that connected you. OP, the only reason you were driven to do all those things was because you wanted to climb the social hierarchy. You saw your fellow apes with more money, more brains, and more status, and just like all those chimps before you, you thought "I need that. I gotta keep up. If I don't, I'm worthless. A loser, and no one will like me. I won't feel good about myself." But that's just an evolutionary trick nature pulled on us, because more-often-than-not animals with deep social hierarchies survived and reproduced more than those without. Once you've escaped the gravitational pull (see: the need to "fit" into a tribe in order to survive), you'll find that it was a scam all along. That all this shit around you exists to keep you busy so you don't start thinking too much about things, and can carry out your genetic directives (usually to the benefit of others), and then die. The tragedy with you, OP, is that you're a young kid who never had to train his nervous system to become another "robot" that could continue successfully functioning in his society, until he became a corpse. You didn't work for that money, and so your spirit was never molded into the two most-successful "shapes": a need for more money, or a need for more prestige -- as you see with people that once started out with little, but forced themselves to work towards more (even when they're in the top 1% in either, they'll still keep going after more, because that's how they've molded themselves: to be a machine stuck in a loop -- coincidentally, staving off depression and other such "meaninglessness."). You're basically on the same level as a trust-fund baby. What exactly do you do besides indulge in hedonism? If you're one of the aforementioned "keep on chugging," work-robots (an evolutionary-fit path) that have trained themselves to keep busy, then creative pursuits, investments, a new business venture, or non-profit/charitable work is what's in the cards. But OP isn't. Those things will never be satisfactory for him (remind me in 10 years). All that's left for the modern nouveau nobleman's son is hedonism -- spending away all that money on pleasure-pursuits (drugs, sex, expensive items) just to feel something at all. If he was raised middle class, he'll probably still have the ingrained "shame" about such things, and will instead focus on more sedentary (see: "boring") habits, slowly wasting away. But if he was raised lower class, then he'll most likely fall into hedonism, the same as the accidents of the upper class. That's the truth: OP's life will be aimless, because he doesn't have decades of experience "aiming" at something, and going after it. The only thing left is that, in a time long ago, aristocrats would send their sons off to learn the classics, and get an "education," so that they wouldn't become flagrant hedonists, wanton raping, murdering, and making an all-around mess of things; instead their energies would be pushed in other, more "acceptable" directions, decided by pedagogists. TL;DR OP: May I recommend dropping out of the sciences and other "hard" or niche topics? Go study with the ivory-tower academicians in a field you are actually interested in. Perhaps look into philosophy, or other "soft" topics, where nothing ever gets "done," and you can burn through the rest of your time on this earth, forever "working" on it. Maybe even go learn Ancient Greek, and see if you can rekindle some sort of greater humanity within yourself (doubtful, if that's not where your values lie). Whatever it is, you will not find any meaning. Even if you decide to throw away all that money to be "rid" of it, you're forever a changed person -- and you can never go back. Find some tolerable pursuits that keep you busy, and don't leave you much time to think and ruminate. Something pleasurable, but not devilishly indulgent. Something sustainable.