Actually, a further thought about my higher-wealth friends. About half of them got there by a good mix of ability and determination, but half of them just seeme

Actually, a further thought about my higher-wealth friends. About half of them got there by a good mix of ability and determination, but half of them just seemed to be in the right place at the right time (early engineers at Facebook, engineers at NVidia just as it exploded, etc). The latter aspect could sway the decision either way: "time off" is almost never the right time and place, so reduces the chances you'll be in that group. But the fact that this group exists, and the randomness by which one can be included, may take the lustre off of being in the high-net-worth group to begin with, if you don't have strong intrinsic desires to have a ton more money than what you'd need to live reasonably comfortably.