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> claiming they were broke and talking about about their $150 house cleaner I once spent an hour listening to a drunk woman telling me how broke she was. The g

> claiming they were broke and talking about about their $150 house cleaner I once spent an hour listening to a drunk woman telling me how broke she was. The gist was that she wanted to build a 50 horse stable but could only afford one big enough for a dozen horses. She owned about half of Anaheim. She told this to me as she sat across my desk at her condo, which was my post as a near minimum wage security guard. My money angst was probably less than hers.

rsynnott 5mo ago
Well, presumably you didn't have a debilitating horse addiction.
- rsynnott 5mo ago
  (It is fascinating to me, though, how these "I'm broke due to [completely bonkers lifestyle expense]" things span almost all income levels. From "decent salary but has four cars for no obviously explicable reason" to crippling horse addictions, for some people there just seems to be no income level at which they will not screw up their finances.)
  - randycupertino 5mo ago
    I read this book about Michael Jackson called "Untouchable" that detailed how he was $500 million in debt at the time of his death in 2009 due to crazy spending habits. He would walk into an antiques warehouse and buy the entire floor, then rent storage space to hold his new purchases because he had no room in his properties. He also had a 130 person personal staff. His income was $25 million a year but his spending was at $50 million a year. https://www.reddit.com/r/interesting/comments/1fc6wsc/michael_jackson_spending_over_5_million_dollars/ https://www.reddit.com/r/interesting/comments/1fc6wsc/michae...
  - simplemindedbot 5mo ago
    “Crippling horse addiction” has so many meanings even in context. From heroin to animal cruelty to gambling to horse dancing. Wonderful phrase, I tip my hat to you.
randycupertino 5mo ago
Horse expenses are bonkers. I wish all my enemies get into horse stuff as a hobby. I used to work for a boss who made $5 million a year and he would get into SCREAMING fights with his wife in the office over the phone about how they couldn't afford to fly the horses to Europe for her to compete in horse dressage competitions. I'd be working away three doors down and in the hallway he'd be hollering from his office, "LINDAAAA!!!!! WE CAN'T AFFORD IT!!!!!" He was making $5 million a year and he was MISERABLE. Those stupid horse expenses completely drained his life and finances to the detriment of everything else, he was one of the most unhappy people I've ever encountered in life.
- mathgeek 5mo ago
  > I used to work for a boss who made $5 million a year and he would get into SCREAMING fights with his wife in the office over the phone about how they couldn't afford to fly the horses to Europe for her to compete in horse dressage competitions. Something I hold as a truth in life is that the neither money nor what it's spent on is the issue when it comes to spouses screaming at each other about what they can afford.
- ForHackernews 5mo ago
  Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.
  - randycupertino 5mo ago
    I think a lot of it is comparison, too. He was jealous of the guy who made $20 million a year and took netjets everywhere. That guy was jealous of the guy who was a billionaire and had his own private jet. They all wanted to be the next rung up the ladder!
    - rsynnott 5mo ago
      Kind of sad, really. They could probably save quite a lot of money in the long run by spending a few quid on a psychologist (assuming the horses could spare it).

rsynnott 5mo ago

Well, presumably you didn't have a debilitating horse addiction.

rsynnott 5mo ago
(It is fascinating to me, though, how these "I'm broke due to [completely bonkers lifestyle expense]" things span almost all income levels. From "decent salary but has four cars for no obviously explicable reason" to crippling horse addictions, for some people there just seems to be no income level at which they will not screw up their finances.)
- randycupertino 5mo ago
  I read this book about Michael Jackson called "Untouchable" that detailed how he was $500 million in debt at the time of his death in 2009 due to crazy spending habits. He would walk into an antiques warehouse and buy the entire floor, then rent storage space to hold his new purchases because he had no room in his properties. He also had a 130 person personal staff. His income was $25 million a year but his spending was at $50 million a year. https://www.reddit.com/r/interesting/comments/1fc6wsc/michael_jackson_spending_over_5_million_dollars/ https://www.reddit.com/r/interesting/comments/1fc6wsc/michae...
- simplemindedbot 5mo ago
  “Crippling horse addiction” has so many meanings even in context. From heroin to animal cruelty to gambling to horse dancing. Wonderful phrase, I tip my hat to you.

randycupertino 5mo ago

Horse expenses are bonkers. I wish all my enemies get into horse stuff as a hobby. I used to work for a boss who made $5 million a year and he would get into SCREAMING fights with his wife in the office over the phone about how they couldn't afford to fly the horses to Europe for her to compete in horse dressage competitions. I'd be working away three doors down and in the hallway he'd be hollering from his office, "LINDAAAA!!!!! WE CAN'T AFFORD IT!!!!!" He was making $5 million a year and he was MISERABLE. Those stupid horse expenses completely drained his life and finances to the detriment of everything else, he was one of the most unhappy people I've ever encountered in life.

mathgeek 5mo ago
> I used to work for a boss who made $5 million a year and he would get into SCREAMING fights with his wife in the office over the phone about how they couldn't afford to fly the horses to Europe for her to compete in horse dressage competitions. Something I hold as a truth in life is that the neither money nor what it's spent on is the issue when it comes to spouses screaming at each other about what they can afford.
ForHackernews 5mo ago
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.
- randycupertino 5mo ago
  I think a lot of it is comparison, too. He was jealous of the guy who made $20 million a year and took netjets everywhere. That guy was jealous of the guy who was a billionaire and had his own private jet. They all wanted to be the next rung up the ladder!
  - rsynnott 5mo ago
    Kind of sad, really. They could probably save quite a lot of money in the long run by spending a few quid on a psychologist (assuming the horses could spare it).