[DougWebb]

There's a transition through several states: not enough, barely enough, just enough, and more than enough. It's a sharp transition; there's a small difference in income needed to go through these stages, but a huge difference in stress and happiness from one side to the other.

My definitions:

- Not enough: you're having to choose which necessary expenses to pay and which ones to not pay. Are your children going to be hungry, or are they going to be cold?

- Barely enough: you can pay necessary expenses, but you have to micromanage every dime and make sure deposits clear before expenses are paid. You're forced to buy cheap things that don't last instead of quality things that are less expensive long-term. The slightest mistake in timing deposits/expenses with the resulting fees, or the smallest unexpected expense, throws you back into "Not enough"

- Just enough: basically the same as Barely enough, but you've got a little leeway on the cash flow timing and sometimes you can spend more on quality.

- More than enough: You can set up automated payments for regular expenses, and no longer have to worry about cash flow timing. That's a HUGE stress reduction. You're building savings for unexpected expenses.

[paxys]

There are plenty more stages here:

- You have enough saved up that you don’t have to care about unexpected medical bills, car repairs etc in the thousands of dollars.

- You can pay for vacations and other unique experiences.

- You can move to nicer neighborhoods, send your kids to nicer schools.

- You can offload stress and inconveniences to others. Hire chefs, nannies, personal assistants, fly first class or private.

- You get to a stage where your money is making more money than most people’s net worth just by sitting around, and “work” is something you do for fun and fulfillment rather than survival.

People are kidding themselves if they think each successive stage of wealth doesn’t also come with more happiness. Yes they might be diminishing returns, but they are returns nonetheless.

[pcthrowaway]

Also, more relevant to us in this climate:

- You have enough saved up that you could weather out a significant period of no work, after getting laid off. Enough that you can just walk away from a toxic environment while feeling comfortable. Maybe you can afford to take a risk and spin that side project you've been dreaming about into its own company.

I might be salty...

[DougWebb]

Sure, but I think the transition through my stages is a sharp S-curve, and then going through your stages is a more gradual increase. And based on how many wealthy people behave, it seems like the happiness curve peaks at some point and then starts dropping again for many of them.

[Hermitian909]

There's a cofounder with how visible your wealth is, most people's exposure to wealthy people falls into three categories.

1. People whose source of revenue forces them to be in the public eye

2. Are so fabulously wealthy that it forces them into the public eye

3. People who display their wealth in a garish and opulent manner

The sweet spot for happiness appears to be ~$50- 100mil without any profile while living in a way that is not (surface level) opulent.

At this point your money buys you a few things:

1. You can take care of the people you care about, not just your nuclear family

2. You can free yourself from most daily chores

3. You have freedom to do what you want, most experiences you want are affordable

4. You can finance some causes you care about at a local or societal level (the latter tends to be more rewarding)

5. You can still make friends with regular folks because it's not obvious just how much money you have

6. You are free of most long term financial worries.

[pcthrowaway]

I feel like getting to that level of wealth while remaining in that sweet spot must be pretty difficult though (moreso than just accumulating that wealth in the first place). I imagine there are a few (legal) paths:

- Start a business that's successful, generates significant profit, but doesn't become public

- Make a series of amazing investment decisions (in other words, take high risk and get lucky)

- Exit a startup for an undisclosed sum (lots of acquisitions never disclose the price)

Even then, I'd imagine your closest friends will learn of your wealth at some point. Still seems like the best possible option though.

A lot of people might choose to legally incorporate as an individual, and pay themselves a salary, if their company has reserves to pay them the salary indefinitely they are essentially set for life while technically never wealthy enough to suffer some of the consequences of people knowing you're that wealthy

[maximus-decimus]

I would argue you need to be able to save for retirement to even reach "barely enough"