Working Class Millionaire?

I love this post from Jory over at Pause called, The most depressing new term ever: Working-Class Millionaire. Jory is always a joy to read. Here's a snippet:

But I digress, as I tend to. Back to the ridiculousness of the Siliconians. Apparently there are a class of them who have $1 to $5 Million in the bank and still feel the need to work themselves to the bone, like they did when they were 25-30 and justified their lives by promising themselves that they wouldn't have to work like this at 50. Now they are 40-50 years old and don't have a glimpse of retirement in sight. Why?

It's interesting how we frame what success looks like and how much money and stuff we need to feel comfortable. Most of us could cut our things and cash in half and still be filled with bliss and abundance. Or we could seek twice as much and somehow manage to still be miserable human beings. There are two elements - happiness and wealth. They are not always positively correlated, are they?

Where are you along the spectrum of wealth and happiness? How might others see it? Where do you want to be? What are the steps you could take this week to inch in the right direction?

Comments

[Oliver Picher]

They say that work expands to fill the amount of time available to do it, and I've found that the same thing applies to money: your financial "needs" and desires expand to absorb the amount of money available.

I've recently had close personal experience with your suggestion that we all cut our cash in half, as I went through a career transition that cut our household income in half.

Our sense of "bliss and abundance" remains high indeed, though I would be lying if I said it wasn't stressful. It has involved a radical rethinking of how we manage our household -- we found that there were a lot of $20 to $40 purchases that we could do very well without, thank you. My wife and I marvel at how much time and money we must have wasted in the past.