"The day I became a millionaire"

[the_gastropod]

This is a pretty insightful blog post about how becoming a millionaire not being all it's cracked up to be: https://medium.com/@dhh/the-day-i-became-a-millionaire-55d7dc4d8293#.g8jzhs558

[arebelspy]

That was quite good.  Thanks for sharing!

[trailrated]

It was like I had pulled back the curtain on that millionaire’s dream and found, to my surprise, that most of the things on the other side were things I already had.

Good stuff :)

[Lordy]

Very interesting read.

I read a study that came to the conclusion that your happiness does not significantly increase once you make 60K EUR (~70K USD) a year. This amount covers all the basic needs (and then some) and while the "happiness curve" rises sharply before this point, it goes quite flat after that. I find that to be true for me. Have you encountered the same thing?

[lifejoy]

I enjoyed this.


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[Squirrel away]

Thanks for posting.

[patrickza]

Good reading. He sounds like a really great guy too.

[the_gastropod]

Good reading. He sounds like a really great guy too.

He's kind of "famous" amongst Ruby programmers. He created the most widely used Ruby framework called Ruby on Rails. Funny enough, there are quite a lot of programmers that dislike David quite a bit for his arrogance.

[Cassie]

I enjoyed reading this. I teach an online university course not for the $ but for the pure joy it brings me. I love the interaction with the students, etc & my life is richer for it. People wonder why I am not fully retired & this is why.

[FrugalFan]

I liked this article. I think it was good that he realized that money would not buy more happiness and was willing to share that insight. But I wonder if some of what he is feeling is the comfort and security of being financially independent and being able to choose how to spend his time. THAT is what I am saving my money for.

I enjoyed reading this. I teach an online university course not for the $ but for the pure joy it brings me. I love the interaction with the students, etc & my life is richer for it. People wonder why I am not fully retired & this is why.

I am about to teach my first online university class (am a prof and usually teach in person). Any pointers?

[Cassie]

It is much harder to build a relationship with the students so I do a few things to help with that.  I give them my phone number so they can call me if they have questions/issues they want to discuss. I also send the class a weekly message and comment on all of their work that I grade. I try to be very encouraging, etc.  The first week we do a discussion board & I ask them various questions with one of them being "Tell me something different or unusual about yourself?"   I answer everyone one of these posts & try to make it personal to something they have told me that I can relate to, etc.  It really makes a big difference because I have students commenting about how much I care, etc in the course evaluations which I definitely do. I don't teach for the $ but strictly for the love of it.  It has brought me real joy in retirement.   

[FrugalFan]

Great tips! Thank you Cassie! (Sorry for derailing the thread OP).

[aceyou]

I liked this article. I think it was good that he realized that money would not buy more happiness and was willing to share that insight. But I wonder if some of what he is feeling is the comfort and security of being financially independent and being able to choose how to spend his time. THAT is what I am saving my money for.

Yes, I bet that the felling of comfort and security of being FI gave him the time for it to really sink in that money wouldn't buy more happiness.  But I don't think we NEED to get to FI first to have that feeling, and I think that's the main point that the subject of this article is trying to make. 

It's also the basic point that I think MMM is trying to convey in his SWAMI article back in 2011.  That the main advantage you get being FI is the mental well-being, but that we can hack the system and give ourselves that feeling before FI if we can wrap into the correct mindset.

[Nancy]

Good read! He sounds like a stoic.

Why I don't stress over finding the holy grail withdrawal rate (HGWR)

Barring any grand calamity, I could afford to fall off the puffy pink cloud of cash, and I’d land where I started. Back in that small 450 sq feet apartment in Copenhagen. My interests and curiosity intact. My passions as fit as ever. I traveled across a broad swath of the first world spectrum of wealth, and both ends were not only livable, but enjoyable.

This was a bit of a punch, as I didn't expect it. I waffle between staying in my high paying but dissatisfying job to reach FIRE faster or downshifting to something low paying but personally fulfilling.

Once you’ve taken care of the basics, there’s very little in this world for which your life is worth deferring.

[HairyUpperLip]

good read, thanks.

[Mr. Green]

Very interesting article. Thanks!

[zolotiyeruki]

That was a great read.  I'm nowhere near a millionaire, but I often think about what I'll do in retirement, or after the kids have grown and flown.  When I think of the things that bring me enjoyment, the price tag isn't actually that high.  Sure, there are things I dream of doing if only I had more money, but for me a greater limitation is that pesky 24 hours per day.  Rather than "There were always more things I wanted to do than money to buy them," I think the following better fits me:

"There are always more things I want to do than time to do them."