Well we in America are taught that MORE and BIGGER is always better, so perhaps that is where the mind set is coming from. When I was younger I thought more money was always better, nicer everything, hell, throw in immortality and good looks while you are at it! (Yep, I love reading fiction)
While part of me still wants all of that, as I get older I start to appreciate the downsides. What if I did have $100M or whatever? I can easily see how a lot of my personal relationships would get f-ed up. So many people would just want a piece of my money that it would be hard to know who genuinely cared about me or what I think and who was sucking up. Or who would get jealous or entitled and be unhappy if I was generous and jealous if I wasn’t? Maybe I’d feel guilty for not being more generous and then there is the problem of how to give to charity in a way that aligns with my values and is cost effective.... on and on and on.
I’ve been in big houses and small houses and honestly, I don’t think big houses are all that great. Sure, I’d like a really nice car, but would I love it? Probably not. I can’t bother now to dress myself well even though I can afford it. I would really like to travel a lot and fly business class, as steerage on a plane is my definition of hell on earth. However, there just isn’t a lot that I really really want that having a ton of money would make a material improvement in my life.
Above all I want freedom of my time.
That can be bought for quite a bit less than what it takes to be really rich, and I’m not too far off from that point now.