What is it like to earn more money from your job than the vast majority of people in your country, society, family, etc?
It makes me feel guilty:
- I make a lot of money doing things that don't give back to society in any way. I'm also a bit of a miser, so I'm not stimulating the economy much through spending.
- The things I stress/worry about -- for instance, the price of crypto fluctuations swinging my net worth by 3% -- are meaningless compared to friends and family that are sometimes genuinely worried about paying next months' rent, or mortgage/car payment.
Did the money change you and or change how people treat you?
Nah. For instance, if you saw my car you would laugh -- it's a 15 year old SUV with 160k miles on it that has two broken back windows. My rear passenger side window is permanently down, so anyone can break into my car at any time. I don't mind because I live in Southern California (no worry about weather issues), a gated community (no worry of grand larceny), and have nothing of value in my car (no worry of theft), but I tend to value knowledge/learning/experiences more than objects.
Some articles seem to state that after a certain amount of money per year happiness is not further increased. Are there challenges which come with being financially successful which offset or counter the benefits?
It's hard to stay motivated. I often become briefly passionate about projects, but don't fully follow through with them. i.e. I started to learn Spanish, started practicing golf/tennis, started many online classes, started studying chess, etc, but rarely reach a level of mastery which satisfies me.
As for happiness derived from wealth, I don't believe wealth increases happiness after a certain point. Unhappy people with moderate amounts of money would likely be unhappy with large amounts of money. I find the happiest people are those who have immense gratitude, strong family/communities, and give it their all in a few things they are deeply passionate about.