To wonder where billionaires find joy...?

[BlackBean2023]

I find joy in so many little things - a clean kitchen, a takeaway every fortnight, a new candle, drinks with my friends... but when these things become the norm surely the spark of joy that comes with them also goes.

I wonder how billionaires, who have a spotless- well managed home(s), private chefs, Jo malone candles galore... find their little bits of joy when their every day life is most people's fantasy.

Anyway, IABU for being up this early on a Monday when I don't have work today. A billionaire would never...

I live and work with billionaires and they are very much like the rest of us. Some cook, some clean, some garden.

They find joy in decorating their homes, appreciate having a clean home, enjoy a good meal, appreciate sharing moments with friends and family. They usually enjoy fishing/hunting and other hobbies they might have, like car racing, yachting, reading, cooking, gardening, etc…

Like they are literally like you and I, the only difference is that they have the financial power to buy most things and make most of their dreams come true.

This just sounds like you know rich people, not actual billionaires.

There's a huge difference between someone even with £200m and billions.

1 million seconds is 11 days. 1 billion seconds is over 31 years.

There are only 165 billionaires in the whole of the UK, but apparently the people in this thread know at least a quarter of them and we're on page 2 😂

The biggest thing most billionaires find joy in is their businesses. Yes friends and family are important, but their businesses give them purpose and ego.

My pleasure if I was hugely wealthy would be perpetual summer. November to March in Australia or New Zealand and April to October in Europe. The absolute joy of always having the sun on my face would be sublime.

I think this is a personality/mindset thing far more than it is a wealth one.

The ability to take joy from little pleasures, such as that first cup of coffee of the day, is not unique to the less well off. I've gone from being skint to fairly comfortable by most people's standards and my enjoyment of the little things has not really changed at all! But I've always been like this.

Thank you for this!

I feel this is where I am now in life and - whilst more money always sounds like it could be a good thing - I'm pretty sure this is the sweet spot.

But I am nearly sixty and in reaching this position of peace in my financial life I've left behind my youth. All of life is a phase, isn't it.

Doesn't matter how much money I had. I'd still find joy in making my daughter's favourite dinner the way only mummy knows how, in walking the dog on a frost covered morning, giving my family things they love etc.

Same as now. There are things I'd have that I can't afford now (cars, love by the beach etc.) but having those things would give me a different kind of joy, that can't replace the love of the little things.

It’s a good question OP and it’s one I’ve considered before. I think people are being a bit disingenuous on here if they think that all billionaires are just like us and get pleasure from simple things like finding pebbles on the beach. Some may, but in order to do so they are probably the types to keep it real and to have been quite sensible and restrained with their money.

Dh and I have had a tougher year financially than normal and so we decided to have a simple holiday much like the kind our dds had when younger - not much sun, windswept beaches, eating in most nights and certainly no AI style entertainment, not even Netflix - and after an initial 24 hours of grumpiness the dds settled in and bonded like old days and genuinely seemed to turn back into happy children again. Dh and I agreed that having no money this year’s been a blessing in disguise as we’ve all started to appreciate the small things again. We would never have taken that holiday if we had money this year. I’m not saying we wouldn’t have enjoyed a more exotic one but there is something about having lower standards that does make one more receptive to appreciation and to be more easily pleased. There have been times in my life where I’ve felt almost saturated by ‘stuff’ and choices and if anything they’ve made me less happy and more unappreciative.

I am not a billionaire, but I am a multi-multi millionaire. Just enough to be comfortable really.

(I can’t tell you what I do for work because it would be outing.)

Well I read that Bernie Ecclestone liked looking round Waitrose! Hid wife less keen apparently.Just because you are wealthy doesent mean you cant enjoy small pleasures!

It must be nice to not have to worry about the boiler breaking down or higher bills.
They probably just worry about other things instead l!

😀

I knew an ultra-wealthy family through DH’s former job — billionaires, with many homes around the world, private jets, huge numbers of staff, not one but two polo farms in Berkshire, travelled around by helicopter within the UK, were closely connected to the royal family of their country of origin etc.

From the glimpses I saw of them at unguarded moments, I formed the strong impression that their wealth had made them quite numb or blasé.

Clearly their wealth had made them able to enjoy expensive passions like polo (and maintaining a huge posse of players, polo ponies, grooms, trainers and flying them around the world to compete etc), but they always struck me, especially their wives (who had no input in the businesses), as fundamentally bored? It seemed as if life was viewed at a distance through the tinted windows of a limo for them, or mediated by staff.

One of the senior men’s wife preferred to remain in their home country, while he was based in the UK for much of the year, so he had a ‘travelling wife’, a longterm girlfriend who accompanied him, with his actual wife’s knowledge (and, I’m told, approval, but who knows?), who was, I think, the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in the flesh, and she struck me as deeply bored by her life.

I think I’d be far better at being ultra-wealthy myself…

The psychologist may be mainly seeing a self selecting group who need the services of a psychologist!

Obviously billionaires aren't all the same. Some of them find their joy - or at least, satisfaction and purpose - in philanthropy.

Same way everyone else finds joy. Family, friends, pets, good food, holidays, fulfilling work, developing and practising skill in something they enjoy... What a weird question.

Ah, it was before morning coffee! I was talking about inadvertent joy from someone else doing my cleaning. I have a cleaner once a week and Tuesday are, without fail, my favourite day for coming home. If I had a cleaner every day they'd all feel great but you'd lose the 'peaks' of joy I suppose.

Anyway, I could find lots of other joy but I don't know how sustainable it would be over time!

Here's the thing. We can afford those exotic holidays. We choose the windswept British beach with a bag packed with food to eat in the cottage for the week. Because the joy we get from that kind of holiday is what we want from life and for our DD.

Probably in similar ways that I do - I'm not loaded so - a beautiful morning, interesting clouds, nature, stunning scenery, food, family, travel where I can.

If I was loaded I'd probably also take joy from theatre trips, wearing nice, well fitting clothes, having a regular flattering hair cut, having a clean house, meals out, jet setting.

Multiple houses would be a pain in the backside though. I need a proper base rather than moving around regularly.
I'm sure the random irreplaceable thing I wanted would always be at the wrong house if I split my year between 2 or 3 homes.

Money can't buy you happiness, but I'd rather cry in a Ferarri than a Ford 😆

I get you OP. I've often wondered whether a millionaire would have the same joy in finding a £1 coin down the back of a sofa in the last week before payday or a £5 note in the pocket of an old jacket.

A post in celebrating the champagne moments of life. Enjoy your day off!

The first thing that haters for.is try to "other" those they hate.
I find joy in a clueless sunset. Why should a mega rich person, or a dirty poor person not get the same joy?
A bushman in the kalihari, a Chinese person on a paddy field, an Inuit in Canada?

Billionaires are people just like the rest of us. They can still have joy in nature, family, hobbies, nice food and nice home 🤷‍♀️

A relative of mine was working for a global company once and was in Italy at a launch (years ago ) when the CEO flew in with his wife via helicopter who had just stopped off to go shopping in Milan. Hugely rich , but really horrible apparently, complained of a migraine and didn't speak to anyone and flounder off. Manners cost nothing , but some are clearly lacking when it seemed everyone else had gone to so much trouble!
I'd rather be seen as nice than extremely rich and miserable!! Lol

165 billionaires in the UK at least 5 % of them are know by MN posters who happen to be on MN before 9am on a Monday morning what are the odds... unless PP all know the same billionaire

I think most of us would rather be nice, happy and rich.

Rich doesn't = miserable with no manners....

Maybe they know ones outside of the UK?

People saying Billionaires are not a different species, okay, technically that's true I guess. But do you know how much a billion is? It's an incomprehensible amount of wealth. You can barely imagine it. It's not even.like having a few million, or even a few hundred million. It's a whole other world of wealth. I doubt very much that Billionaires find happiness anywhere. They're too busy trying to move onto Mars.