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...

All billionaires are Elon Musk now are they?

Oh I'd love to have some money , but id give a lot of it away to my family.

Sailing round Greece on their super yaxhts

I reckon that beats cleaning your kitchen or a Chinese takeaway twice a month

Watch Succession (I know it's not a documentary) but it does demonstrate how despite unimaginable wealth, day to day can be as dull and troublesome as for anyone else.

I think they get joy in manipulating and exploiting the rest of us tbh.

It's the only way to explain the fact that, in the last decade, not only has total wealth held by billionaires in the UK has risen from £236bn to £664bn, but the number of normal people working to defend them from tax increases has also seemingly risen.

No matter how much money I had I would always find pleasure in choosing a new book to read, or a new notebook to write in, sitting on the beach or walking through the woods.

Well some of them are Taylor Swift.

I'm just saying, it's not a conceivable amount of wealth. I'd say it's not moral to be a billionaire. Be like JK Rowling - never making the rich lists because she gives so much of her money away. That's normal and human and moral. Hoarding so much money that you become a billionaire is scary and weird.

I know (of) a person in my village who's often on the Sunday Times rich list. Not a friend, but it's a small village so he'd know who I am and vice versa.
He

• still works running his own company(/ies) and sitting on boards
• invests in small-medium local businesses which align with his values (eg green industry stuff). Quite a lot of people I know tangentially run or are employed by businesses he has invested in
• owns the village shop premises which he rents out at peppercorn so it remains viable
• is good for things like match funding community projects
• buys local land at risk of development to keep it rural
• goes clay pigeon shooting
• still comes into the village pub like a normal person, seems to take pleasure from normal things
• That said, in true rich person cliche, he does have a helicopter he sometimes flies to the pub in! (not so aligned with those green values after all hahaha!)

I doubt I would be unhappy as a Billionaire. I actually imagine I would be very happy being on a mega yacht in Greece with my family.

I think probably politics, many set up foundations. Those running businesses are probably still doing that, especially if it’s a personal passion. I think material things lose their shine a bit when you can have whatever you want. You probably start trying to affect the world in some way.

I would find joy in spending months on my private yacht with my family eating delicious food and drinking wine and having the time to work it off in my compact and bijou (but well equipped) gym

Billionaires don't hoard money. They don't even have billions, technically.

They own large companies (e.g. Tesla) and assets (e.g. copyright to their music) that are worth billions. It's absolutely not the same as having a billion in the bank. This is not to say they're not very well off, because they are, but it's not the same as having cash in the bank that you can give away tomorrow.

I would imagine that no matter how rich you are, you would still find joy in your family members, your friends, your pets, nature, the sea etc. And pics of baby animals on instagram!

If you know one person with this kind of money, you’re likely to know a few.

They tend to move in the same circles. Same schools.

And - multiple people in the family will individually be worth £££ so you may know several who have access to the same fortune. You will notice on the rich list they talk about ‘The X family’ - this is usually split across multiple people / generations ie lots of people benefiting from it.

I have spent time talking to a billionaire, once, for a few hours. It was a completely random thing.
I had just started my first ‘proper’ job in the 90’s and had bought my first home - back when you could with a few grand as a deposit.
He was fascinated by it - in fact, he said my life sounded like great fun.
He was American, came from huge wealth, I knew who his father was as soon as he told me.
He’d had a turbulent life already and to be honest it sounded like a nightmare - family dramas, pressure to be an heir to the business, drug addiction.
He was actually lovely to talk to, not a bit snobby, but it did change my thoughts on what that lifestyle must be like.
I can remember telling my mum and dad when I got home as I met him visiting a friend in another city.
They thought it was hysterical.
I have seen stories about his family here and there over the years.
I walked away feeling content about my ordinary life.

I guess there's a trade-off.

On the one hand you can just do whatever you want. See a car you fancy, buy it. That beautiful dress, buy it.

The downside is probably the shallowness, as well as boredom that comes with money. Does anyone love you for you? Would they still be there is you were poor? Is that handsome man or pretty woman chatting with you because they want something? But likewise, ambition gives us purpose. You see a challenge and you strive to overcome it. If you can do 'anything', it's like having a cheat code in a game. Sure, you get to the same point as anyone else, but it's lost that sense of accomplishment from overcoming the struggle.

Gym and bodybuilding for one. The average man/woman has to work their arse off, but you, no. You have personal trainers, dietitians, the best equipment, probably some steroids, all the free time in the world to achieve it. You'll be there in a fraction of the time.

I read something about Pablo Escobar - the infamous drug cartel leader; which said at one point he fell into a deep depression.

Not because he was a violent drug cartel leader in fear of his life constantly, or the guilt around the harm he'd caused, the murders he'd caused, the deaths of coca growers, smugglers, dealers, and addicts and all the other victims.

But because the cartel was making millions of dollars per day (or week, I can't remember the specifics but it was a short period of time and in the 80s so millions then was much more than millions now) and he had literally nothing left to buy or that he wanted to achieve.

He had houses, cars, planes, boats, even helicopters and submarines, a private zoo, every material possession possible and had nothing else to want or strive for. He'd infiltrated corrupt governments and destroyed other cartels so nothing was challenging him for vast periods of times. He had children, and any number of women wanting to be with him.

There is a lot of psychological research around the adverse effects on mood and self-concept of having no sense of 'what do I achieve next?, what am I working towards now?'

I think it can be psychologically catastrophic to have nothing left you want or can achieve and at that stage, bird-song or a nice bath-bomb just doesn't give the same amount of pleasure.

I'd give it a really good try though 😆

I don't think they do. I think generally the sort of person who strives to become a billionaire is someone who is never satisfied with what they have. They always need more.

I have a smallish house, a cheap car. I don't care. I have enough, I'd rather enjoy what I have than push myself too hard to get more and not enjoy what I have. I'm satisfied, I don't think most billionaires are ever satisfied, and that sounds draining to me.

Bill Gates seems like the exception to me. Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are probably the four big famous tech billionaires. All of them to an extent got lucky, they were in the right place, at the right time, with the right skills. They all got hugely rich off of that, but I'll bet you Bill Gates is the only one who's ever been happy.

Obviously Jobs is dead, but all three of them pushed and pushed for more. More money, more success, the next big thing all the time.

Gates seems to me to be the only one that stopped. Said, "You know what, I have enough stuff. I have enough success. Lets give loads of it away and actually try to make the world a better place"

He's also the only one of the four that seems to be smiling in most pictures. I don't think thats a conincidence

I think about this a lot OP, and I think the short answer is that unless they run non-profit trusts that help others, they often don’t.

They might briefly find pleasure in a new thing or beating a business rival, but my DB worked with the super-wealthy for a while in a MH capacity and he said they were all massively messed up, essentially because they have joyless lives. Every whim is granted immediately, there’s no delayed gratification, no struggle, no emotional
development from pushing through barriers, no recovering from a set back surrounded by others who have gone through similar or worse, who might also require your support.

I’d love to be financially secure and provide help for the DCs as they get older, but however rich and glamorous the lives of the super-wealthy look, I wouldn’t swap mine for theirs, ever.

Nail on the head.

Most are only billionaires "on paper" because the money is invested in stocks and shares, or government bonds, or is the value of their business(s). All of which are not risk free.

Yes, they'll have a small army of accountants, solicitors, managers, etc managing their investments and running their business(s), but there's still risk of loss, etc., and if they actually wanted to get their hands on billions of pounds in cash or a bank account, it would take time to liquidate/realise assets.

As we see with big companies, their value can fall just as quickly as it rises, and even the biggest companies can collapse. Just imagine Elon Musk's "billions" if Tesla collapsed due to the discovery of faulty batteries or software that started killing people. Or if a new and better "Amazon" came along and destroyed the value of Jeff Bezos' shareholdings? Or if a billionaire invested billions in government bonds for a country that declared bankruptcy making the bonds worthless? It can and does happen!

Because Gates has found something else to achieve and aim for.

But he's still getting huge amounts of adulation, praise, positive feedback and has enormous power globally over peoples health.

It's not pure altruism, he could sit back and just give billions away, retire to an island and let minions deal with it. But he isn't, he's still in control, still in power and still working towards something which gives him satisfaction but also, power and adulation.

Gates hasn't 'stopped' at all, he's still pushing for more, very publicly with his name and face at the forefront.

I'm sure many others are giving loads away, just not so publicly.

That's a fair point, but I'm not sure I agree.

I think it genuinely is altruism. I don't think you give away that much money unless you're genuinely altruistic. You're right that he could just sit back and let his minions do it, but his name, his face opens doors that a minions wouldn't. He can get meetings with world leaders that his employees wouldn't.

Obviously none of us know the bloke, so I could be completely wrong, but I can see him sitting on a beach one day, retired, with his phone off, and just enjoying his life. I don't think the other 3 could ever manage that.

Same things but on a grander scale. Purchasing candle holders from Titanic and booking a private dinner party with coveted celebrity chef (who went on a hiatus 10 years ago, but agreed to do it for you).

We have an uncle who is a multimillionaire. He has at least 100 million (actually much more, I think). He has a couple of drivers, a cook, security guards 24/7. Another servant who seems to be some sort of butler. My uncle, his wife and kids never have to do anything for themselves.
However, they still do. My uncle is nearly 80 and still manages the business, he started in his youth. His wife loves to cook, despite having a full-time cook. One daughter is a cardiologist, and the other runs her own business.
As for happiness, they're happy for exactly the same reasons most people are - family birthdays, spending time with the family, particularly the grandchildren, having a nice meal, visiting new places. He loves sharing his wealth with the wider family so is extremely generous to his siblings, cousins, nieces, nephews. This brings him a lot of joy.

I could have billions in the bank and I'd still find joy in cuddling my dog.