Many are convinced once they hit a certain net-worth, they have made it and life is complete. Though if youâve uncovered the hidden truth yet, that day never arrives for a good reason.
There will always be more to do and the more you attain, the more you want. As with many things in life, we canât curb our enthusiasm for things that we desperately need to avoid. Whether itâs with food or day trading, we want more of what has worked for us in the past which invariably leads us into taking on more risk in the future.
Retirement doesnât kick in once you hit a golden net-worth. The purpose of retirement is to not work at the end of your life and live off of your hard-earned savings and earnings. It isnât a hiatus to simultaneously pick up 6 side-hustles at age 30. If you are a true go-getter, you will always seek change and have a bias for action not more zeros in your bank account. You will want to use all that youâve got before your time is up.
The more you build, the more likely your bank account will thank you too. But thatâs not what drives us humans at the core. It only does at the start to get the ball rolling and to teach us a crucial life lesson that money isnât everything and becomes dangerous when it is the only goal.
Lack of Change
As our world is growing, heating up, and crumbling, it seems as if we are slower and more hesitant on change. While billionaires resort to alternative unnecessary means of fun such as flying to space and crypto which requires far more energy to mine in itself than any other form of payment, the world is waiting for their donation that isnât expected to come.
When you observe environments and the amount of non-profits in the world dedicated to curbing climate change, reduce pollution, fracking, deforestation, melting Antartica, with a goal outside of shareholderâs favors, where do these companies and inspirations come from?
Europe.
Why?
America has as many or greater resources along with an immense amount of liquid capital in public markets circling around to invest in anything at this point than in any other country, let alone Europe, but the problem is, Americans arenât supported enough to be able to drive change for the climate.
 We must beg billionaires to give up only a couple million, a slight fraction of their wealth that doesnât make any difference for them anyway that could really improve this country.
When it comes to funding public initiatives and saving the planet, since corporations donât receive any immediate benefit, not even from greenwashing the placebo of ES funds, billionaires are the only ones we can really lean on for major funding and to prevent climate change as opposed to in Europe, everyone is willing to pitch in and help.
With no social welfare, we are on our own here and so are the billionaires. We have the highest wealth inequality of all G7 nations for this reason.Â
In Europe, itâs normal to be unemployed for several years out of college, not recommend, and be praised for working for the public sector. Thanks to the bank of mom and dad, governmental social support, unemployment benefits, better working conditions/hours, more paid time off, parental leave support, free education, health care, and boosted happiness, no wonder communities strive to help each other not just themselves. I believe we need a reimagined cultural shift in the states to see substantive change.
In America, we have a democracy. Although we are known to be united, we arenât. We must fend for ourselves becuase we arenât supported. We must support ourselves and beg the billionaires who refuse to give anything due to this lack of strength and bonding. Even Musk had to publicly Tweet last week if $7 billion of his own wealth will really help eradicate world hunger. He refuses to give it up because there is no tangible impact or result measured.
Put Yourself In Their Shoes
Money changes our perspective and decisions.Â
Instead of fighting and arguing getting nowhere, itâs more diplomatic and reasonable to understand why the top .01% are hesitant on sharing.
Money is a drug. It makes one feel powerful, invisible, and defiant.
Even if it may be hard to believe, if you were a billionaire, Iâm almost certain you would stand behind your influence, hide your wealth, and choose to keep most of it to yourself, supporting your own projects than listen to what everyone else is saying. We all believe we deserve our hard-earned earnings and at this level, it is amplified to the extreme.Â
Now back to reality. Right now, itâs more likely to be opposed to all the top .01%âs decisions today even if you know nothing about what they involve.Â
This is due to a lack of emotional intelligence, reasoning, and perspective we possess against billionaires and those above us. We all get to decide how we use our money but the more someone knows how much you are worth, the more criticism you will receive in every possible way due to jealousy.
No matter if you promise to give away more than half your wealth as Buffett pledges, people will still revolt and judge. If there was more social mobility and less of a stark divide, we would be willing to help each other out. But with no hope, distrust, and a weak divide, Americans have lost hope.
From this example, I always suggest whenever you can to never disclose your true net-worth, earnings, or donations. Donât even mention how you spend your time because the more you have, the more you will be ridiculed by strangers who cannot picture your circumstance. Living the stealth wealth lifestyle is inherently the best thing to protect your privacy, relationships, and well-being.
Although Silicon Valley possesses a down-to-earth hobo hoodie and Honda look, itâs hard for billionaires not to show off their wealth at times and I donât blame them. They certainty could and should share it but refuse to deal with the uncertainty. They deserve their wealth, maybe not all of it since itâs tied to lofty valuations and their companyâs stock price that have only soared since covid hit, but those at the top have improved the world in some sort of way and we need a better system to improve our world beyond profits without relying on them to share their holdings.
America houses the most billionaires in the world. If they resided somewhere else which may be better for their well-being, privacy, and overall health is their choice but they choose to be here because they can hold this much wealth. So as long as they stay, they will continue to exacerbate wealth inequality further as opposed to helping break it down.
Put yourself in their shoes to understand their psychology and gap in America. Once you hit a higher net-worth, you not only want to give less away unless you are Melinda Gates or MacKenzie Scott, coincidentally both women, you are in your own bubble and want to keep your hard earned earnings to see what else you can do.
At this time, there is too much in too little hands.
If you canât beat em, join em.
Get started with investing earlier than later and then you will afford the ability to give back to causes that matter to you. In America, we cannot rely on the billionaires to save anyone only ourselves with less governmental support and divide in all realms of society.