Anyone trully rich here (got a lot of money)? How does it feel to be rich? Does it make you happy?

Stop running around the house looking for your keys, because they are in your pocket.

I have financial freedom... I do prefer it over working for sure.

But that was always my goal. Not everyone has that goal -- I've tried to offer others my method of success and every time, they turn it down, cry about how I'm "lucky" or don't follow the formula.

So I gave up and keep it to myself.

certain things are easier in life when you have a lot of money..Fixing problems mostly and getting creature comforts that many can't afford. Aside from that, very wealthy people can have bullshit and drama to deal with like everyone else. Sometimes its of a different nature than poor people, but in the end, there's bullshit too.

I am by NO means rich, whatever that word means to people.
I have no debts, house, car, tons of tech. Compared to people living in shacks in Nogales? Yeah, I'm super rich. Compared to my neighbor whose wooden staircase cost more than my car? Not so much.

I've never been hungry, and never been poor, but I did notice one important thing.
If you chase after money, you are a slave, and it may just evade you.
If you firmly believe everything is going to be ok(financially) and stop giving fucks, money pours in.

I used to count how much money I made a week, and try for more, but it had an opposite effect. As soon as I stopped giving a damn, the money came to me.

Treat it as a tool, not your god.

No of course it doesn't

You lose your soul

For a libtard/statist/communist/socialist - rich is anyone making $1 more than them, and they should share it. Libtards are never 'rich' enough to take money from someone else or have government take it away from that 'rich and privileged' person, even if they earned it through hard work/dedication/whatever.

That may be, but if I could only be solvent...then having the tiny amount of income I have would be quite enough.

As it is, the payment loop I'm in pays nothing more than interest, which gets restacked monthly with more interest.

I've paid these debts many times over, but because little ever goes towards principle, the loop is infinitely stacked in the banks favor.

They give you credit, you use it, pay on time, then they cut your line of credit... almost maxing you. Suddenly, instead of owing maybe 40% to them, you now owe 80%...and your monthly bill jumps from, say, $75 to $175.

Do you know why my credit is screwed? Utility bills. Yearly winter heating bills. In the years since my husband died, every spring I wind up forking over about thousands of dollars to avoid having my gas shut off.

The only way to pay it is with credit. At least I still have some!

Last winter I was lucky the bill was only $1800, because I kept the house at a toasty 57 degrees.

The year before I kept it at 58, and the bill was down to around $2200. I rejoiced...

...because until I decided to lower it from the usual 64 degrees I had gotten use to, my winter bills amassed to an average of $3500. After the kids moved into their own apartments two winters ago, I was finally able to cut costs.

Nine winters a widow has sunk my credit...but I'm grateful to have it, because it's allowed me to buy food when money was tight, and stay warm enough without fear of pipes bursting.

Had I not been diligent for years, only using credit when in crisis while paying out every conceivable dollar I could get away with, I would have been sunk long ago.

I just wish this interest racket was not the racket it is.

When the housing market busted, I lost some $300,000 in equity overnight. This prevented me from selling this 4 story, 4500 sq ft house and buying a smaller one for cash.

From the time my husband had passed earlier in the year, I was proactive and worked hard to become fairly solvent. There was this smaller house I was ready to go into contract for, having just found a buyer for mine.

Just like that everything changed.

Back to the credit debacle. Elizabeth Warren promised to go after the banks...but the result was credit companies sending out letters stating that interest rates were to go up, and we had a choice to either accept the new rates, or close our accounts. As a one income family now, with kids in school, I opted to keep mine open.

Little did I know that lines of credit would be slashed down the road, effectively putting me into a 80% debt-to-credit ratio without warning. ONE CARD slashes you...others follow. Damn. I even had a card with NO BALANCE cancelled on me, and another with a line of credit of $5000, which I only owed $149 on- cancelled. How was this fair? Cards with a 15% Apr have jumped to 29%. This is with NEVER BEING LATE OR MISSING A PAYMENT.

The scam is complete.

_____

The bottom line is that they milk you dry. I'm so very used to it, that the only cash money I spend is to pay off debt, with credit cards filling in the gap for necessities like utilities and food.

Luckily, one son pays for my phone, the other my Internet. I got rid of my car last year. Now there's nothing more to get rid of, except the house...which gets taken a few months from now. That's another story, but it is what it is. As I said, the scam is complete.

Still, I might be poor, but at least I've learned to live comfortably without.

I only wish the government would finally give people a break. Banks should not have been able to break us like they have. They were bailed out, and we soon paid for it.


Apologies for droning on, but I needed to put some out this into perspective I guess, and get it off my chest for sanity's sake.

Not everyone who's become poor started this way. There was a time when everything was in place, and buying things like a tank of gas, or pair of winter boots, was not considered a luxury.

Since Thanksgiving I've been out of my house 5 times. That's one other perk of being poor...you become satisfied with what you still have, and want for very little.


I'll stop now. And apologies, again.

Depends on the person. If they are just miserable to begin with there is no amount of money that would change that. In my case, complete financial freedom allows me to not have to worry about needing to survive on some very basic levels that "poor" people constantly have trouble with. I use this freedom to expand myself in many ways which absolutely brings me quite a bit of happiness.

I think it could be relative as well. Someone may have come from the gutter and have a net worth of 500k and figure they are wealthy or rich. Someone could have come from old money and have tens of millions, but lost millions in bad investments and feel like they need to get that back because they are on the precipice of being poor or **gasp* having to work.

Let me guess, you own a business but really it owns you?

I don't know if I truly classify as "rich" (not sure what your definition is here), but I'm definitely very well off.

In the essence of full disclosure, I grew up extremely poor (welfare/food stamps, living in trailer, you get the picture).

Does it make me happy? Honestly, rich or poor, people still have problems. I still have to deal with idiots at my business. I still get the flu and diarrhea. I still get flat tires & dead batteries. I still have friends who flake out on me & don't show up. I still have to deal with my emotionally needy mother, and a father who half the time refuses to talk to me for one reason or another. Having money certainly doesn't fix all problems. Money is not a cure-all.

That said, I am MUCH happier than when I was poor. Money and everything to do with money (bills, food, housing) is one less thing I basically never have to worry (or even think) about. If something goes wrong, I don't have to go into a panic & wonder how I can fix it. If I want to go buy or do something, I do it. Money won't fix all problems, but it can fix MOST problems.

I would not say that money is what MAKES me happy. However, having money ALLOWS me to be more happy, because I'm able to focus on other things in life without the constant worry, fear & stress of having no money.

and having no money makes you less happier

Exactly!

The wealth itself doesn't make me happy. It's the options it gives me--knowing I could fight a protracted legal battle without having to worry about work, being able to move where I want, buy a plane, ski in the rockies for entire winters...

It feels much more free.

Using that freedom to do enjoyable activities has yielded immense pleasure and a desire for more.

I'm not content, but it sure does feel good!