At 35, I had $150k. Now, I’m 43 and rich with $7 million – here’s what it’s like

A funny thing about rich people is that they assume that everyone else is just as obsessed about money and wealth as they are and that those people want what they have but are just too lazy or stupid to work for it. But what if their financial journey isn’t what other people want at all?

One rich person was refreshingly open about their path to wealth and took their insights to the r/fatFIRE community on Reddit — a group of people focused on retiring early with “a fat stash”. Here is what they said.

Please remember, of course, that everything you read in the original post, and in this article, are opinions. You should always speak with a financial expert before taking any advice you find online.

The Question

Rich people are often more greedy and paranoid than other people.

The author of the post says that he went from around $150,000 in net worth to $7 million in just eight years, now earning over $3 million every year. He says he is married with two kids and works remotely in artificial intelligence.

He says that there were a handful of steps he had to achieve in order to make it to where is today, which gave him some time and opportunities to reflect on his journey. He listed five such insights.

First, he said he was excited and proud when he met any of his milestones, but that quickly turned to loneliness because he had few people he could tell and was ashamed because he identifies as an “academic” and becoming rich was never his goal, apparently.

Second, he would then realize the limitations of his new level of wealth and suddenly finding himself wanting more. He would obsess about how to maximize his income or how to make more.

Third, he would enter a period of doubt in which he would question what he was doing with his life. Why are they working so hard when they have so much money and could literally spend the rest of their life with their family? Are they just as greedy and shallow as all other rich people? They are wealthier than ever before but have less financial freedom.

Fourth, they finally begin to think less about money and start to spend their money on vacations and family purposes. He started to pay attention to small inconveniences that could be easily solved with a handful of cash.

Fifth, the cycle would begin again with the next milestone.

The author says that he believes that financial success does make him happier, but mostly because he’s able to avoid problems and issues that poor people have to deal with on a daily basis. He able to have a much more easy, calm, and stress-free life because the things that would devastate him when he was poor are now easily ignored because he has money.

The Community Response

A man looking at his finances.

Unfortunately, the author posted this piece in the r/fatFIRE community, so their responses would not only be biased toward focusing on money, but also a little disconnected from the reality that most normal people live.

That being said, the most popular responses came from people who had experienced the same thing or agreed with the overarching sentiment the author expressed. They said that they often fell for the “grass is always greener” mentality when imagining the next “step” or wealth, and realized that having that much money only added to their drive for more and their greed. Then they would all go through the cycle again because they’ve been conditioned to view their own personal worth as a human being through the lens of money and wealth.

Of course, it should go without saying that this doesn’t mean having enough money to cover your needs is a bad thing. The old adage of “money can’t buy happiness” is often used out of context and in the wrong situations by rich people to justify paying low wages or allowing others to struggle through poverty.

There is nothing noble about wealth, just as there is nothing honorable about being poor. But enjoying vast amounts of wealth while others starve is a sign of a soul in decay.