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Comment by ejb999 | Hacker News Reader

never could figure out why people keep working well after the point when they have enough money to do whatever they want.

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The people who made enough money to do whatever they want, are typically the type of person who are mostly motivated by work and would also not have gotten there without being motivated by work.

I understand the people at the very top have different motivations - i.e. musk, bezos, gates, zuckerberg etc - but I am more thinking about the average 'successful' person - i.e. the ones that are never going to be in that very top class, but have managed to accumulate enough to live comfortably for the rest of their lives, travel, volunteer, or do something else, and still don't.

Not criticizing them, just can't relate.

I for one have plenty of ways I would rather spend my day.

You do not make "live comfortably off of it" money (lets say a couple of million in the bank, couple more depending on where you want to live) when not motivated by/leaning towards wanting to work in 99.9% of the cases either.

I'm not one of these people but I can say that it's probably because your life would get really boring really fast. As shitty as work is, you can actually get quite a lot of purpose-in-life out of it. Wouldn't be surprised if this person started working again in the near-future.

I find this kind of comment very sad. Work is easily the least meaningful thing in my life and I never have enough to invest in the things I actually want to do because work takes up so much of it.

I think this is usually a false projection. If you have the right work-life balance, work is a great asset. It provides social validation and meaning. Not everyone is a creative with an interest in pet projects. Most like to collaborate and feel useful, and aren't really invested in the big picture. You can quibble that this isn't entirely contingent on "work", but whether you're paid for it or not, the desired activity is the same.

It's all relative to your lifestyle and others around you.

There are some countries where you can live under $500/month [1].

At a 4% withdrawal rate, $150k would take care of your needs for a very long time.

[1] https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/cheapest-...

It's like one of those clicker games.

After you're super duper high level, you just do it to see the numbers go up and you enjoy working.

It's your employees who have their souls sucked off from working for you earning a fixed amount every month.

The kind of people who make money like that are also hardwired to keep working

It's a sliding scale, your ambitions rise with your success.

Because money doesn't buy happiness?

I agree...so why spend your days trying to accumulate more?

Because it's not about the money.

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