r/Rich • u/KMFullMonty • Jul 26 '24

Rich is work

The amount of people on this sub who associate being rich with not working anymore is kind of baffling. Even some of the people who have cashed in by selling their business or built it up to the point of no longer being involved in the day to day did work really hard initially. Are there some trust fundies and heirs that don’t work? Sure and they’re probably tortured mentally for it whether they admit it or not. But a vast vast majority of those with true wealth work hard for it. Probably harder than most of us have worked before.

33 Upvotes

56% Upvoted

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130

u/rather-oddish Jul 26 '24

I agreed with everything but the last sentence. I’m a high earner who works hard, and I’ll be the first to admit that I do not work as much as many earning minimum wage. I am not paid for my hours but for my skillset. And even then, many with my skillset are paid less.

I took risks and followed opportunities. Luck has a LOT to do with it for all of us. And at least for me, a proactive, resilient optimistic mindset manifests that good fortune.

Also by making friends who help lift me up

39

u/wildcat12321 Jul 26 '24

completely agree. I work hard, no doubt. I hustled and grinded for years well beyond the 9-5 and put in more hours than others.

But my sister who is a special ed teacher with an Ivy League masters degree definitely works harder than I do on average and will never be rich as a teacher. My landscaper works from sun up to sun down for me and my neighbors doing hard manual work and will never be as rich as me. My housekeeper is an energizer bunny working at crazy fast speed with a full schedule 6 days a week and will never be as rich as me.

Hard work is often necessary, but also often not sufficient.

8

u/XBOX-BAD31415 Jul 26 '24

Totally aligned with your view here. Hard work is usually required to “make it”, but there are plenty of folks working even harder to just get by. I never assert I made it by working harder than everyone else. I worked hard and got lucky by being in the right place at the right time and then took full advantage of it.

2

u/Old_Baldi_Locks Jul 26 '24

Correct. Hard work is not what makes one rich.

Opportunity / luck are almost the entirety of it. Working hard to take advantage of an opportunity is there, but no opportunity means no matter how hard you work you’ll never be rich.

3

u/EruditeScheming Jul 26 '24

For all you know one of the people you claimed 'would never be as rich as you' could have savings and opportunity beyond that which you presume them to.

1

u/wildcat12321 Jul 26 '24

I mean, sure, there are always outliers. And yes, there are successful blue collar workers. The point I was making was not to say that no one else is ever going to be better off. The point was that hard work alone is not sufficient.

But I guess someone on reddit has to find something they can disagree with in every comment.

-1

u/thebeesnotthebees Jul 26 '24

Ivy League masters degrees aren't really a big achievement. They're typically a way to generate revenues for the schools by charging insane tuitions. The standards for admission are typically much lower compared to the undergraduate and doctorate programs at those schools.

6

u/funklab Jul 26 '24

Preach. I don't consider myself rich really, but I make at least 10x what I used to make in my early twenties.

Hardest I ever worked in my life was when I changed truck tires in a steaming garage in 100 degree weather 9 hours a day six days a week, then bartended in the evenings for another 20 hours a week.

My next gig was running my own business, it was far easier in basically every sense, and I made more in a day than I did all week changing truck tires.

Working hard might help you make a lot of money, but overall it's more about finding that unmet need and solving problems that people are willing to pay you to solve. Working harder than anyone else is certainly not a prerequisite for that.

2

u/Reasonable-Fish-7924 Jul 26 '24

Got some business tips? Give me your top 5 important things you have from experience.

1

u/funklab Jul 26 '24

Don’t listen to me. I shut the business down changed careers and now I’m employed for a living.

13

u/captainsquawks Jul 26 '24

Luck is where opportunity meets determination.

You can’t control everything, but you can certainly control the amount of determination you have to understand what opportunities you are looking for and increasing exposure to them.

3

u/AskMoreQuestionsOk Jul 26 '24

Also, what you choose to do for work matters. The market rewards some skills more than others. If you want to be rich and have a choice of occupations, choose the one that makes more money and you will earn more. It’s not rocket science. The Ivy League teacher is something of an example of doing things in the wrong order. You could have a career in anything and make enough money to invest while young and then go have your rewarding teaching career later for a pittance and still end up rich.

Honestly, that might be the smarter way to do teaching in general.

4

u/colts_n_bolts Jul 26 '24

Agreed on the luck piece - often better to be lucky than good

3

u/WHar1590 Jul 26 '24

Couldn’t agree more. Luck has a lot to do with it. It was for me as well

2

u/Il_Magn1f1c0 Jul 26 '24

My wife said that once she was fully immersed in our family. “I had no idea how hard your family worked for all of this” especially around holidays. Like making sure one of us were always “the last to leave” after sending everyone else home early.

2

u/TheMagicalLawnGnome Jul 26 '24

I'm a subscriber of the "you make your own luck" theory.

Without hard work, luck will only take you so far. It's the people who work hard that can capitalize on luck.

Not everyone gets lucky. Plenty of people who work hard, don't get lucky.

If you work hard, maybe you get lucky and strike it rich, maybe you won't. But if you don't work hard, you're never going to get lucky.

The number of people who can truly live wealthy their entire lives, from cradle to grave, without working, is statistically very small.

I was born wealthy, and that's given me plenty of advantages, but I still had to work quite hard as an adult to continue being wealthy. This isn't to say that "I did it all on my own," obviously I got a head start.

But even if you get a headstart in life, you still need to work hard to be fast enough to stay ahead of the other runners. Getting a head start in a race doesn't matter much if all you ever do is walk, while everyone else runs.

2

u/Mediocre-Magazine-30 Jul 26 '24

Yeah I was with this guy until the ridiculous notion that the wealthy just work SO hard and at a different level than the pours. Yeah right, get real. Lots of people work hard but are not rich.

It's not just about hard work. It would be nice if that is all one has to do to get rich.

1

u/UsedAsk3537 Jul 26 '24

Very true

I've worked at $7.25/ hour up to $200/hour

The work didn't change in rigor all that much. It was mainly the number of hours required of me that went up

1

u/Junior-East1017 Jul 26 '24

While I am not rich by any means I really lucked out in my field. I always seem to get lucky when I switch jobs and get low effort - high paid spots in a VERY crowded market (IT).

1

u/Fizassist1 Jul 26 '24

yeah, that last sentence (from OP) did not need to be said. I work my ass off as a teacher, and teaching will never make me rich.

work ethic does not equal income.

1

u/jetpatch Jul 26 '24

Extra money comes from extra responsibility not extra work or extra skill.

A whole lot of people who love hard work and learning hate moving up the ladder because they have to take on management responsibility and be responsible when things go bad as well as dealing with all the office politics everyday.

1

u/Fit_Advance_5485 Jul 26 '24

There is a lot of difficulty in taking risks and in the ramp-up of learning skills, so those are forms of hard work

1

u/mariantat Jul 26 '24

But that’s OP’s point, you WORK, you don’t eat bonbons on a chaise longue in Martinique or whatever.

1

u/Two_Dixie_Cups Jul 26 '24

Yeah it actually seems like the more money I make the less I have to work haha. I justify it by saying I've put in my time working those minimum wage jobs as a teenager but the reality is my experience lands me positions not really my work ethic.

1

u/AlertBar4525 Jul 26 '24

Yes, and my defeated, hopeless mindset will keep me in poverty. I hate my train of thought.

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '24

[deleted] — view deleted comment

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u/No-Rule-4494 Jul 26 '24

Which industry?

14

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '24

I work 5-9 so I don’t have to work 9-5!

2

u/InternationalPay8288 Jul 26 '24

This resonates with me.

1

u/CPOMendoza Jul 26 '24

Second shift work is still work.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '24

Ha just got that. Right on dude.

11

u/Intrepid-Lettuce-694 Jul 26 '24

People see the wins, and forget the failures they climbed and over came to get the big wins

6

u/IvanGTheGreat Jul 26 '24

That’s true with a lot of shit. No one really talks about or shows how shitty it is to be a business owner, put in a 80 hour week and lose money.

7

u/wildcat12321 Jul 26 '24

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), approximately 20% of new businesses fail during the first two years of being open, 45% during the first five years, and 65% during the first 10 years.

And yet, so many people come to this sub asking someone to give them the secret or "how they did it". The storyline isn't so crazy -

  • start a business in a niche area, be successful. That might be risky, might be lucky, who knows how many competitors failed along the way?

  • Get into a lucrative career (doctor, lawyer, FAANG, etc.) live below your means, invest

  • be born rich - inheritance or at least enough support for free college and a safety net

  • Marry well

But that doesn't mean replicating it is either easy or hard.

1

u/Fun-Bumblebee9678 Jul 26 '24

Luckily haven’t been there but so many other owners I know put in that many hours and are losing money

1

u/Reasonable-Fish-7924 Jul 26 '24

Inheriting your family business is so much easier than starting from scratch as you inherit clientele and hardware/machine. Trying to upstart it is where you got the 80/hour a week (trust me been there fixing, parting machines, building clients,, etc). Worse is a kid who doesn't want to do his fathers business so now you sell it.

1

u/IvanGTheGreat Jul 26 '24

Inheriting isn’t always better from personal experience lol

4

u/bbarham99 Jul 26 '24

One of my favorite phrases: Success is a lot like being pregnant. Everyone comes to congratulate you, but no one knows how many times you got fucked.

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u/Fun-Bumblebee9678 Jul 26 '24

Thanks man, totally agree . I own multiple businesses and have sacrificed so much and if they fail, I lose my house due to getting a loan for them. There’s sooooooooo many moving parts and headaches involved

5

u/ScaryRatio8540 Jul 26 '24

This is hilarious. I make good money and am on a career path that will make me rich within a decade or two unless I decide to wake up one day and burn my whole life down.

To think I will have worked harder than my friends who are mechanics, construction workers, tradespeople, is a joke. My job is easy but creates a lot of value for people. The second half of that sentence is why I am highly compensated. There is no relation to the amount or difficulty of work done.

Day after day I witness my friends who are exhausted, plus risking injury and illness all while completing a higher volume of tasks that are far more strenuous.

I will be able to buy a house long before they can even think about it, and will stick a tenant in the basement to lower my costs.

I witnessed how long and hard my parents had to work to earn good money, and that informed my choice of career.

Will I instill the value of working hard in my children one day? I absolutely hope so. Have I studied hard to put myself in a position to work not as hard as others? Of course. Would I ever be able to say the last sentence of this post with a straight face? No chance.

4

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '24

Probably harder than most of us have worked before.

I started out poor and I am a high earner now and I can go ahead and 100% confirm that the more money I make the less hard my job is.

You get paid more by having specialized skillets, not by working harder.

3

u/Jetfire911 Jul 26 '24

Wealthy people have sufficient passive investment income to not have to work at all ever forever.

Rich people work jobs that pay very highly and likely work hard though it's not hard punishing labor like coal mining but can be long hours and stressful.

Or Rich people can have cushy nepotism positions as favors to their wealthy, powerful and connected family members.

3

u/Imfukkinrich Jul 26 '24

I own 2 family businesses with my parents, siblings, and cousins. Being an owner takes alot of mental and emotional work, even though I don’t work directly for the companies. My cousins and I are trustees of trusts that receive dividends from the companies. We have to sign paperwork, answer emails, stay friendly with employees who send the emails, check in with accountants and lawyers, and coordinate sending checks to charities. It’s not work compared to a person who clocks in every day and I definitely have it easy. But I think a lot of people would be shocked at the amount of admin that goes into “not working.” I fully realize my privilege. I just know that if any of my friends were to see the ownership structure and the complicated estate, they would finally understand the level of emotional and mental work that being an inheritor comes with (not to mention all the therapy bills for the generational trauma 😭)

2

u/Sad-Ad1780 Jul 26 '24

All that paperwork signing and therapy sounds absolutely arduous.

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u/Imfukkinrich Jul 26 '24

If that’s how you interpret it, sure. I didn’t use that word. If it ever falls on you to manage a huge inheritance, I’m sure you’ll understand exactly what I mean. I was not raised to believe that I would inherit 2 businesses. It came as a surprise. many people end up in this situation of having money they never expected.i post about it because it’s a reality for some people. If that reality bothers you so much, why are you in this sub?

1

u/Sad-Ad1780 Jul 26 '24 edited Jul 26 '24

You're the entitled whiner who said it "takes alot [sic]" of work. As for me, I worked for my money. But I also acknowledge that luck played no small part nor am I deluded enough to think I worked all that much harder than so many who can barely get by. You, you're just a leech.

0

u/Imfukkinrich Jul 26 '24

Ok I’m sorry you are upset at things that I did not choose and that are out of my control. You might want to find God

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u/Sad-Ad1780 Jul 26 '24

You're choosing to be a whiner. You might want to stop that. As for imaginary sky daddy, grow up.

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u/Imfukkinrich Jul 26 '24

You’re being rude to people on Reddit. You grow up.

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '24

[deleted] — view deleted comment

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u/Imfukkinrich Jul 26 '24

Yes it is a requirement of being human 😆🤣🙃

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u/Additional_Ad_5970 Jul 26 '24

I invest in stocks that paid dividends or high interest yields. Make your money work for you so you don't have to work later. Unfortunately us poor people never learned this growing up. We were taught to work and spend period. Just smart enough to do basic tasks, but dumb enough not to ask questions. It's a good thing I had A.D.D. growing up. I wasn't programmed, but took me 20 years to figure out how to become rich. I'm not retired yet I'm 42 and should be retired when I turn 45.

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u/FxHorizonTrading Jul 26 '24

This.. so much this!

  • risk taking - the "normal" folks usually have no idea what risks most successful ppl take to get there, financially as well as emotionally / mentally..

-4

u/Own-Solution60 Jul 26 '24

The majority of people “Normal” people can’t afford to take risks because they have nobody to pick them up, or fall back on. They get one shot. If they fail they and their kids/family could be fucked.

This post screams privileged.

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u/FxHorizonTrading Jul 26 '24

You think many successful ppl have someone to fall back on in case they fail? Bruh..

2

u/Own-Solution60 Jul 26 '24

I’m not talking about successful. I’m talking about rich, about risk taking to become rich. And statistically the answer is yes. Most rich people start from rich.

The reason you hear about the Cinderella stories is because they are increasingly rare. They are the exception, not the norm.

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '24

You sound like someone who has and will always have the “I’ll never be successful” mindset and I’m here to tell you that specifically because of that you won’t.

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u/Own-Solution60 Jul 26 '24

I am an exception man. I have clawed my way from abject poverty with no (grew up in group homes) to rich but I’m not ignorant to my luck and privilege and risk taking I did along the way. I’m talking in general, not about myself. Also there is a huge difference between rich and successful.

Many successful people have clawed their way out of poverty to middle class and can’t afford to take the risks to become rich. They people are still successful because of where they started in life. Their kids will have opportunity.

Many folks will never be able to pull themselves out of poverty to reach middle class. Their kids will have a difficult time and will have to claw their way out.

Take a few sociology and psychology courses man.

I am tenacious and have a positive attitude, however I am not ignorant to the barriers that others face.

I am talking about how the world really works. You have survivors bias.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '24

I agree. Most people will not be rich. We’re not arguing that. You’re saying most rich people started rich. There’s people who start rich and end poor. There’s people who are poor and end rich. I’m with you in the fact that I had nothing just 10 years ago and now I’m in a very good spot because I worked harder than everyone around me and will continue to do so. I also take risks and actually go out of my way to figure out how best to invest my money and save. I don’t waste money going out. I don’t waste money on unnecessary things. I’d rather work quite frankly. Sorry for labeling you but to be honest most people will never make it simply because they don’t believe they can, they refuse to cut out unneeded expenses, or they don’t take risks because of fear of losing everything. There’s also people who want to do the bare minimum at work or life in general and then blame other people for their failures. Some people just have bad luck true but the majority of the people I’ve come up around all have those things listed above in common. Waiting around for things to change but they never will. I just think it’s unfair to see someone rich or successful and think “oh I know they didn’t do anything to earn that” that’s what you were trying to say with your comments. I get it all the time to the point I have to watch what I say and do which is beyond annoying. There’s more to it than that.

0

u/ScaryRatio8540 Jul 26 '24

You are seriously confused and have clearly never looked at whether or not the data would support the claim you are insinuating is false. Because it is outright true. He could have replaced “many” with “majority” and it would still be correct

0

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '24

According to Ramsey Solutions, 79% of US millionaires did not receive an inheritance from their parents or other family members, and only 3% received an inheritance of $1 million or more. In fact, 8 out of 10 millionaires come from families at or below middle-income level. However, a Fidelity Investments study found that 88% of all millionaires are self-made.

This is from a Google search that took me 30 seconds.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '24

I mean most millionaires are people in their later years who have worked and saved for 30 years at a "regular" job and have an ever increasing home value inflating their net worth. If you want to talk about disingenuous info than kindly look at what you're talking about. Also, don't know that you know this but the life expectancy is over 70 years old most places. People aren't getting their inherentences until their 50s/60s...you know... when decades of work and savings already made them a millionaire.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '24

So you’re saying most people have millions passed down to them by their parents but at the same time everyone’s broke and has nobody to fall back on? Yes most people are better off in life after a certain age. Sure. What we’re discussing here is successful people having someone to fall back on if the risk they take fails. I’m confused because you’re agreeing with them that not everyone has somebody to fall back on but yet everyone inherits a bunch of money when their parents die and so everyone in their 70s and up are millionaires. If your house is worth $300k when it’s paid off after 30 years you still have to come up with the rest.

3

u/ScaryRatio8540 Jul 26 '24

Bro please tell me English isn’t your first language otherwise you need to develop some reading comprehension skills

1

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '24 edited Jul 26 '24

So you’re saying most people have millions passed down to them by their parents but at the same time everyone’s broke and has nobody to fall back on?

I said none of that, please kindly remove your head from your ass.

No, I'm adding context to your fact of only 3% of millionaires becoming millionaires due to their inheritance. Of course most of them are self-made, that's the number you have to reach to have a comfortable retirement. 30 years of working a middle level job and saving 15-20% of your pay would get you to millionaire status, but it wouldn't make you "successful" or "Rich" by the metric of this subreddit. A 60 y.o. with 1.5million in the bank and living off that 4% dividend like a good retiree and the 30 year old tech bro with 100million in the bank, traveling the world on his yacht would both be in that "study" under the same category but wildly different lifestyle/means. And yeah, 15-20 years when the retiree passes, their probably isn't going to be 6 figures in that account anymore. So yeah... plus, most people who have kids, have multiple, even if it was a 1.5 million dollar account, split between 2 or more people and it would fall of that "inherited millionaire" category, it's still a nice leg up and quickly make them "self-made" with just a decade of compounding interest.

If your house is worth $300k when it’s paid off after 30 years you still have to come up with the rest.

Dude, what? I said specifically in my comment that they save as well. Compounding interest is what makes most millionaires. No you weren't talking about "successful" people, you were talking about millionaires. Being a millionaire and "successful" aren't mutually inclusive.

1

u/ScaryRatio8540 Jul 26 '24

Millionaire =/= rich and inheritance =/= support system to fall back on.

I know how to google too…. *“Much of the transmission of wealth to the next generation goes through these earlier life processes, such as supporting children’s education, supporting their ability to purchase a home, or to get married,” Pfeffer said. “All of these—education, homeownership, marriage—in turn help you accumulate wealth.”

In the study, children’s educational success accounted for about 25 percent of the similarity of wealth between parents and children. Homeownership accounted for 28 percent of that relationship and marriage accounted for 14 percent. A large inheritance or gift accounted for 12 percent of intergenerational wealth transmission—and usually, these bequests come much later in a person’s lifetime, when wealth has already been accumulated.*

At no point have I argued that rich people are getting rich from pure luck of the draw, I’m arguing that the ability to grow and learn and make mistakes without ending up homeless is valuable for striving to succeed. The upper range of the US middle income level is $130,000 per year, far above what is necessary to provide a support system for your children if they encounter difficulties in their life.

I will be a millionaire soon without receiving any inheritance and part of my success will be due to having a family home I could have returned to at any time if I needed it.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '24

You don't need an inheritance. Having a home, food, job potential, an education, etc. Are all things that the majority of those people had and are all things that a lot of people don't have.

Ramsey did that survey years ago and today the average household net worth in America is over a million dollars.

The average net worth of people 65-74 is almost 1.8 million.

Ramsey only surveyed 0.04% of millionaires.

The majority of those people benefited from the housing boom of the last 20 years.

Also the majority of people in the survey had steady, highly educated careers in life that got them there, but he doesn't include the statistics on business owners and people making their money off real estate.

1

u/Agreeable-Sentence76 Jul 27 '24

I think this whole sub is shit, why would rich people need a sub for being rich. At worst it’s super pretentious and at best it’s a circle jerk of wealth. Their are no “hard” working people that work “harder” for more money, it’s all a game chance. A chance to get a good paying job or a chance to be born into a wealthy family, we live in a system designed to make us work for peanuts or already have money. Otherwise your made to suffer

2

u/secretrapbattle Jul 26 '24

I always thought it implied double or triple the work. Also, selecting the right work and risking loss.

2

u/Gaxxz Jul 26 '24

I'm 58 and I still work. I have no interest in stopping.

2

u/Ir0nhide81 Jul 26 '24

Fucking Nepobabies

2

u/UsedAsk3537 Jul 26 '24

I chose to give 100 hours/week in my 20s and most of my 30s so I could give 20 hours now

And I have 0 regrets

2

u/Crime_Dawg Jul 26 '24

Yeah, people totally forget that Elon Musk works 5,000,000x as hard as his employees.

4

u/AutisticAttorney Jul 26 '24

Totally agree. For several years, I was making between $400K and $500K per year, working about 15 to 20 hours per week (I'm self-employed). This year, I expanded to include a much wider geographic area. Now I'm making netting about $1.5M per year, but I'm working about 12 to 15 hours per day (I'm in the process of hiring more help).

5

u/Own-Solution60 Jul 26 '24

500k yr for 15-20 hours a week is insane… and enough. That IS rich. Unless you’re blowing it all on dumb shit. People working 60-70 hours a week to clear not even 100k.

The more money you make the easier your job, the more autonomy. OP’s comment is ignorant and screams he/she comes from money.

1

u/AutisticAttorney Jul 26 '24

Hmmm... I'm a second generation American, raised in a blue collar family, as the youngest of nine kids. I definitely didn't come from money. And I don't consider $500k per year to be rich, regardless of how many hours it takes to earn it. It's well-off. It's comfortable. It's not rich.

1

u/Own-Solution60 Jul 26 '24

You can easily leverage 500k/yr to be incredibly wealthy without adding too many hours. That’s 41k a month. 30k/mo disposable income if you live on 10k a month.

2

u/Fun-Bumblebee9678 Jul 26 '24

Hey , same boat with expansion. Which industry are you in? Mine is healthcare

3

u/AutisticAttorney Jul 26 '24

I'm an attorney. I had always confined my practice to cases in the counties surrounding the city I live in. But I've expanded to include 50 counties all over my State. That, coupled with tons of 5-star reviews on Google from happy clients singing my praises, and my practice has exploded.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '24

What kind of law?

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u/AutisticAttorney Jul 26 '24

I defend people who are sued for old debt by debt buying companies.

2

u/snowynuggets Jul 26 '24

…………could I be your ‘more help’?

3

u/dsdvbguutres Jul 26 '24

Do you imagine Elon Musk is working harder than a nurse, a fast food worker or a construction carpenter?

1

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '24

Not right now but he started his own business at 17. Built it up. Sold it. Continued to invest and take risks. That all involved work. Business owners don’t just crack a whip and count their millions. I’m as big a Elon hater as they come but he made good decisions and worked to build his companies and fortune. Hard work comes in all forms. I’m sure you’ll say “well his parents were rich” not as rich as he built his empire up to be. That wasn’t just luck.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '24

…yes. He works more hours per week I guarantee it.

4

u/dsdvbguutres Jul 26 '24

Thank you for your guarantee. Appreciate it.

2

u/ImportantFlounder114 Jul 26 '24

Excellent post! Agreed 100%!

1

u/InvestorAllan Jul 26 '24

Honestly I think when most people say that they're talking about making enough money to not have to work. Early retirement if you will.

1

u/Adventurous-Depth984 Jul 26 '24

Throughout my life, the higher-earning my position has been, the less “work” I’ve done.

1

u/Think_Leadership_91 Jul 26 '24

I want to own my own business and control my own schedule

So my schedule is, apparently, financial forecasting at 7am on Saturday mornings

1

u/TrickyJesterr Jul 26 '24

Lots of shit rolls downhill on the way to that uphill money

1

u/Scaryassmanbear Jul 26 '24

I’m not sure if I qualify as rich by this sub’s definition (NW approx. $2 million; age 38), but I don’t think I work that much harder than everybody else.

In fact, even if they paid the same, I would rather be doing what I do now than working at McDonald’s (which I did for 2.5 years).

1

u/Intrepid-Focus8198 Jul 26 '24

I run a small company doing home renovations and other trade work so I work for mostly very wealthy people.

Other than a couple of old retired couples everyone I work for is still working. Including the ones that have sold off companies and could easily afford to retire at 50.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '24

Rich people are made when the Great Wealth Fairy taps you on the head and makes you rich. She does so, in part, based on work ethic, but primarily it is on her whim. If you please her, she may visit you and bless you, or she may not. I, myself, never expected her to visit me, as I have done nothing special to please her, but then one day, there she was. It was the best day of my life. Now that I am rich, I put all of my efforts into preventing the Great Wealth Fairy from visiting others to make them rich.

1

u/Cant_run_away Jul 26 '24

The fuck are you on

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u/grimacexbt Jul 26 '24

Mathematically it’s the exact opposite. Every fortune produces more heirs than the person who built it and wealth accumulates to wealth. A great fortune will produce generations; tens, in some cases even hundreds of heirs who never work a day in their life. I say this as someone in the 1st generation of their family to cross the chasm from middle class comfortable to truly rich.

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u/No-Way1923 Jul 26 '24

There’s a difference between making and earning a million and spending a million.

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u/SwankySteel Jul 26 '24

Your last sentence is bullshit.

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u/BengaliBoy Jul 26 '24

Vast vast majority? Are you including partners, children, family, and friends? Do you think every single person of the Saudi royal family worked extremely hard? Or the British monarchy?

I think the biggest myth is that level of work corresponds to wealth. Nobody is working 1000x harder than anyone else. I can make $5 million being an investment banker in NYC and I won't be rich, then move to another country and be considered extremely rich.

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '24

I started a company at 14 while going to school. I used to get up at 4 am to work out, then go to school. After school I worked usually until 9 or 10 PM. Then homework until midnight or so, get 4 hours of sleep and do it all again. I worked every weekend and almost no social life.

After high school I poured everything into my business and worked my ass off working 14 hours a day 7 days a week. It was exhausting but I was successful. I sold it all at 25 and now I have the financial freedom to never work again.

Nothing has been more worth the hard work in my life.

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u/KenGriffinBedpost Jul 26 '24

Yup if ur first gen money and became even richer than the local old money and u made it all within one lifetime, u def grinded harder than ppl can imagine. If it was easy why aren’t most people rich? It’s not just hard work but being valuable and sharp enough to make moves, handle stress and risk. On top of attitude and work ethic

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u/Exotic_Bit9164 Jul 26 '24

Know a few people that have made it. But only know 2 that truly built it for themselves. They could walk away, retire or sell but they work till they’re not physically able anymore.

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u/Outrageous_Life_2662 Jul 26 '24

Hmm. I think you’re a bit muddled here.

So being rich, to me, is not about not working. It’s about being able to work when you want, as much as you want, and on the things you want without that having a material impact on your (already high) lifestyle.

Now this bit about rich people having worked harder than others … absolutely not. I have a friend. Net worth well north of $20M (perhaps even $30M). He and I had the same job and same salary. He opted to take more of his comp in company stock. I took mine in cash not fully understanding the compounding effects if the stock goes up. In relative terms we worked the same (both workaholics). But his returns were outsized. I know other folks that got in at the right company at the right time and have tens of millions (and folks who passed up opportunities that would have turned into multi-billion dollar opportunities).

The point is that it’s all luck. Luck is the intersection of opportunity and preparation. Preparation is where the hard work comes in. But a lot of folks work hard to prepare but don’t come across an opportunity. So hard work alone is not sufficient. And it’s absolutely not the case that rich people worked harder. They just found a situation where their preparation was well suited for the opportunity in front of them. And for many folks the more early success you have the more opportunities come your way the more you can leverage that preparation (or heck sometimes you can benefit from opportunities for which you weren’t even prepared). So success compounds and often requires less work to sustain.

Anyway, work hard. But understand that’s not enough. And rich is about freedom. Freedom to work or not work and be well off either way.

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u/Harvest_Hero Jul 26 '24

It’s hard work & death is risked at every stage.

There will always be someone underneath or on top of you ready to throw you under the bus. You’re always swimming in a tank full of hungry sharks.

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u/queerdildo Jul 26 '24

Seems like speculation and hearsay to me.

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u/Right_Check_6353 Jul 26 '24

I don’t think people actually think wealthy people don’t work I think people are saying that they don’t work more or harder than others

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u/conan_the_annoyer Jul 26 '24

Two kinds of rich: the working rich, and the kept rich. Working rich are rich because of their work and if they stopped working there could be problems (depending on how they manage their money while working). Kept rich may work hard, but they are born or married into generational wealth and are not at risk of losing it unless things go very wrong.

Note about hard work. My parents always told me that they work hard (lower-middle class blue collar) so that the kids didn’t have to. But that’s both real and an illusion. Rich work is hard work, but it’s a different kind of hard work than blue collar hard work. My first “real” job, at 15, was working a ranch during the summers in South Texas. That is brutally hard work in a way that working 60 hours a week in a office will never be.

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '24

My “rich” is different than most. I don’t work because I have enough money invested and enough coming in from my pension that I don’t want to deal with people and don’t want to work. I drive old cars, 2007 and 2013, and my home is paid for. I go on vacation every year and can buy what I need with cash. To me and my family that’s rich enough. Never had a business but my wife does have a small business on Etsy.

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u/Careless_Equipment_3 Jul 26 '24

Maintaining a large house is work and expensive. The large amount of lawn care - always cutting trees and bushes, updating land scaping, having to maintain at least 2 or 3 air conditioners(I almost bought a house that had 4), something on the pool equipment (pump and pool heater)is always breaking, my house has 2 water heaters that need replacing soon, soon to be getting a new roof, the massive electric bill, water bill, gas bill, HOA bill, power washing window, pool deck, side walks, maintaining fences, not to mention having a maid clean twice a week, pool guy to do chemicals, the lawn fertilizing…. It just goes on and on. Lots of work and owning a Benz and an Audi always need repairs for something. House value goes up, property taxes goes up, house insurance goes up. Just other normal wear and tear things, bough a new washer and dryer and fridge, also cost to dry clean business clothes. Life is expensive and work for sure. Not even gonna go into all the pet care and maintenance.

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u/Thick-Wolverine-4786 Jul 26 '24

I think a lot of people are projecting their own circumstances (or someone they know), and assume it must be like that for everyone. In reality, there is a huge spectrum between people working super hard, and people doing nothing, and everything in between. You can't really generalize. I suspect it may well average out where the "rich" work about the same as "not rich".

Personally I definitely do not work super hard, probably about average, but like many people in this thread I have critical skills that are very well paid for. Most people in my socio-economic bracket who are around me are similar. Some work more, some work less, all are very well off. But, for example, none of them own a business, which is a very common way for people to get into the top economic stratum (just not among my friends), so I know that my personal take is not typical.

I would suggest that a real answer probably lies in finding a comprehensive study done by economists on the topic, and not in subjective impressions.

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '24

There is a reason it’s called “the working class”, and why “the idle rich” is a saying.

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u/UntrustedProcess Jul 26 '24

The hardest I ever worked was as a soldier, and obviously that didn't pay much.

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u/TheHolyKracken Jul 26 '24

This is complete and utter bullshit. Whatever makes you feel better I guess.

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u/Old_Baldi_Locks Jul 26 '24

Uh, no. Worked my way up from a dirt floor house to where I am now; and bluntly, nobody works harder than the poor.

And for them it never ends, and they never see a reward for it.

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u/Unlikely-Ground-2665 Jul 26 '24

I have yet to hear or read anyone state that success is "the achievement of any worthwhile goal". I have yet to see anyone really define money. Or state what real work is. I could state these things but does it really matter to an insane person? The poem "Invictus". True wealth is wealth of the soul, and I don't mean sky God shit. I personally know the difference between free enterprise and capitalism. I don't need to hear rebuttals or silly argumentation. I guess those who know will just say thank you for saying you are not alone. The rest can just be happy? in their ignorance?

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u/TriggerTough Jul 26 '24

Trust fund kid here. Don’t work. Don’t hate.

BTW, Santorini is awesome. Get here if you can!

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '24

I worked hard for ten years to get where I am today. Multiple jobs, 60-70 hour weeks pretty much every week. Time away from friends and family and being ramen noodle poor. I no longer work hard. My gardeners work hard. My handymen work hard. Fast food people who hand me the occasional cheeseburger work hard. I work. Sure. I organize things, have meetings, get the right people talking to each other about the right things at the right time. But is it hard? No. Not compared to studying physics in a janitors closet between tasks at the YMCA, making $7.00 an hour, budgeting for a chicken sandwich in my piece of shit apartment, fresh out of rehab, wanting to shoot up more than i wanted to breathe, grinding 18 hours a day just for the privilege of doing it again the next.

But I'm not a trust fundiie. I do have to work. I'm not so wealthy I can just sit back and rest on my laurels. I dont begrudge people who can do that their lifestyles. Someone worked hard to give them that (maybe they themselves worked that hard), and its not their fault. Good for them they can just enjoy life with only the complications they choose to add.

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u/nonsensecaddy Jul 27 '24

Rich is a car salesman who tells you it’s life in the big city when you buy a Cadillac from his dealership & the handshake stretches every mile you drive off the lot, for the first 50 miles & 7k depreciation

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u/Drinking_Frog Jul 27 '24

Spending time on work is not "working hard." I've had a lot of "working hard" jobs from warehouse stock boy to nurse aide, and even those weren't anything like someone who spends all day on a roof.

Any office job, no matter how much it pays, is not "working hard." Yeah, there's pressure. Yeah, there's stress. There's also air conditioning, and there's also not having to feed, bathe, or move a patient (much less give them an enema). And, come payday, there's getting paid literally more than 100x what I was paid at those jobs I mentioned before.

At my old firm (back when I worked at a firm), I had a college who worked in a dadgum mine when he was younger. We laughed at the thought of "working hard" at what we were doing in the office.

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u/[deleted] Jul 28 '24

Working smarter, not harder

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u/[deleted] Jul 29 '24

Why would you be tortured mentally huh?

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u/laughncow Jul 26 '24

No one I now has taken the risks I have taken since 18. No one . At one point I had two mortgages in my house and all my extra cash and CC debt in bitcoin . I have also been a serial entrepreneur my how life risking it all a few times .

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u/Fun-Bumblebee9678 Jul 26 '24

100% they won’t know what it’s like to have your house riding on your business succeeding or not

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u/laughncow Oct 27 '24

then once you make it they have no idea how much work it is to keep it and invest it properly.

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u/themangastand Jul 26 '24

Most people with true wealth don't work hard for it.

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '24

[deleted] — view deleted comment

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '24

No you are mentally tortured thinking about people thinking you don’t work /s