I once met a rich man walking along the cliff paths in Wales. As I rounded the corner of one of those endless coves that takes chunks out of the headland (and a bite out of your thighs) there he was, sitting on a bench.
You might be surprised to hear this rich man was eating fish and chips.
He looked very happy with himself.
Content, I’d say, rather than self-satisfied. But with the glint in his eye of one who has seen some of life’s secrets and tasted a few of its finer things.
His wife was with him, too. Similar age, almost as happy looking.
“Come on, we’ve left you space at the end,” this rich man said as I approached, and he shuffled along the bench a bit.
His wife handed me a portion of fish and chips.
“It doesn’t get any better than this,” the man said, looking out along the deserted path ahead and at the darkening water, which was offset by one of those rarer-than-you’d-like British sunsets.
And I believed him.
Because if there was one thing my father knew, it was how to be happy.
Eat yourself rich
Of course my father wasn’t financially very well-off.
Yet even if he had been, I’m not sure you would have known it.
As I’ve mentioned before, my dad was a frugalist when the word ‘frugal’ was the name of an obscure Muppet as far as most people were concerned.
Yet like my co-blogger The Accumulator, my dad didn’t seem to see his penny-pinching efforts as deprivation.
For one thing, he visibly got a kick from, say, finding a builder’s skip filled with what he called “perfectly good timber” – in reality something like discarded shipping pallets – and sneaking it away to make a garden trellis for my mother or a playhouse for my sisters.
But even more telling was how he enjoyed things.
I’ve eaten at some fancy places around the world (cheers, former work life!) but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone enjoy food more than my dad eating those Welsh al fresco fish and chips. Nor the straightforward curry he’d knock our socks off with on Sunday nights.
Enjoyed as much as him?
Certainly.
But not more than him.
Billionaire, millionaire, meh
I was thinking about all this while watching an episode of the historical gore-fest Vikings.
In it the Norse leader, Ragnar Lothbrok, gets some perks on account of being the top dog.
Ragnar has the biggest hut. The best furs. He gets to choose when the vikings set off to torch other people’s huts – mainly those of the English.
But otherwise – from a material point of view – Ragnar is not really living that differently from his fellow heathens.
The vikings all eat in a big communal hall. They drink the same potent brew, and see their children die from the same plague.
And as a price for his handful of material luxuries, Ragnar has far bigger concerns than the typical Jaako Sixpack. Half the population Scandinavia and, periodically, of England, are after his head.
This all made me think about what we can enjoy today exactly like a billionaire would – like a Ragnar Lothbrok would in our world – rather than dwell on what we’re missing.
For instance, I’m sure traveling in a private jet is far preferable to Ryanair.
But if me or a billionaire fancies a salty snack en route, then our Kettle Chips taste just the same (and any billionaire who is routinely reaching for Beluga caviar at 30,000 feet has bigger problems than I do).
Life’s what you make it, not what you make
This is not to decry all material goodies, or to make light of income inequality just because we all breath the same air (though that’s true).
It’s certainly not a reason not to save and invest.
Money does matter – but it also matters how you think about it, why you want it, and what you spend it on.
For example I’ve written before that young people should shop for clothes less and save more.
Young people are already so much better-looking than most of us with many more years on the clock. Why gild the lily at the expense of your pension?
And this principle of playing to your strengths – and enjoying what you have right now, or can enjoy for less – might help keep you on track when capitalism has its Fagin eyes on your wallet.
I’ve written elsewhere about my Live Like An Affluent Student Method ™ that served me well in my 20s and 30s.
But for now, here are 20 things you can enjoy just as much as Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey, or the King.
Think of it as a motivational pick-me-up.
A free one!
20 things you can enjoy as much as any billionaire
1. A can of Coke tastes no sweeter if you’re minted
You can’t buy better Coca-Cola, which is really the point of Coca-Cola.
2. Watching the Six Nations rugby in a friendly London pub
3. Listening to Henry Szeryng’s 1968 recording of Bach’s Partita for Violin Solo No.2 in D Minor (especially part V)
Music is a big one. Whatever you happen to like, for most of human history you needed to be rich and powerful to have someone play it for you at your whim. Now you can hear the best recordings ever made in milliseconds. More often than not for free.
4. The view from Westminster Bridge
If it was good enough for Wordsworth.
5. The novel Light Years by James Salter
You don’t get to read a better version of a novel just because you’re rich. You read the same novel as the rest of us. The obnoxious among the rich know this, and it rankles with them. It’s why, for instance, former US pharma bad boy Martin Shkreli bought the one copy of Wu-Tang Clan’s Once Upon A Time In Shaolin album, and why he tried to repeat the trick with a Kanye offering.
6. Dance like a nutter to Pharrell Williams’ infectious Happy
Or Come On Eileen, if you prefer.
7. Play LEGO with a cheerful three-year old
Kids don’t know or care that you’re rich. Or that you’re not. And not much in life is better than spending time playing with a little kid. At least until they get fed up and start crying, at which point you can return them to your sister. (Just me?)
8. Kiss someone new
If you’re already in a happy relationship, I’m not sure what to say. (Date night?) It’s one of life’s conundrums, isn’t it? But it’s the same conundrum if you’re rich.
9. Go to a London School of Economics lecture
They’re free. I’ve seen everyone from Paul Krugman to Dani Rodrik speak there. Once I said hello to the ex-deputy of the Bank of England, Charlie Bean. Your nearest big town will have somewhere similar. You don’t need an underground volcano lair to meet interesting people.
10. The Internet
The marvel of our time is pretty much the same for all of us, once you’re on a half-decent connection. Whether or not you’re a billionaire, your experience of TikTok is just as bad as mine.
11. Enjoy a Daisy Green flat white
Okay, I’m biased because I’m an investor in Daisy Green, but anyway I do think theirs is one of the best. I also believe great coffee is an affordable luxury that gets no better beyond around £4.50.1 And yes, I know about the latte factor and all that. I’m not saying drink a pricey coffee three times a day. I’m saying one cup of decent specialty coffee won’t kill your bank balance, and to the point it’s as good as a billionaire can buy. Trust me, I’ve even tried the underwhelming Civet coffee – the expensive one brewed from cat poo that’s now gone unethical.
12. Fish and chips near the sea somewhere
Had to include this after my introductory waffle. For the same experience go to the fish and chip shop in St. Dogmael’s near Cardigan in Wales. Other outlets are available.
13. Walk
I have friends who hate walking. They get bored or tired. Then look at their watch. Or have to go home so they can drive to the gym. These people are useful idiots I keep around to make myself feel better. Walking is one of life’s luxuries, and I’ll miss it when it’s gone.
14. Explore a new city
Related to walking: hunting about a new world city on foot and getting your bearings is one of life’s great pleasures. Sure, if you’re a billionaire you’ll see a different Paris or Melbourne to me. Eventually I might wish I could pop to the opera on a whim or eat every Monday at the best restaurant (although of course I wouldn’t, because then it’s boring). Regardless, the best part of a new city is when it’s still new and you turn around enough corners to find something beautiful you’ve never seen before.
15. Get the latest iPhone
Really, life is too short to use other phones. Google inventor Larry Page can’t buy a better iPhone than me – and not only because he is condemned to use some Android nonsense for corporate reasons.2 This is a serious point. There’s a big difference between a crap car and the latest Tesla – several tens of thousands of pounds. But there’s not much cost consequences in monthly terms between a bad phone and a brilliant one, and we’re talking about one of the most powerful devices ever made by man. (Indeed Apple probably knows it’s leaving a lot of money on the table by not offering £10,000 iPhones. Perhaps why it pushes all those blingy Apple Watch
16. The sea
It’d be nice to have a private island. But it’s not hard to find a deserted beach in the Med, even somewhere like Ibiza at the height of summer. And the biggest joy of the sea is that first wave of warm water that’s higher than you think. The one that knocks you back and makes you laugh like one of those happy three-year olds. Watching other people do it from your yacht is purely an optional extra.
17. Arguing with friends
I guess I’m meant to write “having fun with friends”. But it’s easy to have fun with strangers too, even for an introvert like me. (I was recently dancing like a loon with some to Pharrell Williams’ Happy, for example). Whereas it’s hard to enjoy a proper and honest disagreement that makes you both think afterwards with people you don’t know. For that, you need good friends.
18. Meeting up with a childhood chum and it being like five or ten or 40 years ago
Okay, this one is a bit more from the Disney aisle. But seriously, it’s great when it happens and I just do not believe it’s better if you do it in your luxury penthouse. (Very possibly it’s worse!)
19. Dogs
You can buy a purer breed, but you can’t buy a better dog. Same goes for cats.
20. Mindfulness
It’s all the rage now, isn’t it? But the point about emptying your mind of clutter to concentrate on being present is, well, the doing away with of clutter. The very rich might find it easier to make time for meditation, but I doubt it. They’re probably too busy instructing staff on how to clean the pool at the villa on the Amalfi coast for the 68th time.
Maybe I’m just jealous. Or just maybe I’m not?
Do you enjoy something that money can’t buy – or even if it can, that doesn’t cost very much? Add your suggestions below!
Seeing your child’s first smile of the day as you walk into her room 🙂
Time is an obvious one, as while taxis or a central hotel save you time on the day, their costs just suck time of another part of your life.
Museums and Stately Homes have better art than you can ever own, and more variety. Ditto libraries. So visit and borrow, not buy.
Sitting in the garden
The enjoyment of anything is not a linear function of its price. Do more, cheaper things, provided they are varied enough you can remember them all.
Taylor Street is great, but you should try Wild & Wood on London Wall.
On the difference between the hoi polloi and the 1% (or 0.1% if you’re so minded), I had similar thoughts watching HBO’s John Adams the other day. The late 18th century French aristocracy had serious lucre, but their wealth didn’t prevent the Bastille from falling or many of them losing their heads.
I’d say relative wealth differences tend to matter more where economic freedom and rule of law is limited and in pre-industrial/post-agricultural revolutions societies.
Give a cheer for Magna Carta, common law, roundheads, the anti-corn law league, abolitionists and universal suffrage!
Nice list, most of which I’d agree with.
“One day I will write about my Live Like An Affluent Student Method ™ that served me pretty well in my 20s and 30s.”
According to my friends, I’m living like this in my 40s!
@John B — Ack, museums and art galleries are a glaring omission! I often find a deserted gallery in the V&A wondering how bored I’d personally be if it was my multi-million collection of glassware amassed over a lifetime, say — but utterly thrilled to look through it when I’m seeing it for the first time on a wet Wednesday afternoon. 🙂
Quality list, and a great post. Personally, I’d add mixing with younger people where you can – in my case spin classes – the energy is infectious.
“Live Like An Affluent Student Method”: good one! One chapter, or a follow-on, might be the next step down, “Live Like A Broke Student Method”. That’s what got me and my household its great start.
Funnily enough, today I was daydreaming what I could do with many millions, the upshot of the exercise was I’d be able to do more helping other people.
I can (and do) do this often, but in smaller ways than I could if I had more money. Today I can swap/offer recipes, music, films, books, where bargains are to be had, advice at work and drinkies after, holiday destinations, moving home, saving up for retirement or their kids’ education. With enough cash I could help a lot of (more vulnerable) people in significant ways.
The material goods life has to offer bear little interest to me. Once you’ve eaten in a few expensive restaurants it becomes the norm, people’s feelings of happiness generally remain constant even after coming into a large sum of money or having a devastating accident.
The fun and memories don’t result from going by the advice of well-connected gastro journalists, it’s in finding the out-of-the-way little family-run gems which aren’t advertised, or the beach which no-one else knows about, or the perfect coffee served out of a mobile cafe in Belfast.
your opener made a rhino weep, you’re a lucky fella to have had such a wise old elf for a dad.
I go & check on the parents one weekend a month minimum to make sure they’re Ok in every way ….. & if I think of an interesting thing I’d like to try & cook, I wait until we can all do it together then.
Somehow, like eating al fresco, it just tastes better because of that atmosphere when you’re surrounded by the love of your own genes.
No money will buy me that gentle peace when they are gone – it’s time creating memories that I will treasure one day – as they say, nobody on their deathbed regrets not working even more vs time with loved ones.
“Henry Szeryng’s 1968 recording of Bach’s Partita for Violin Solo No.2 in B Minor (especially part V)”
Do you mean No.1 (in B Minor) or No.2 (in D Minor)?
A good list, a few I would add:
Sleep – a good night’s sleep can solve a lot of woes.
Security – having money means not having to worry about paying rent/bills which definitely helps add to happiness
Wine – I’ve tried a few VERY pricey wines and not really seen the difference above a £6 supermarket merlot, but maybe I’m uncultured!
Dom
In economics household is the smallest economic unit. A firm’s profit equals its revenues minus its costs. So like a firm: Your profit comes from Your salary and investment minus Your costs of Your lifestyle.
@Kraggash
I assume he meant the Chaconne from Partita No 2. in D Minor. It is not hyperbole IMO to describe it as one of the greatest achievements of western culture. As Brahms put it “On one stave, for a small instrument, the man writes a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful feelings. If I imagined that I could have created, even conceived the piece, I am quite certain that the excess of excitement and earth-shattering experience would have driven me out of my mind.”
@John B “Museums and Stately Homes have better art than you can ever own, and more variety. Ditto libraries. So visit and borrow, not buy.”
The staff at the local museum became quite agitated when I tried to borrow some art.
Lovely list! 🙂
(But additionally, how are you single and where do we apply!!? 🙂 )
Spotify, so you can see what all the fuss is about, in seconds, for free. And no, it didn’t grab me! You’d have to be a Emperor back in Bach’s time to get that quality of reproduction, on demand, in 5 minutes.
+1 for Wild & Wood cafe. They were my regular while working in Bloomsbury before they lost that location. Nice people, excellent coffee & food, inexplicably reasonable prices.
I’m in month two of what I’m calling my Year of Fun 2016 and many of your points resonate (I’m definitely with you on Happy and Come on Eileen!) I’m currently sitting still in a traffic jam coming home from London but I have Aha to listen to so all’s good !! Great article.
@All — Some splendid additional suggestions and thoughts, thank you.
@Kraggesh — Oops, typo, yes @helfordpirate is quite right and I agree with everything he and Brahms said. (Indeed, a performance must have seemed like witchcraft in Brahms’ time, when an ordinary aristocrat might only hear it played through three or four times in their lifetime). My first listen was live, and I couldn’t believe I’d gotten to 30-something and knew about the Sistine Chapel and the Mona Lisa and never heard this. Though perhaps I wasn’t ready for it until then.
@Learner @Freemantle — Cheers for the tip, I’ll give Wild & Wood a try… I have a good few places strategically located around London that I like these days. Some even outside the center, imagine that. (E.g. The Electric Coffee Co near Ealing Broadway is very hard to beat).
@Curious Sarah — Cheers, but trust me, you don’t want to be *that* curious. 😉
excellent article
how about getting into bed with freshly washed and ironed bed linen.
Lovely article 🙂
I’d add;
– A warm shower after a cold winter cycle or surf. Unreal.
– Cooking with some good music blaring and some friends to chat to.
MrZ
Beautiful article 🙂
My pleasure that money can’t buy? Baking my own sourdough bread.
Brahms was quite right about Bach’s legendary Chaconne, but he wrote a marvellous one himself as the final movement of his Fourth Symphony. Which may also be enjoyed for very little money.
While thinking about this article I came across an entry in Michael Palin’s third set of diaries “Travelling to Work”:
‘Meeting up with SZ at a restaurant off the Fulham Road. That part of the world doesn’t half sparkle with the comforts of life. Antique shops, galleries, posh interiors shaded from the sun by wide blinds, everything in mint condition. Would I rather live here? Well on a summer’s day it has a seductive quality but to really enjoy all this would cost a lot of money, and you would be surrounded by those with a lot of money to spend – and by and large they’ve never been my favourite income group.’
When I was 26 I was really enjoying life, with a great job, enough money to do what I wanted, a great group of friends, and everything seemed possible. One day I got what was probably glandular fever, and to cut a long story short, my health never recovered. We all think “that would never happen to me!” but that’s what I thought too! It evolved over the months and years into Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.) which is a largely untreatable immune system dysfunction that has taken me from perky 26 year old to sometime wheelchair user. But one of the more positive side-effects of difficult life events like these are that they pretty much force us to open our eyes to the world you describe – the almost limitless pleasure to be derived from simple activities and people close to us (without whom activities are far less fun!). I have certainly learnt that accumulating assets is not just about retiring earlier, but having a bit more resilience to the knocks that unfortunately turn up sometimes, whether it’s a health issue, a funeral in a distant country we want to attend, or a friend or relative who needs some support, all of which are easier to do if we’re not chained by a desk & a salary. But then FIRE was never about money was it, it’s about about ruthless focus, prioritisation, flexibility, and freedom.
Nice list. Also agree with lots of the suggestions people have made. I don’t think anyone’s suggested physical activity… running through the park early in the morning is one of life’d great pleasures for me and is free (ish).
One thought though… a billionaire has the option to spend their whole life doing these enjoyable activities. Those in work don’t… I guess that’s an argument to retire early rather than slog away for “just a bit more” but it’s certainly a differentiator between the super rich and the rest of us.
I’m afraid libraries are becoming an endangered species and will largely not survive austerity (at least not in large swathes of northern England). Do what you can to prevent this, not forgetting of course that they are a prime example of a tax funded collective good, provided by the state. (‘You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone’ and all that….)
The guitar solo at the end of Dire Straits ‘Tunnel of Love’ has the power to lift my spirits however low I am feeling. You don’t need money to enjoy your favorite things.
Majority of the things that a billionaire does is pretty similar to the normal people. The ONLY difference is that billionaires have way MORE choices – they could do anything they want but average people can’t.
Great stuff. Sounds a bit like my Dad, who used to say ‘you’ve got to keep enjoying yourself’ and he didn’t mean buying more stuff, or even spending a lot of money, except for a few treats.
Couldn’t agree more about one good coffee a day and all the others except the phone – very happy with my https://www.wileyfox.com/swift/
The one I’d add is catching a wave (on a surfboard)
@PC ooh – a wiley fox. I think I’m right in saying the only british smartphone. Funnily enough, my old-man bought one recently. It looks pretty smart. Very much like a motorola which is unsurprising as I think that is where the engineers came from. It runs a cyanogenmod android.
I don’t own a smartphone (although I do some covert dev work on android), but if i did, it would be a wiley fox.
Hitting the lip at 30kts on a windsurf board is hard to better, e.g.
https://youtu.be/mfot62ye0cQ
What a fabulous post, thanks and a lot to ponder over too 🙂
I also love Bach’s partitas but my absolute indulgence is watching Nathan Milstein play Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata (1st movement) with George Pludermacher playing piano. Milstein is a master to watch with vigorous expression and a noble restraint. It also happens to be one of my favourite pieces of music.
I could add reading the Kreutzer Sonata novela on a long and rugged train ride (yet to do)
Freshly sautéed Pimientos de Padron
A glass of Ribeiro del Duero wine in good company
Waking up to a view of the KaraKorum range
Thundering across the Tibet plains on a Tibetan pony (that’s a rogue one!)
A kiss
Comforting someone in their moment of need
And the British Museum, of course
Cycling home while the setting sun sets the sky afire
Snuggled up in bed with a good book and a loved one
Impromptu bum-sledding after slipping in the snow
Anytime and place you achieve Flow
@ C. Sarah – apply and you will soon find out 😉
Being scared of nothing and not having to do anything.
Both considerably easier with a lot of money, but attainable without.
This is the most bizarre and narcissistic article. The 20 points at the end are questionable and superfluous and certainly merely give an insight into the writers somewhat narrow minded point of view.
The chips taste even better if you take em back to poppit sands and eat em in the dunes…
This is an excellent post. Thank you.
One more candidate for your list: working with a great team of people. Something that, if anything, may be harder for billionaires than the rest of us.
Most of the things listed by The Investor and others require being what my parents would have described as ‘comfortably off’. That is, not struggling to keep your head above water. So I guess most of us posting here can ‘live like a billionaire today’. Others cannot.
So I am with Dom, security is often the starting point to enjoy some of these things.
The rest reflects the non-linear nature of price/pleasure curves. Billionaires have it better, but not that much better from our perspective (and I often suspect from theirs, otherwise why do they do such bizarrely expensive things except to prove they can!).
And I am also very much with Vanguardfan ‘you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone’. All those public goods people refer to are being systematically dismantled, especially outside London.
I give my time volunteering to help the longterm unemployed apply for jobs as well as mentoring pre-university engineering students in their work experience placements. The things I learn you cannot buy and are priceless.
@OldEyes — True of a few (and definitely true of @Minikins’ global wanderings…!) but not sure your comment is really reflective of my list.
Numbers 1-9 are all either free or very cheap (can of Coke, second hand novel, Spotify). Numbers 13, 16, 17, 18 and 20 are also free. 🙂
Watching the sun set on a remote Scottish munro. Then sleeping on that remote mountain and watching the sunrise on it.
I’ve tried, but I’ve never observed a correlation between net worth and happiness, excluding of course folks who are truly destitute and struggling with food and shelter. I suspect I enjoy life as much, if not more so, than the average billionaire. Enjoying life is not about luxuries and amenities and the ‘stuff’ with which billionaires can surround themselves.
Happiness is being content with what you have.
It is indeed my experience that the higher your “net worth” the more worried you get; my favourite clients are those for whom “sufficiency” is a goal (moneywise at least). It’s a myth that IFA’s are just there to increase a client’s wealth, well in my book anyway. It’s much more fun to help a hard-working blue collar couple achieve a comfortable and content retirement that to spend ages trying to save every last penny in tax for the wealthy!
Alcohol. As usual uber expensive beer and wine are no better than the stuff average people can afford and it’s all just for show / bragging rights.
Golf. Yes maybe you can play Augusta whole I’m down the local public course but we’re both still just hitting a little white ball around a field. And if I really want to I can afford to play some very nice courses hoping over to Portugal or Spain.
You seriously think iPhone is worth the extra money in 2016? Android stuff has come a long way since iPhone 3G days (when it was far superior) my friend!
Yes there are decent Android phones now, but it reminds me of the ‘Android Challenge’ when I started a new job as a mobile app developer in 2010. You had to lock your iPhone in the safe and choose any Android phone off the test-device shelf and see if you could last a week with it as your only phone….no-one did.
So hard to believe the original piece was nearly eight years ago now. OMG nearly 3k days have passed!
That’s the real source of wealth. Time. Time for experiences. Time to savour. Time to reflect.
My tuppence worth here – There is no billionaire mindset. Minds are natural difference machines. When bored, we want interest. When stressed, we want calm. When materially poor, we want wealth. When materially wealthy, we want spiritual fulfilment. When alone, we want company. When together, we want solitude. When we’re here, we want to be there.
Almost anyone can adapt to adversity, but it’s the change from the better state to the worse that’s challenging. And challenges allow us to grow a little & know ourselves more.
@SuperSabre — Revealing anecdote. I did some time in the mobile trenches too, and yes it’s no surprise to me that iPhone has mostly squeezed out Android, at least in the West, for highest end smartphones.
@TLI — All true, though interestingly I had to change about a dozen links in this article due to link rot / different perspectives in 2023. (E.g. It used to say The Queen not The King!) And arguably should have done more (e.g. that Wu-Tang album purchases is a bit old hat now).
The general is timeless, the specific is personal. 🙂
I can agree there is so much stuff out there which is really cheap in the big scheme and rather pointless being frugal about. Lattes are part of that. Most tech is another. Nonetheless I have to say no to 20: mindfulness. Just more psychobabble BS.
Regarding Apple vs Android. I was losing all hope with Apple after the iPhone 12, 13 and 14. Stuck on their proprietary Lightning charger about a decade after it was obsolete. So it’s great to finally have received my iPhone 15 Pro with USB-C! Good old EU regs finally forced them into joining the modern world. Of course, it’s an outrage that the basic iPhone 15 has been given only pretend USB-C and still is £800.
@All: Some timeless wisdom from Hal Holbrook, as Lou Mannheim in Wall St, which is as good an antitode as any to aspiration for billionairedom and what people will do to achieve it; from at the point when Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) is about to arrested in his office by the SEC: “Bud I like you. Just remember something. Man looks into the Abyss, and there’s nothing staring back at him. At that moment, man finds his character, and that’s what keeps him out of the Abyss.”
What a wonderful blog. It brought a tear to my eye. So true as well.
Broadly in agreement but large sums of money do buy you freedom of movement. For example investment visas for the USA are somewhat comically priced around the $1 million mark*, similar arrangement in Japan costs just £5k but you need an already resident equal partner plus a handful of unsackable employees, while EU residency can eventually be gained for a circa up-front €300k in Portugal.
* It’s not the sum that I find funny, but that I hear it in Dr Evil’s accent.
You can try and keep yourself as fit and healthy as any billionaire and having good health is probably worth more than any amount of money. Sure, a billionaire could maybe have better surroundings to exercise in, better equipment, a better personal trainer, a better diet (but all of that is very much debatable). I agree with a lot of what has been noted above, but it’s incredible how many of those “best things in life are free” take being healthy as a given.
Funnily enough I probably attended the same Dani Rodrik lecture at the LSE back in 2009! It’s a small world!
As you say they have a lot of great free lectures, I remember seeing Robert Shiller, Willem Buiter, and even Michael Lewis for free!
I’m a lifelong android user – so that one was funny (not!). However, I’ve recently chosen a macbook pro for my latest work gig. This really knocks the socks off the equivalent PC once you get used to the different shortcuts.
This post resonated with me. Last month my wife and I walked the Tour du Mont Blanc, and a billionaire would not have got a greater sense of exhilaration from reaching every col and seeing the next mountain vista, or greater sense of achievement at the end of a hard day. He would probably have been whisked off in a taxi to a 5* hotel though rather than make do with the mix of hostels, guest houses and 2* hotels on or close to the trail – which might have brought more luxury but would have lost him the pleasure of random meetings with others tackling the same challenge.
And I also have a strong memory of the “perfect” fish and chips bought in a small fishing village many years ago and eaten out of newspaper sitting on the harbour wall.
You don’t need to be rich, you do need enough to get by and a sense of adventure and enjoyment.
These days I can now say ‘no’ to working for someone else and ‘yes’ to my adult son when he asks me to care for my baby granddaughter. Time to sit, play, giggle ; the time to stop and stare which I sadly never had when my own children were growing up, Hubby and I were just enslaved all the time to a fixed work schedule. 6 years ago I read Lars Kroijer’s Investing Demystified, and at around the same time became an avid Monevator follower. Ever cautious, I put half my portfolio (various savings) into the care of an IFA, but decided to managed the other half myself, passively, following with great interest all the posts on the inner workings of bond ladders, allocation, SWR etc etc. After using the unitising method according to Monevtor to record side by side the progress of my portfolio v actively managed IFA portion,, guess what? Even in these dismal times mine has already pulled (slunk?) ahead of the IFA’s actively managed half, with its drag of charges and fees. Together with a small workplace pension, this money is now bringing me time and independence – the most valuable assets we can have. I still work a couple of mornings (my choice) but can now choose to spend time with my husband enjoying life in our caravan or playing with a happy little person who trusts, giggles at me and really needs me – no amount of luxury penthouses or private jets can beat that!
It might be true that a billionaire can’t buy a better dog, but dogs are a funny old thing to recommend on a FIRE blog. Very expensive, bad for the climate, and your reward is constantly having to “nip home to let the dog out”, apologising for it jumping up at strangers, or wandering around picking up excrement.
Never jumped on the iPhone bandwagon and having only recently just upgraded from a Blackberry to a Samsung Galaxy, I think I’ve got the best phone ever!
Also, my comment from 2016 could probably be amended to “According to my friends, I’m living like this in my 50s!”
Thanks for re-upping this, just exquisite. I think I might go for a walk!