A Billionaire Gave Me Advice

Truly Awesome Time wrote:

I wonder if the kids will pay the appropriate taxes on their "earnings".

If it's under $26,000 per year it is all irrelevant. A dependent doing chores and getting paid for them is not wages or salary. It's a gift and will be excluded.

firefly wrote:

Truly Awesome Time wrote:

I wonder if the kids will pay the appropriate taxes on their "earnings".

If it's under $26,000 per year it is all irrelevant. A dependent doing chores and getting paid for them is not wages or salary. It's a gift and will be excluded.

What about payroll taxes? And don't tell me it's a gift.

Consider This wrote:

firefly wrote:

If it's under $26,000 per year it is all irrelevant. A dependent doing chores and getting paid for them is not wages or salary. It's a gift and will be excluded.

What about payroll taxes? And don't tell me it's a gift.

It is a gift.

Wow How Profound wrote:

Cant answer this one wrote:

Yes, billion with a B. He is my girlfriends aunt's husband.

"A lot of people tell me 'If I made 100 million dollars a year I'd retire and move to the beach'. And I tell them 'Well, that's why you'll never make 100 million dollars'".

I always love it when folks come on here and provide these profound insights into life. So, working hard and not overspending generally leads to positive financial outcomes? I would never have guessed it.

I think main point was more about the person being discussed not being satisfied with just 100 million. People who earn this sort of money are often highly competitive, driven folks who in a way are like sharks: as soon as they stop swimming they die. For them, making money doesn't really have a point at which you simply stop because you're gotten enough. It's more a personality type where you will always wonder, what else can I do? Can I make a little more? Can I make a lot more? It's this never-ending drivenness that never ceases and that character attribute the married aunt's cousin's uncle's brother's sister was trying to highlight. I know because my dad, whether he had millions (which he did) or zero (which he did both before and after the millions) is that way: he cannot truly conceive of retirement because it's the hunt, the pursuit that always keeps him going...that eternal "what if" and curious sense of possibility.

If you do your reserach you will see that most of the people at the very top of their fields are the ones who are primarily intrinsically motivated, while the ones crying out the loudest to be recognized as one of the best are extrinsically motivated.

I would imagine most self-made Billionaires are intrinsically motivated. Certainly sounds like this guy is.

So what's the advice here? If you have a Type A personality and get lucky you can be a multimillionaire? Does that qualify as advice?

are you sure he's not just some homeless guy?

In the mid 1980's when i was in my late 30's I was at a company party and overheard the CEO of the company (worth 100 million at rhe time) telling several young up and comers that if they thought of themselves as $50,000 a year guys that's what they would be.

I thought to myself, crap, I am only making 40k.

So I left that company, made several more company moves each raising my salary, bonus and stock and within four years was making 160k.

Ten years after that I made several million when the company I was with did an IPO.

Now I admit, I now think of myself as a millionaire and I guess that's all I'll ever be.

Freelove wrote:

So what's the advice here? If you have a Type A personality and get lucky you can be a multimillionaire? Does that qualify as advice?

That's one way of looking at it. I think many of these folks would more likely agree with the idea that "You make your own luck." The broader your fishing net is the more likely your will catch the right opportunities. Many of these guys worked hard to cast as wide (or deep) a net as possible. Most folks on the Forture 500 are either widely diversified or deeply experienced in one area.

the used to be cancer guy wrote:

I think main point was more about the person being discussed not being satisfied with just 100 million...

Are you serious? I mean, I think that your post is intelligent and insightful. But if you read the OP it is very difficult to see how you could come away thinking that this was his point.

So what was the advice? why are you telling us this story and keeping the advice to yourself? seems odd.

Cant answer this one wrote:

Yes, billion with a B. He is my girlfriends aunt's husband.

"A lot of people tell me 'If I made 100 million dollars a year I'd retire and move to the beach'. And I tell them 'Well, that's why you'll never make 100 million dollars'".

For the record, this guy lives in a very nice, but not ultra extravagant house in a very nice but not ultra expensive part of Philly. He is the richest person I know, but both of his daughters do chores around the house everyday with the money going to a car-fund for them.

When they turn 17, they can use the money THEY earned and saved to buy their car. And their dad is a billionaire. I'm very impressed by them.

rich folks measue money in 'units' with a unit worth 100 million dollars.

Haroldson Hunt said something like after the first billion money is just a way to keep score.

Too bad these people don;t channel their energy toward helping other people, improving their community, and being more charitable.

bangalangadanga wrote:

are you sure he's not just some homeless guy?

Hahaha!

Good advice I guess if what you want is to be uber rich. I hear people say stuff like that too, but the problem is they always put a SUPER high limit on the amount of money it would take them to go do that. I don't understand that at all.If you had $2 million dollars, you could retire and move to the beach, assuming you didn't have any debt and didn't need an extravagant lifestyle or lots of kids or wives to support.Invest the money and take 4% of it annually. That's $80,000 per year. If the kids were gone, I no longer had a house payment and continued to be debt free otherwise, in today's world I could EASILY make it on $80,000 a year and live at the beach.

Cant answer this one wrote:

Yes, billion with a B. He is my girlfriends aunt's husband.

"A lot of people tell me 'If I made 100 million dollars a year I'd retire and move to the beach'. And I tell them 'Well, that's why you'll never make 100 million dollars'".

Last Chance Runner wrote:

Now I admit, I now think of myself as a millionaire and I guess that's all I'll ever be.

it's funny, i'm in a similar situation but don't ever "think of myself" as a millionaire, that just sounds douchey.

i do think of myself as lucky, every day. The toughest part for me is getting my kids (age 10 & 7) to realize how lucky they are.

I found out that my dad was a millionaire in the mid-2000's. At the time we didn't have cable or air conditioning and had only gone on camping vacations.

I suppose that could be a secret to becoming rich: live way below your means?

Your girlfriend's uncle led you to believe he was a billionaire? I think the old guy is conning you.

Aaaargh wrote:

Too bad these people don;t channel their energy toward helping other people, improving their community, and being more charitable.

A person who makes a lot of money by definition helps other people. People pay you because you are doing something that is good for them. If you've made a billion dollars, you've either done something a little bit beneficial for a whole lot of people or you've done something very beneficial for a few people.