There are many jobs you will not want to take because you know that you don't need to, and that makes it hard to put up with all the bullshit of a typical job. Ultimately you may want to focus on creative pursuits, perhaps investments, maybe start a business or a nonprofit to do something you find fulfilling.

Right now I'd say be patient, get used to your new life, focus on investing the money wisely. I'd say buy a place to live and invest the rest in a conservative portfolio designed to keep up with inflation. Roboinvesting is the easiest, or you could do it yourself via traditional brokers: a mix of bond and stock index ETFs, perhaps a small amount of crypto (I'd say no more than 10%) if you still believe in it.

Exactly. Not to mention the additional rich people's problems that poor or even merely well-off people don't have and could hardly imagine.

Fees are pretty low. Some will say it's unnecessary and you can avoid those fees if you do X on your own, where X is some form of buying index funds directly. I my experience the anxiety and uncertainty of doing so makes people delay and the loss of returns from not investing at all greatly outweighs the difference in fees (at least in the short term).

TL;DR; If you aren't investing at all, robo advisors are great. If you already have a diversified strategy then that's great too. They add value mostly by lowering the knowledge barrier to entry.

The greatest irony is that everything that was beaten into your unconscious mind as to what you "should do," and all the ways you learned to seek out human connection: all go out the window when you get a massive windfall.

The greatest two "shapes" our culture warps our spirits into are: a need for money (for its own sake) or a need for recognition (preftige) -- once the basic material necessities have been acquired (viz. stability of income and mind, reliable shelter and food, routine sleep, etc.). None of this is relevant anymore. You don't care what anyone else thinks about you, because you're completely self-sufficient. Just dump all your money into a balanced portfolio, and live off the income generated a la dividends and interest for the rest of your life. You no longer need anyone to satisfy physical needs. No boss to placate, no spouse to manage, and no "bridges" to tend.

Similarly, it becomes impossible to socialize with the majority of people. The things that their minds focus on, the habits they have, the lives they live are completely unrelatable when you have enough money to never doing anything again (yes, €7m is enough, if you're not a degenerate or foolish). It's like you're both from different planets, speaking completely alien languages, and unable to ever really understand one another. This assumes you'll find anyone truly interested in genuine socialization for pleasure alone; because as soon as those who still need to carry out the "daily toil" find out about your NW, the agendas come out in full force. You'll find that no, you never really had friends (or family). You simply had associates with mutual interests -- a give and take, transactional relationship was all that connected you.

OP, the only reason you were driven to do all those things was because you wanted to climb the social hierarchy. You saw your fellow apes with more money, more brains, and more status, and just like all those chimps before you, you thought "I need that. I gotta keep up. If I don't, I'm worthless. A loser, and no one will like me. I won't feel good about myself." But that's just an evolutionary trick nature pulled on us, because more-often-than-not animals with deep social hierarchies survived and reproduced more than those without. Once you've escaped the gravitational pull (see: the need to "fit" into a tribe in order to survive), you'll find that it was a scam all along. That all this shit around you exists to keep you busy so you don't start thinking too much about things, and can carry out your genetic directives (usually to the benefit of others), and then die.

The tragedy with you, OP, is that you're a young kid who never had to train his nervous system to become another "robot" that could continue successfully functioning in his society, until he became a corpse. You didn't work for that money, and so your spirit was never molded into the two most-successful "shapes": a need for more money, or a need for more prestige -- as you see with people that once started out with little, but forced themselves to work towards more (even when they're in the top 1% in either, they'll still keep going after more, because that's how they've molded themselves: to be a machine stuck in a loop -- coincidentally, staving off depression and other such "meaninglessness.").

You're basically on the same level as a trust-fund baby. What exactly do you do besides indulge in hedonism? If you're one of the aforementioned "keep on chugging," work-robots (an evolutionary-fit path) that have trained themselves to keep busy, then creative pursuits, investments, a new business venture, or non-profit/charitable work is what's in the cards. But OP isn't. Those things will never be satisfactory for him (remind me in 10 years).

All that's left for the modern nouveau nobleman's son is hedonism -- spending away all that money on pleasure-pursuits (drugs, sex, expensive items) just to feel something at all. If he was raised middle class, he'll probably still have the ingrained "shame" about such things, and will instead focus on more sedentary (see: "boring") habits, slowly wasting away. But if he was raised lower class, then he'll most likely fall into hedonism, the same as the accidents of the upper class.

That's the truth: OP's life will be aimless, because he doesn't have decades of experience "aiming" at something, and going after it.

The only thing left is that, in a time long ago, aristocrats would send their sons off to learn the classics, and get an "education," so that they wouldn't become flagrant hedonists, wanton raping, murdering, and making an all-around mess of things; instead their energies would be pushed in other, more "acceptable" directions, decided by pedagogists.

TL;DR OP: May I recommend dropping out of the sciences and other "hard" or niche topics? Go study with the ivory-tower academicians in a field you are actually interested in. Perhaps look into philosophy, or other "soft" topics, where nothing ever gets "done," and you can burn through the rest of your time on this earth, forever "working" on it. Maybe even go learn Ancient Greek, and see if you can rekindle some sort of greater humanity within yourself (doubtful, if that's not where your values lie).

Whatever it is, you will not find any meaning. Even if you decide to throw away all that money to be "rid" of it, you're forever a changed person -- and you can never go back. Find some tolerable pursuits that keep you busy, and don't leave you much time to think and ruminate. Something pleasurable, but not devilishly indulgent. Something sustainable.

You need to discover exactly who you are and learn to fully love yourself in order to be fully alive again. When you know yourself, your meaning and purpose become clear.

Exactly how you accomplish this is specific to you, but know that what got you here, won’t get you there.

It could be meditation, psychedelics, athletics, social volunteering, reading philosophy, travel, who knows?

Psychedelic therapy can be the most efficacious for many people and I strongly recommend reading Michael Pollan’s “How to Change Your Mind”. While all the psychedelics have the potential to positively improve your life, MDMA done in a therapeutic setting is often the easiest/most gentle and can still deliver big results.

Ask yourself what are you afraid of? What do you resent about yourself? Who are you unable to forgive? These are all the things that block you from fully loving yourself and are the types of questions that MDMA or loving-kindness meditation can gently guide you through.

There is light at the end of the tunnel and an absolutely amazing life awaits you in the future. Money does make life much easier, so use it to become the next evolution of your self.

Not that complicated.

Second - check out https://old.reddit.com/r/fatFIRE/ - some great like minded resources for how to manage that much net worth.

EDIT: Regarding first point. Good guide here: https://old.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/windfall

Tell no one, or only a very very small number of people, but strong preference to no one.

Look at maslows hierarchy of needs, now that your psychological and safety needs are dealt with, it’s time to move up the pyramid

First, focus on yourself. Eat well, spend time getting fit, meditate, see a therapist, spend time with your friends and family.

Then, when you start to feel more bored than depressed, look around. The world needs you, and there are opportunities for you to make things better where your skills and money could be of use.

Then I spend almost every day checking my wish list:

- Paragliding? Yeah, did the basic training in 2 weeks.

- Kite surfing? Why not! It took me 6 months but it's sooo much fun.

- Skydiving? HELL YEAH. Did the basic training and looking forward to start jumping in wingsuit next year,

- moving to Asia? Looking forward for January 2022 in Thailand!

In the mid time I'm just doing all from your list: gym every second day, meditate every day (hey, why not go to the Buddhist temple if all your "physical" dreads are gone?), meeting with therapist and just simply enjoying my life. Now when I'm reaching limits of joyfulness I wish to use my time to help others.

Nice! Thought about paragliding too, but decided I like the action of flying in a wingsuit more. Booked my first tandem skydiving jump and will start the basic training in 2022. In Germany we're only allowed wingsuit jumps when we complete 200 normal jumps, do you know if there's a jurisdiction where this requirement is lower?

Talking about the tandem jump - I don't know how it's in Germany but in Poland basic AFF training + one jump with 2 instructors cost the same price as the tandem jump thus making it a really foolish choice.

200 jumps requirement is shared across most of the world and to be honest it's not really that much. Skydiving in the details is really hard - you need to control and feel you body perfectly and also know how to move and behave in the air. You could probably try jumping in Ukraine - it's cheap like a bread and dangerous like a hell. I did my first jump in Ukraine and it cost me around 35$ (basic training was in ukrainian which I don't speak at all)

[1]: https://tandemy.pl/en/training-parachute-jump/

PS. Flying in Spain is an good and cheap option too! https://www.skydiveatmosfera.com/

When was the last time you traveled overseas? Had a girlfriend? Developed a product or service that had an impact on society? Took up a new hobby that you enjoy?

Once you refocus on creating a new life, you’ll likely find your drive and ambitions returning.

I have no credentials whatsoever being rich, but I do have some experience having major plans diverted, and I would like to chip in that it's good to keep in mind it's not strange to get this sort of psychological impact from such a significant change to your life conditions and plans.

From where I sit it looks like you can afford to take your time about this more than ever before. Protect your bankroll and don't make any hasty changes to lifestyle. I suspect you'll have to re-examine what you really value the most, and suddenly you have one less excuse for not attending to that at the best of your ability, but as I understand it, the direct impact from suddenly getting wealthy (or deadly sick, or unexpectedly healthy, and so on) is basically pretty transient and people tend to soon come back to a similar set-point as before once they have adjusted their expectations to the new conditions. What could give a much more lasting impact is changes to habits or environment made while under the influence, so trying to exercise some care to make those judiciously seems in order.

Fundamentally, congratulations and good luck with it!

In my opinion, a state like yours is characterized by not being in the habit of pursuing these inklings of vision; instead, you have lived accordingly to some superseding feeling, like a need to be wealthy or prove yourself as a member of a social class. Not being in the habit of amplifying your whims into genuine curiosity or a vision for life, you suppress them, or they bend back on themselves and turn into pangs of bitterness.

Thus a prescription for you to try: when you feel an impulse like these, take it into your attention gently and nurture it, focus on it even if it doesn't seem like an answer to the question of "what is the most important thing to be doing right now", or "who am I" or "what do I care about"; on its own no little curiosity will answer these, but by building the habit of nurturing these things you will begin to know yourself and learn how to live in a way that is well-aligned rather than self-contradictory, and thus, your desire to act on the world will thrive and govern your actions (what is missing now). And the answers to those bigger questions will become apparent.

Then, when the month is over, you will get back to figuring out what you want to do. You have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to options. I am sure you will find something great!

Then, when the month is over, you’ll have plenty left to work with when figuring out what you want to do.

(Safe investment should be part of what you figure out. Your risk profile should be different now if you intend those funds to be a good portion of your livelihood.)

Basically, you can afford to pay for some external motivation, and you don't need to be motivated to make money, so you can get motivated to work on yourself for a bit.

On top of that I'd try to give yourself something to look forward to after you finish your masters. Maybe book some nice travel, but buy the tickets soon so you know you're really going!

Just what do you think therapy is?

Now you're going to have to get systematic about finding out what you like to do, and make a good list, and when you're feeling depressed, just do one of those things. It'll lift you out the funk. It really works.

What you should not do as view the money as buying you anything other than freedom. Sure buy yourself a nice TV, car, computer, take trips, etc. But don't overdo it, live a human-size life.

One other thing, do not hire a money manager. Just invest in the S&P 500. It's the best investment possible and requires no thought.

Money buys you some freedom. Freedom to experiment, freedom not to stress out about making ends meet. The flip side of freedom is that it forces you to have to make weighty decisions.

This happens all the time, for example, when young people inherit fortunes. Some end up doing drugs and/or spending it all - this freedom can definitely wreck lives. One approach that I'm told can help is to define your values and live them out.

For example, you said you created startups. I assume it wasn't just because you were hoping for a payday. Was it because you enjoyed the creative process? Or was it because you wanted to help solve problems? Can you do more of this now that money allows you to?

Or, is your idea of a happy life centered in family, and in that case, what are you doing to start a successful one? Not that it's exclusive of other values.

But basically this freedom lifted your boat from being in the harbor where the channels it could go into were very clear, to being in the high seas where you can go anywhere. You're obviously in the fog. You now need to clarify your life goals to lift the fog, define where you want to take the boat before it bobs towards a storm. Good luck :) it's still a problem to solve but it's a good one to solve.

Recommend reading "Jackpot" by Michael Mechanic, which talks about how the "jackpot moment" affects people.

First, you don't have to do anything immediately. Park the money someplace safe for a while. (That's harder than it used to be. When I was in this position T-bills paid 7.5%.)

Second, most people who make a lot of money all at once blow through it in seven years. Don't be that guy. I know a couple who blew through US$15 million, lost their house, divorced, and the wife had to take a job cooking in a restaurant.

So definitely finish the degree. You're going to need it later.

I basically chose to have a modest but comfortable life. Even if you win the rat race, you're still a rat. I still program for fun. My other screen has a program in test running right now.

Are you a creative person? Think about what you can do with some of that money that you want to exist. Do that. Money is just what allows you to do whatever you want, at a certain scale.

Do you want to make a business? A community? Hire people? Buy servers? Marketing?

Be creative with your money, that should get your fire back. Please don't spend it in spurious shit, that yacht can certainly be rented on vacation instead of bought, LOL.

Is money cash? Or the bits on your bank's database holding your account.

Or the market value of the stocks you hold, or the cryptocurrency in a wallet, or gold you have in a safe somewhere

What if you are wealthy rich and just take loans (debt) on your stock or whatever?

Money is not just money, and at a certain point, money only matters for what it allows you to do without flexing too much muscle and taking a hit. Wanna cure cancer? Maybe 7.5M can't do it but are a good start. (Hey moderna is going there with the new mRNA vaccines...)

But yeah I'm broken, that I reckon.

Definetly not financial advise.

But these are much easier if they're already hobbies or interests.

Backpacking has been hit hard with covid though. As I understand it, hostels currently aren't quite what they were before the pandemic. And fear around this new variant will keep it that way for a while. Next summer things might pick up enough to explore Europe and beyond though, fingers crossed.

With the luxury of time, investing in oneself can be done in novel ways, e.g. flying or ocean sailing, triathlon, surfing, craftsmanship, golf.

You worked your arse off for money. And now you have it. It's completed, finished, done. Mission accomplished. Whack at least half of it in stable investments and chill.

You don't need to join Facebook or Google because you don't need their money. You know as well as most of us that they're not doing anything useful or even interesting.

So go and buy that house you wanted. Learn DIY. Learn a language. Travel. Learn to cook. Work out, get a personal trainer. Figure out how a microcontroller works. Garden. Build a car. I don't know, I'm just describing stuff I enjoy.

Do all of the things you couldn't do because you didn't have time. Now you have time and money.

Now life really begins, because now you are free, truly free, to do what _you_ want, and not what others decree upon you for their own benefit. Savour it!

Along the way, I promise you, you will figure out what you truly love.

I can relate a bit. I studied my career in another city, so I had to take a bus at 5 am every day to attend class at 7 am, studied and did homework until 8pm, and took the bus back to be at 11pm in my home city. It was brutal, but I was young and it felt good to accomplish my goals with my own effort.

A semester later, I got the opportunity of a cheap rent with a couple of roommates, and my motivation tanked. Stopped attending classes, became a night owl, wasted my time playing games, watching TV, reading, and taking long walks. Fortunately I was able to study and pass the finals thanks to the great friends I made in the first semester. Without them I would have failed.

I asked my roommates "what's your motivation to attend school?", and they told me it was their parents; they wanted to proudly show them their university degree. I had no such motivation, and didn't even desire that much the degree myself.

Years later I understood that motivation comes from your own 5-10-20 years plans. I didn't bother then to make a life plan, it would have helped me tremendously with taking school seriously. I suspect you did make a life plan, and that plan boiled down to make a lot of money. Now that you have a decent sum of money, it's time to adjust your plan. How do you see yourself in 5, 10, 20, 50 years from now?

It also has the benefit that if you somehow lose you money you still have qualifications to show to get a new job even years after you finished you degree.

Assuming software engineering is you passion or hobby.

Alternatively get a hobby which is more like "just consuming time", but will continuously provide challenges and keep you on edge. Preferably one which puts you (from time to time) into contact with people, has conventions (post covid) or similar.

I come from a country with a massive poverty problem, and yesterday was hearing about some great initiatives in there. It made me wonder what I am dedicating my life to (regular well paying job, etc.), by living a comfortable life now in a wealthy country (NL). Feel free to reach out for ideas.

That's exactly what he shouldn't do at the moment, contacting people who know he has money. Either way, 7 million is not rich. It's wealthy.

The odds are he will do some sort of charity later on. But that's at the moment he comes at ease with himself and that's his current priority.

And do not, yet. Please read on “worst mistakes people make after winning a lottery”, “lottery winners go broke” and “what to do and not do if you win a lottery”. It’s not as simple as going to Vegas and spending it there. Even if you’re self-aware, this may ruin yours and your relatives life in very surprising ways.

1. Provide more personal service in an industry where that is not a priority;

2. Provide a service or product that simply did not exist, but give enjoyment to others;

3. Curb some excess in society, with a minimal amount of harm, that all acknowledge to be needed;

4. Delight a child;

5. Expand frontiers;

6. Invent a new formula that expands society at its roots (for example a new fertilizer that works 2X better than existing).

These are just examples. So you need to figure this out for yourself. Next step, partner with an engineer or finance person who is a skeptic, but a realist. This would be someone who can help you abandon an idea that simply can't deliver on what seemed like high possibilities. You will need that person to help you not shrink your fortune into a small (or no) fortune.. I'm thinking such a person can be an angel investor, such as you might see on Shark Tank (a popular U.S. TV show about investing).

When you start with your next project, ask yourself this question: "Will my kids (when I have them) be proud of what I build for them?", and imagine how you will answer that question in 1 year and in 5 years.

Finally, don't be afraid to lose money. It may be that this fear is making you lose trust in people (in general) and cause you to play it safe. Also imagine, that if you did, fight the good fight, and do your best on your goals, that you did lose most of your money -- ask yourself, "Will I have a good story to tell my grandkids -- something they can learn something from?"

I’ve seen several men do that, it never ends well.

Get married. Your wife will know what to do with the money. Have kids. You won't need to worry about this sort of stuff again. I have 3. I get motivated at 7 AM, every morning.

More generally OP should feel like a god right now, what's the point of having 7.5M if succulent brain juices aren't flowing like the Mississipi river to signal that the world is yours?

He should be feeling confident about doing stuff way riskier than 50:50

How can you be a good partner and a good parent if you can't even find the drive to live?

Feels like one could get into even more difficulties when relationships and parenting get hard, even with money.

I see this advice everywhere, "Just have children.". I do not understand how this is sensible advice for people that are obviously not fit to be parents at their present moment.

This seems like a non sequitur. There's no reason the person you marry will magically have a good sense for money.

> Have kids. You won't need to worry about this sort of stuff again. I have 3. I get motivated at 7 AM, every morning.

It doesn't work like that for everyone.

underneath that I am passionate about lots of things and the non profit space is surprisingly low tech, especially when it comes to anything crypto and on-chain crypto. so I'm still building and occassionally in that space and noticing all sorts of market needs. which includes then board seats on other non profits.

which means I'm also in the fintech and crypto space, noticing everything else being built, as well as becoming more and more integrated with other "institutional investors", of which the non profit is as well and more.

ultimately you do need to find something you're passionate about, but people don't like hearing about actually achieving having money while doing things to obtain more, so non profit has been a great way for me to blend in.

I also do a lot of socialite stuff and don't like hanging out with crypto people. nobody cares how you can support your lifestyle. its great.

shoot me an email? its in bio

I personally have a project I would like to fully invest my life on and I would love to have the opportunity of not having to work (even when I am doing it for a FAANG) so I can see it progress, i think it may give me a fair amount of money, yet the real drive behind it is so I can improve people's lives. I think you need that, find that something "you would like to be rememvered for". Notice I am not siggesting you to put all your money on it, but your hearth. Figure out a cause that engages you, IDK what would that be for you, preserving nature. Researching something you are interested on. It does not has to be something radical nor new, you could follow the path someone else has already walk just for the joy of learning, who knows,aybe you will see something they did not.

And please! Stay out of drugs. I am a christian believer and yet even if you are not there is plenty of wisdom on that book so please note the following:

KJB - Genesis 3:17

"And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life"

cursed is the ground for thy sake

The curse of having to work toake the land productive is FOR THY SAKE.

Leisure and money will destroy yoyr life if you dont handle it properly so keep yourself meaningfully occupied.

Enjoy such a great blessing, dont tunr it onto a curse on yourself.

Cheers

Many people I know dream of having to never work again, but I can't just picture myself that way.

Then forget about it. You don't have to _do_ anything with it. Don't go down the "I should do something with my money" rabbit-hole. You can do that much later if you want. I'm not wealthy, but know people who are, and while they pay people to manage it pretty much comes out to that formula. Plus gold.

Then, complete your studies.

Then, you have the existential crisis that we all have, so don't think you're alone in this. Or that you have to solve it in the next few years.

"What should I do with my life?". I.e., what is important to you? A hard question!

Read books. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is a good place to start.

Read hacker news etc to find out interesting things that are going on.

Plan a budget trip (eg: bikepacking, hiking etc).

Don't buy expensive shit.

etc. All this is simply a way of saying that you need to make 30/40/50/60/90/100+ year old you proud. So do those things. And don't do those things that would make those guys ashamed.

1. Invest most of the cash in a conservative way, so it lasts. That means stocks and some bonds to ride out downturns. You will want to work with a fee-only adviser for this to consider everything from taxes to future spouses to inheritance.

2. Consider your interests and learn about the psychological implications of your situation. Specifically about the (fat) FIRE (financial independence, retire early) movement. They deal with the same problem. Relevant HN discussion here[1] and first hand experience here[2,3]. There is research that early retirees have shorter live expectancy[4] and having >5h of free time a day is detrimental to happiness[5]. People need purpose.

3. With 1) out of the way and the lessons from 2) you can explore what makes you happy. Generally it's a mix[6] of control (your life, your time), competence (mastering a skill, like CS), connection (friends, family, peers) and purpose/mission. Since you already did a few startups, maybe that's something to explore further.

Hope this gives you a roadmap and best of luck.

1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26543527

2: https://livingafi.com/2015/03/09/building-a-vision-of-life-w...

3: https://livingafi.com/2021/03/17/the-2021-early-retirement-u...

4: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16243848/

5: https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/psp-pspp0000391.p...

6: https://www.alexjhughes.com/books/2018/7/4/the-geometry-of-w...

> having >5h of free time a day is detrimental to happiness

Experienced this first hand, so true! Didn't know about the shorter live expectancy. Thanks for linking to the sources :)

[...]

The next layer of your unfolding purpose may make itself clear immediately. More often, however, it does not. After completing one layer of purpose, you might not know what to do with your life. You know that the old project is over for you, but you are not sure of what is next. At this point, you must wait for a vision.

There is no way to rush this process. You may need to get an intermediary job to hold you over until the next layer of purpose makes itself clear. Or, perhaps you have enough money to simply wait. But in any case, it is important to open yourself to a vision of what is next. You stay open to a vision of your deeper purpose by not filling your time with distractions. Don’t watch TV or play computer games. Don’t go out drinking beer with your friends every night or start dating a bunch of women. Simply wait. You may wish to go on a retreat in a remote area and be by yourself. Whatever it is you decide to do, consciously keep yourself open and available to receiving a vision of what is next. It will come.

When it comes, it usually won’t be a detailed vision. You will probably have a sense of what direction to move in, but the practical steps might not make themselves clear. When the impulse begins to arise, act on it. Don’t wait for the details. Learn by trial and error what it is you are to do.

[...]

And then, one day, a few years later, it is finished. This layer has dissolved. And the cycle begins again, and again, until you have penetrated all the layers into your deepest purpose. Then, you act fully, until that purpose, too, is dissolved in the bliss of the love that you are.

— David Deida

I'd first secure your money against inflation by investing 80% of it in safe assets (Real-estate, ETF's, investment contracts with reasonable target yield,...)

That should shield your wealth from inflation while making highly diversified returns in not very risky assets. Any private banker will be able to set those up for you. There's also Liqid.de if you don't like bankers but private banks provide super cheap loans which can is helpful to leverage.

After that you should find out what you genuinely like and what you don't like by listening to your feelings and eliminate what you don't like and do more of what you really like. At some point that will roll into a new passion and new career.

For me, I just realized that I can't live without being an entrepreneur because all other career choices have too much certainty and boredom.

Happy to chat if you need some pointers

I would keep it that way until you get sorted, which I say based on my experience that people knowing you're wealthy introduces a whole new set of issues, such as your circle of friends and family treating you differently. In my case, I wasn't prepared for this at all for this and it damn near ruined me.

Sounds dumb now but he will help you reflect on what you want, what you need, what is in the dark. Maybe there was something wrong in the first place and you did not know. Talk to somebody independent. Get your thoughts reflected back at you.

You are now in a phase where you have always worked for, you reached your goals... great but nobody tells you what comes after. Take some time off and reflect with somebody. Then you will find out what you like and what you want to do. You are out in the open now, that is scary and there is just openness around you.

It will take some time, but try to enjoy life. Try stuff. Try travelling, try hiking or sports or arts or music. You will find something that you want to do.

Be smart about it and move forward. I am in a similar position although not as extreme. But I also suddenly reached all my intermediate goals all at once. So now what...

Let's figure this out and make the best of it.

The internal motivation issue is hard: doing anything worthwhile requires pushing through the times you don't feel like doing it, which is harder when you have "f u" money. I would specifically ask people who've become wealthy how they manage it, and ask them to hold you accountable to achieving your goals.

Basically you need to develop a few close relationships with people who you can confide in who have been through a similar situation and made it through.

The Hacker News founder matching network is a good way to find things to work on. Everybody wants technical labor but no one has enough cash to pay. You can take your pick of an interesting company. Just keep it quiet that you're wealthy, so you don't get taken advantage of.

Also, there's nothing wrong with getting a job. It's a good way to learn business. (I've worked with at least one person who worked for pleasure because they needed the stress.) Again, keep your wealth quiet because you don't want to be seen as the guy threatening to quit whenever you don't get your way.

Frankly, if I was in your shoes I'd either find or start an open-source software project, and spend about 30ish hours a week on it. But I'm not you, and only you know what you want to do with your time.

I really want to do that as well while learning piano. Any recommendations for articles / checklists for people who want to live like this? Minimalism while having music gear seems hard. I'd love to do it with just one backpack, already did 3 week travels that way (but without musical instruments) but didn't have the opportunity to try it for longer periods of time with a complete setup.

Thinking about living in portugal as well.

With that out of the way, assuming you are a reasonable steward of this money, you probably don't need income from work to have a good standard of living going forward. That offers you immense freedom; if you come accross something in your graduate studies that interests you, but has no commercial or academic applications, you can still work on it yourself, because you can.

If you want to benefit the world, you can work on being one of those open source maintainers that works on critical software without a lot of (financial) support --- because you don't need any financial support. Or you can jump from project to project and do things here or there.

Personally, I'm working on a hobby OS that makes me smile, and raising a kid and helping with our hobby farm, and that's enough for now. Make a list of things you think would be cool to do, or that you think would make you feel good about yourself and work down those. Getting your masters seems like a concrete thing that you can finish, and three semesters is plenty of time to have an idea for what's next.

You can still aspire to work at big tech, there's opportunities there that money can't buy. If you want to poke at sites and services and applications with hundreds of millions or billions of users, you kind of need to be at big tech. But, when/if you get there, you don't have to worry so much about trying to get glowing reviews and what not, because the salary isn't needed. Teaching/mentoring is also good for the soul and not usually good for the pocketbook, but your pocketbook is fine, so if you're up for that, it's something to look into.

One thing to think about is a lot of people's identity is tied up in their profession. When you're no longer a student, you'll need a socially acceptable cover story; because being wealthy and a loafer gets you negative points in a lot of situations.

Social suggestion: don't tell about the extent of your wealth to the people in your social circle, or only do that with people that you trust a lot. There are a lot of stories about money corrupting people, even when it's not their money, just being in the proximity of those who have it. Here's one example, though i'm sure that other people here can link better writeups about it: https://time.com/4176128/powerball-jackpot-lottery-winners/

As for the personal fulfillment: that's a tough one. It's a valid way to feel and i hope that you figure out how to make your motivation return. And if you don't in the near future, maybe a change of scenery could be useful - not having to grind for the rest of your life in a 9-5 can be liberating in a sense and give you ample freedom, yet figuring out what you do with it can take a lot of time in of itself.

Best of luck.

Maybe this is not exactly what you're asking, but I'll say it anyway. Consider that these two things are not quite the same:

(1) How to become wealthy.

(2) How to stay wealthy.

Now that you've done #1, you may want to take steps to ensure you've got #2 covered.

This probably involves charting out your expected financial needs / wants, covering the whole course of your life, your own needs, potential family, heirs, and other purposes for the money like using some of it to improve the world.

Once you know your goals, you can then choose a strategy (investments, tax planning, spending levels, etc.) to meet them. Probably you want the help of some kind of professional financial planner, but you may be able to do it yourself if you are inclined (and honest with yourself about your actual capabilities and judgment).

My point is, if you accidentally become wealthy and then accidentally aren't wealthy anymore, you'll probably regret that. Because you probably won't be able to repeat your good fortune with ETH.

Now that I've said all that, when your own needs are provided for, one possible way to find fulfillment is by working to meet others' needs. There is a LOT of need in the world. If you're interested, I bet there's something out there that you can help with effectively (matches your skills/strengths) and that resonates with you.

also the right lawyers to create a will so should you pass away, the money still goes to a cause or loved ones that you cherish, rather than somewhere that you don't. Sometimes just having that in place is peace of mind that you've been a positive influence on this world.

then I'd finish the masters and then take one year to re-calibrate and travel to someplace you've always wanted to go. Life changes, sometimes just having a new experience alone helps re-align priorities or makes you find a new cause that you feel like you can live for. Maybe there's an untapped void in startups or people with your education level in a different area of the world and you could pass on your knowledge to others. Maybe there's a creative craft you might find along with its Muse and pick it up. Maybe you'll find new friends on your travels that open your eyes to worthy causes. some things can only be left to fate.

wishing you the best of luck.

7.5M euros is definitely more than enough for one person, but at least it's not in the range where now you feel responsible to do something big and positive with the money.

As others have said, use your free time to explore other aspects of life that may interest you. Try new things, and don't disclose your riches to others. If I were in your shoes, I would try as best as I could to spend time with regular people. The challenge now is to remain grounded as a human being since you no longer have the routine of chasing a paycheck. That said, finding a job might still be useful just so you do have personal development. Obviously, the hard thing will be as soon as you encounter difficulties in your job, you can easily just walk away from it instead of trying to grow.

The money is making you depressed, so get rid of it. It's found money--it's not like you earned it through hard work or skill. It won't be painful to part with it. You got super lucky, but you can't use the same trick again to make more money.

Depending on how you give it away, you could make a lot of great connections and relationships that would serve you well through your career. If you want help figuring out how to do that, let me know.

> My motivation for my study is gone, I stopped working out, stopped reading books and am basically becoming insanely depressed in the process. The covid situation is not helping much either.

I had that problem around 27 too, and got it completely fixed up by being on a trip for > 2 months. I thought I was relaxing, but, nearing 50th or 60th day or so, I found myself being overly stressed and desperately wanting to do something meaningful. Doing nothing but consuming is such a big pain. So I swore to myself that I’m gonna do something - just anything not meaningless.

After I returned, I worked for an NGO, and then tried to become a political writer, but ended up working for a startup, which is growing pretty good. It has been a quite some journey so far.

So, yeah, if you can’t really find an answer, maybe try to take a long break. Some trekking can be good - keeping your body healthy helps with depression.

> I am still doing my Master studies and will finish it within the next three semesters

I wonder what’s your true motivation behind this. A lot of people do master to get better jobs. With all that money, well-paying jobs should be pointless.

The biggest problem with "accidental wealth" is that the recipient always finds out the ugly reality that they don't know what money is (Debt, Surety, Accounting), because they have been trained from childhood that their fate is to labour 1/3 of their life for it. Now you HAVE it, and all the previous problems vanish.

The best plan is to build AGAIN. See if you can do it twice! Stay focused on creating/building. You already know you can do it. This eliminates the "backbone" of your current depression. You are still in study, and a Masters Degree is NOT easy, but you might consider expanding your studies to include ACCOUNTING

You sold what you created, and it is important to keep the value you attained. It cannot be stressed enough; SECURE YOUR WEALTH

First: Stop letting people know you are wealthy. Pretend you don't have it. live like everyone else.

Second: Start looking for ways to SECURE that wealth. Studying accounting is a VERY high ROI and will really help here.

While you do all that, look for a partner. You have the despair of someone who does not have anyone with them on their journey.

The replies to your post are inspiring! Read them! There's MILLIONS of dollars worth of free shit, just waiting to be exploited, in these.

That's my $10 worth of free advice.

Also: Thank you for posting this. It caused me to remember some very important things I've neglected.

You need a spiritual angle. Don’t do drugs. Don’t do a “religion”. Find a way to help humanity through technology, and make that your mission. Ever since you were a kid making money was the goal, but that is small drop compared to the actual work that needs to be done in your life. As you serve others, you will discover your life’s purposes and calling.

Then consider if there's a situation in which you'd like to write software. Would you like to write algorithms to aid cancer research, or improve access to banking in Africa, or teach children robotics? It's more comfortable to work or volunteer on these types of things when you own an apartment etc, and hopefully more fulfilling than improving FAANG's ad sales.

If software was only interesting for the money, maybe you could quit. But what was interesting? You have enough money (spent wisely) to do something completely different, like be an artist, actor, volunteer anywhere that seems interesting etc, and it's probably not a good idea to quit without having some other plan in mind.

You can also try https://www.studentenwerk-muenchen.de/en/advisory-network/ps...

This is great, but not "I am insanely rich" great.

If I were you I would either try to find something to do that would drive me to that level (you can take risks now), or (most probably, but it's because it's me) take a job that does not pay much but they will make you happy (interaction with people, low stress, ...)

Of course you can always go for a frugal life but the average middle class one (vacations, no much worries when going to the supermarket, ...) for a family of 4 is not easily doable.

When you have the 7M€ OP has, you have a realistically stable income of 140k€ post taxes which is very comfortable. I think that the tipping poing is around 5M€.

For me this is owning in an apartment or house with a room for everyone + living room, going to ski, going on vacation (summer and another one from the school vacation + once every 2 years a bigger one far away), not having to worry about the grocery store (I take what I need without looking at the price).

I am quite frugal so i do nto care at all about clothes and have no opinion about that.

I have a 10 years old TV that is going great and I will change it only when Iit breaks. Same for the home server that is 6 years old and will stay at least 6 years more).

Plus a car.

Long term: being able to send children to a good university - in France this means about 120k€ per child (all costs included).

Even longer term: retiring without loss in the comfort described above.

I am not sure it is doable on a 60k€ salary for a family of 4.

You could start angel investing or help with some philanthropic endeavors. Example of another person making a difference: https://youtu.be/bhKuNwAvsb0.

Make sure to set a floor (perhaps using FIRE guidelines) and invest enough to keep growing your wealth above that level as you spend some of it

I've seen a lot of this and I hope I can help.

Some people keep going by trying to make even more money. I wouldn't really recommend this.

Some people just continue doing roughly what they did before, but as people here have noted, it's harder to tolerate nonsense of work life when it's optional. However people who lack any vocation do, I think, usually regret this. Its important to have some sense of identity, something to tell others and yourself, even if you change it from time to time.

Many people are talking about optimal investment methods, but I think this is not the core need. Obviously get professional independent advice on your wealth management and put most of it in a tax efficient ling term holding. But the real investment now is in yourself. Take some time to build a plan for how to connect, integrate and move on. Go on courses, read books, get therapy, make friends. Find out what you are and what you want to do with your days. You may have some hard lessons ahead, but welcome them, better do them sooner than later. With time things will make sense again. The energy will flow again like a river.

Good luck

As someone who won IPO lottery twice netting 8 figures after tax, that would be the advice.

Learn investment basics, invest your lump sum into VOO, VTI, and the likes, and enjoy luxury of knowing you don't have to work when you retire.

You might also want to watch videos of Graham Stephan on youtube - all things considered, he's very clear about how frugal lifestyle benefits you long-term.

But i know a lot of people that earn 300-700 k/ year. That's pretty similar in the range of what he referred to.

You can normally have a talk with those friends. They are mostly quiet about that amount of money, because people ARE jealous. Just not everyone and if they trust you with that information, they consider you an actual friend.

Finish your masters. And take a year of to travel and discover what you want to do.

Buy some stocks/indeed and live off the interests, don't spend more than you are earning that month/year.

The nice thing about the current situation, is that you now can just buy something extra of 500-2 k. Range without worrying. Just don't spend > 20 k. Without thinking.

Go to attend some social activity like in the Rotary and say you're a daytrader. They are normally some within the 200 k -1 m. range income there, so they can relate somewhat if you're looking for some people to trust after a while.

Getting back social trust is going to be pretty hard too.

If you want to own stocks instead, find a low margin interest rate broker (eg. IBKR), put your money in there, and down the road if you have profits and don't want to realize them (because you will pay cap gains), you can take out a loan against said stock at a low rate (IBKR is sub 1%). Note that this is quite risky, make sure you manage your risk well.

You should also spend a lot of time reading about investing and risk management. Margin of Safety, Intelligent Investor, The Art of Investing, etc.

Make sure to study your tax code as well; don't get screwed over by wash sale taxes. Find a good accountant! Just walk into a branch of the big four accounting firms (Deloitte, E&Y, KPMG, PWC) and you will probably find one.

https://sciencevibe.com/2017/01/15/how-albert-einstein-kille...

Individuals like Einstein and Newton made deep insights during their “down” periods.

Your deep question is, “what interests me enough to get out every morning to try and do more? One that isn’t a financial blackhole.”.

Science? More money? Social work? Live streaming video games?

Caveats: I’m not in your shoes, but I’ve been thinking about this from a retirement angle for some time. I know that if I stop working, I’ll quickly get age-out and die. But I don’t want to deal with office politics either.

I just got my MRI results back, and if I am unlucky I could get paralyzed from the neck down. I dunno how to deal with this. No amount of money could help me if it truly is the case, but if I had enough money I would get a second opinion, and a third, just to be sure. But I barely have enough money to get by, and this coupled with my future... seems really tragic. I will need lots of money to live a normal life with my condition, especially if it gets worse. I still need money to buy healthier food and whatnot, but yeah... I am really lost, too.

I'd advise you to reflect deeply. Imagine you're walking through the "museum of your life" at the last day of your life. All the pictures there show your important moments. What pictures is that museum presenting?

Showing off / buying expensive things makes you happy for half a year. Having a true social impact has a lasting effect.

The biggest unique issue is going to be feelings of not "deserving" the wealth. People cope with this in different ways, but the important thing is to acknowledge the feeling and to deal with it in a way that makes sense for you. Those feelings can fester and lead to some very dark places indeed. Deal with them.

The other thing is you've almost certainly made the best investment you're ever going to make. You probably won't win like that again. In fact, you'll probably have substantial losses at some point. Don't let yourself feel too smart over this win, and don't feel too dumb over future losses.

The most general survey shows us that the two foes of human happiness are pain and boredom. We may go further, and say that in the degree in which we are fortunate enough to get away from the one, we approach the other. Life presents, in fact, a more or less violent oscillation between the two. The reason of this is that each of these two poles stands in a double antagonism to the other, external or objective, and inner or subjective. Needy surroundings and poverty produce pain; while, if a man is more than well off, he is bored. Accordingly, while the lower classes are engaged in a ceaseless struggle with need, in other words, with pain, the upper carry on a constant and often desperate battle with boredom. The inner or subjective antagonism arises from the fact that, in the individual, susceptibility to pain varies inversely with susceptibility to boredom, because susceptibility is directly proportionate to mental power. Let me explain. A dull mind is, as a rule, associated with dull sensibilities, nerves which no stimulus can affect, a temperament, in short, which does not feel pain or anxiety very much, however great or terrible it may be. Now, intellectual dullness is at the bottom of that vacuity of soul which is stamped on so many faces, a state of mind which betrays itself by a constant and lively attention to all the trivial circumstances in the external world. This is the true source of boredom—a continual panting after excitement, in order to have a pretext for giving the mind and spirits something to occupy them. The kind of things people choose for this purpose shows that they are not very particular, as witness the miserable pastimes they have recourse to, and their ideas of social pleasure and conversation: or again, the number of people who gossip on the doorstep or gape out of the window. It is mainly because of this inner vacuity of soul that people go in quest of society, diversion, amusement, luxury of every sort, which lead many to extravagance and misery. Nothing is so good a protection against such misery as inward wealth, the wealth of the mind, because the greater it grows, the less room it leaves for boredom. The inexhaustible activity of thought! Finding ever new material to work upon in the multifarious phenomena of self and nature, and able and ready to form new combinations of them,—there you have something that invigorates the mind, and apart from moments of relaxation, sets it far above the reach of boredom.

One place to find your passion: what did you like to do for fun as a teen? Did you like to write small computer programs because they were fun? Woodwoorking? These were things you did when you didn't need to, and when nobody was expecting the results.

You can also get a job somewhere doing something you'd like to do. For example, work at a non-profit, become a professor, work at a startup, etc. Get the job, with salary, even though you don't need to salary for money. The company paying you will expect you to deliver, and you'll feel you need to do it because they're paying you. When the amount of salary isn't important, it can be really freeing. e.g. you could at a software startup that's targeting healthcare, or education, etc.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn9OYsWewT8

You have just earned your life's salary. Treat it as such. 7.5M Euros gives you approximately 100.000 after taxes per year for the rest of your life. Anywhere in Europe, that is a very healthy salary. So I think your focus, money wise, would be to try to stay ahead of inflation, longterm. Setup longterm investments, pay yourself a monthly 'salary'. If you want to do more startups, do them. If you want to bike from Munich to Lisbon, do that. If work is what gives you purpose, find a company/organization with a mission you truly believe in and get as well payed as you can. And start working out and start reading again. Take a deep breath.

Put the money away, living off a small percentage to maintain a comfortable but average standard of living for someone with your abilities.

Consider finding enlightenment (seriously).

If/when enlightened, help others find enlightenment.

If you cannot stay away from planing stuff, maybe plan you villa. This is a project which also keeps your busy for a while.

You feel goalless because you have been founder/investment/career driven before. And this was ripped away from you. This is quite usual. I can only recommend to reset, detox, etc and then see afterwards whether you want to do another round on that or what you discovered meanwhile

Good luck and have fun helping others!

I will say get a full-time developer job of small company or a junior position at some FAANG level company, make friends get involved in solving new problem you are interested in.

Other option is to go to university and get course in your hobby like literature or phd in CS, start a hobby blog without focusing on growth and do some gig jobs.

Once you find a sweet spot where you can feel yourself at home, you will figure out the future.

Leave yourself enough for a year or so, and take that time to figure out what you’d really like to do without putting too much pressure on yourself on a daily basis. Spend that time focusing on doing healthy activities, socializing, reading in areas that you aren’t that familiar, etc. I don’t know if it’s an option, but if you could withdraw from school with the option to return at a later date that might be a good idea if you’re not finding the motivation at the moment.

But, be glad that you have more options than this other guy who also lost his drive:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6809065

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29458352

Money is just means, similar to how you converted eth to real money you need to convert real money into real experiences. There are doors open to you now to travel to scenic places, experience different cultures, experience different cuisines, learn new things for which you never had time get exposure to new skills you may or may not like them. When i got retired i tried horse riding although i never had any inclination towards it but just enrolled it to see where it goes did not liked it much, tried shooting liked it, tried swimming liked it, tried ski-ing did not liked it, tried singing i was really bad at it. Finally settled for building sofware as i guess i like building stuff as hobby i just don't like it as profession where i have to deal with deadlines other constraints etc. Experiment and see what you like.

Last but not the least you don't really need money to do most of these things, you arbitrarily decided that you needed money because society/culture/conditioning made you believe it. you can be happy without it as well if you realize that you may as well wonder what was the fuss all about.

I would highly encourage you to pursue your passion. Since you are in a financially better position, the desire to just get a high-paying job might no longer apply. The option of applying for positions which do not traditionally pay so are available now well where you think you could really make an impact.

So this either means investing in yourself ... Start a company or business. Or investing in others: making safe bets in the market (not crypto).

???

7.5m EUR is 8.4m USD. The average number of working years for men is 38 per google (which is also 65-27 the number of years until the poster is 65). 8.4m over 38 years is 221k/yr. The median household income in San Francisco (to pick an expensive city as an example) is 113k/yr.

So even assuming the the funds were not invested in anything outperforming inflation this should be more than enough to "live doing nothing", and potentially even without investment at all (depending on your beliefs in future inflation). Of course, it won't be enough if OP burns most of it starting some crazy business.

To maintain SF-median-present-value income until age 80 their investments would need to yield greater than inflation minus 1.24%.

Under the commonly used 4% rule of thumb, OP could invest in market indexes and spend $337k/yr in present value for the rest of their life.

I hope folks that have been playing that game are going to be ok when things go a bit strange. Ive never been more bullish on the orange canary in the coal mine.

A really conservative approach for someone like the OP would be to come up with a low watermark level of spending that is enough to live comfortably, invest enough in extremely low risk investments that just keep up with inflation to support that level. Keep their long term obligations within that level of spending... then invest the rest of their money in the market and spend the additional yield discretionarily.

Here is a really conservative approach for the OP's figures: Assume OP could live comfortably on 70k/yr in present dollars and that they'll live to 104. They set aside 77*70k=5.39m dollars in extremely low risk investments which merely expected to at-least meet inflation after taxes. They invest the remaining 3.04 million in riskier investments they expect to return more (market indexes, maybe a few companies, a bit of Bitcoin)-- and spend 4%/yr of that pool on discretionary spending, so an extra 120k/yr bringing their total spending budget to 190k.

Re-balance every once in a while to keep the nearly-riskless pool at the right size to guarantee their base spending level -- adding to it if it under-performed cost inflation or taking from it when it over-performs.

Purchase of a home could be taken out of the base spending pool, so long as care is taken to make sure the the funds needed for its maintenance and property taxes are included in it.

If the riskier investments perform well the discretionary spending budget will go up, if they perform poorly they'll at least preserve their base spending level. They could do somewhat better by immediately cutting spending during down markets -- those 4% figures don't assume that you're doing that but someone whos base spending is secured by another pool of assets should have a lot of ability to do so.

In what planet is this the case? Aspen? Gstaad?

In most countries of earth, less than half of that is enough to live comfortably to the ripe old age of 90 from 27 - not investing for anything above inflation, and just taking a monthly cut otherwise.

You can trivially buy a house for 100-300K (no rent anymore) and then for e.g. 3 million you get 50K/year. That's more than most people make in tons of European countries with comfortable middle class existance, and it is after taxes, and without all the burdens associated with working (like mandating living close to this or that expensive area to be near work, communiting costs, and so on), and it's also guaranteed (unlike e.g. work, where people can be fired, freelancing which has hot/cold periods, etc.).

If you are sitting on cash you are not yet technically wealthy. You are rich. Rich is temporary, wealth is permanent (and intergenerational).

You could completely bankroll wealth with your riches: turn that cash into passive income ASAP. Buying some rental properties is a good start (that could keep you busy), but you'll definitely want to bring professional wealth management into the equation.

My personal answer is paddleboarding. There are very few things that crosses my mind when I'm on water and money is definitely NOT one of them.

If I suddenly had a billion dollar I would still paddleboard. If only because I can't think of anything I really wanted to do more but can't because I don't have the money to.

Seriously. I've done them all. FIREd at 29. Stop playing games you can't win. And you didn't win anything only got lucky for a very brief period "cheated" the system that has no purpose and definitely doesn't care about you or anyone else.

You can afford to stop playing so stop playing and just live.

7.5 million is a lot, but it can disappear just as fast.

Oh and congratulations on the wealth.

In your position I wouldn't have to overwork and do other things that are nice.

Get yourself a good therapist. You're worth it.

ps - All the people telling you to not tell your family and friends? They are right.

—let your mind wonder to what you want

-if you used to workout to get attention for the opposite sex it makes sense why you stopped, seek out physical activity for the sake of physical activity with no goal in mind

-get into habit of doing something daily

It really sounds ridiculous, but having something to aspire to goes a long way toward bringing that drive back.

It’s very easy to lose money. I wish my father had been more careful with his millions. He is in his 80’s and completely destitute now. His ex-wives took everything.

When I say love someone… well, choose wisely.

If you want to get into that after your Masters', I guarantee that you it will eat the totality of your spare time !

Work for the sake of survival is what most people are consumed with.

Now you’re free.

What meaning will you give to your life? How will you share your special, unique talents? Who will you help?

2. Donate money to people that need it

Working on software that improves democracy is somting that is urgently needed and that you can only really do with that kind of financial independence.

hence, nobody is working on it.

It talks a lot about the concept of selfless action (karma yoga) and why this is the best mode of operating in this universe. A concept fairly foreign to capitalistic societies :) But now since you are out of the grind, you can actually just enact as much positive change as you’d like and enjoy the process.

Like assemble a crew and go build infrastructure in a poor village. Or save animals from poachers (animals and wild nature are dope overall). Build a mushroom retreat in Portugal or Costa Rica (btw check Santa Teresa for sure).

You have a life of wonders ahead of you. You just need the right perspective (less I, more other living beings).

I hit financial independence in my early 30s (not flashy rich, but sufficient to never work again) and am now 37.

Here's my take:

People get directionless and depressed after winning the lottery. It's a common thing, and you can read a ton of sad stories about it. Also from hitting it big in professional sports, business, whatever. I say that to reassure you that (1) it's not you, it's human nature, (2) you aren't doing anything wrong, and (3) you aren't alone.

Essentially, what has happened (if you'll forgive me for generalizing and guessing) is that you're suddenly suffering *a vacuum of purpose.*

You used to get your purpose from your studies/struggles/work, and now those things have had the legs kicked out from under them.

So on the one hand: fuck! That's a lot of change.

But on the other hand, this was going to happen eventually anyway. Eventually, you were going to retire, or get fired, or get injured, and end up with a lot of time on your hands and the inability to follow the prescribed path. People get bummed out in retirement, too, for the same reason.

So now, what you've got is an opportunity to bring the learning forward: to figure out how you want to live while you've still got maximum optionality.

That's a terrible responsibility and a tremendous luxury.

But it's in no way easy.

The hardest part about your current situation will be the lack of understanding from everyone around you, because they only see the upside. But the downside -- and it's real as hell and hard as hell -- is that you now need to figure out how you want to live, completely unconstrained.

That's a life's work. But it's also a life's meaning. So try stuff.

When I first got free, I learned to sail, bought an old boat, spent 6 months in a boatyard working 10 hour days of manual labor to repair it, and then spent 3 years sailing around the coasts and canals of England, France, and Spain. I thought that was what I wanted. It's what I had always imagined doing if I didn't need to work.

And you know what I learned? That I enjoy working on interesting projects with smart people. And that I enjoy being able to have friends over for dinner parties and board games. So in the years since then, I've been gradually trading off pieces of my freedom for other things that I find more rewarding.

Learning how to live a life is an experimental, experiential, exploratory process. I wish you well with it, though. It's not easy. It's not supposed to be. But it's very, very meanignful.

It's less about deciding how you want to live, and more about discovering how you want to live.

In terms of mundane tips, try to keep the expenses in check for at least a couple years while you give yourself time to explore it. Don't throw yourself into the icy waters of complete overnight lifestyle change. Take your time; the money will still be there. Maybe you'll find new meaning in the journey, and maybe you'll find a new passion in the process. We all need something to be excited about, but sometimes we need to go find it.

> I have no idea what to do with the money.

Set aside €50k that you spent freely on whatever you want for half a year (for traveling, small things you always wanted to have). Put it in another bank account and live with it for half a year and have fun. Maybe take a break semester (Urlaubssemester), especially if you feel low right now.

Don’t do anything with the remaining money for the next 6-9 months - just hold fiat (I’d suggest holding CHF instead of Euro/USD), don't worry about inflation - it's about you now. Don’t spend it on luxury items to fill any holes you might feel inside right now. Then after that time you can still invest in conservative assets and real estate, but now it's about you and your well-being. - I really don't like the comments here talking about the money and what to do with it, please don't listen to it. It's secondary to your situation.

> And I also have no idea what to do with my life now.

> I start to feel fatigued

The fatigue is most likely happening because your mind is enumerating all the life options - it's working very hard right now and that's why you're feeling down. Before the windfall, it was all focused on building a startup and getting successful which is a very clear goal. Now that you've attained wealth, you’ve lost the clear goal you’ve had before.

Now that you have enough money, you are left alone with the question that most success-oriented people would rather avoid: Who am I? What’s my motivation for doing things? What do I really want? I really like the waitbutwhy articles to help with that [1].

Let me know if you want to connect, these friends of mine are really great and have battled with the exact same questions. It's not easy to find people who can relate to this situation, most non-millionaires can't imagine the tension the money brings to relationships with friends and family and stuff like that. Trust issues etc.

[1]: https://waitbutwhy.com/2018/04/picking-career.html

Roll with the chances of life.

get yourself a wealth management company

don’t tell anyone besides your advisors

pay yourself a modest salary that pays the bills

decide what you like doing regardless if you had the money or not

do it

lastly, realize how fortunate you are, how many people you could be helping even with a miniscule amount of your fortune (you don’t have to, but you could)

You'll figure it out.

David Brooks talk on meaning (and how financial/social freedom isn’t as great as you think) https://youtu.be/iB4MS1hsWXU

Paul Bloom and Sam Harris talk about PB’s new book The Limits of Pleasure (hedonism, happiness, meaning…)- https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/waking-up-conversations/t...

SH opinion on meaning, paraphrased: a narrative you can tell yourself and others about what you are doing. (Watch out for philosophical pseudo questions) Mindfulness & Meaning -- from the Waking Up app. Click on the link to listen now.

https://dynamic.wakingup.com/course/2e0d71?source=content%20...

Thanks for listening. Best of luck.

3B1RJRyE4kYHCCznYeaMzmqv1z8gvSu1Ln

Meditation retreat to reflect

Take some time before big decisions

Project#1 : Find a worthwhile project.

Various studies have shown that giving a gift of $X to someone brings more happiness than receiving $X. Of course, people who are economically marginal need the money more than they need the positive feelings of helping someone else, but that isn't your current situation. Take your time and investigate some charities. Don't make one big donation; by spreading out the time considering things, you are also spending more time imagining how many people this could help.

One important concept is: effective altruism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_altruism

One shouldn't pick a charity simply because they have the smallest overhead. Pick one which can do the most good for the worst off. For instance, yes, you could buy a custom vehicle for 50K euro so someone without legs can drive around, and it is fantastic for that one person. Or with that same amount of money you could literally prevent ten deaths, or 1000 cases of blindness through medical interventions in some of the poorest countries.

Here is an example: if a woman is in labor too long, the pressure of the fetus can cause an ulceration of the woman's vaginal wall. Without proper medical care, it leaves her with a permanent hole between her intestines and her vagina. As a result, gas and feces can freely run out of her vagina, making her a social outcast. $750 is what it costs to give such a woman the surgery to fix this and a month to heal, allowing her to return to a normal life.

https://fistulafoundation.org/

You don't need to give everything away. Start with an amount that is significant but doesn't materially effect your lifestyle, say 250K euro. Then find a basket of charities that are meaningful to you over the next year, and donate. After that year, decide if you you want to do more or not. If not, at least you helped some people and you still have 95% of your windfall.

Finally, as other people have said, don't advertise your wealth. You will find "friends" who are happy to spend it for you. At the time it will seem fun and exciting to have so many friends doing so many things with, since it will be filling an emotional hole which you've expressed. Unfortunately, this exact scenario happened with my son (a smaller amount than yours, but over $1M). He had a lot of shallow friends for a couple years until the money ran out.

You

Only

Live

Once

Make

Awesome

Moments

Over and over and over

i've long thought if i struck it rich, this is exactly what would happen to me. my buddy just reminded me of it the other day b/c i joked, when i think someone asked me, "What would you do if you won the (crypto) lottery?" (or similar), and I semi-ironically muttered, "Disaster."

and i do think it would be a disaster for me, personally, but i would try to step up to the challenge and do the best i could. i could imagine crazy anxiety, etc.

i was never _too_ afraid of getting rich because i have 'things i would like to do' and most of them are super hippie dippy, so they would never make money, never garner investment, etc.

if someone asked me 10 or 20 years ago, if i wanted to win the lottery, say, for the amount you got, i would have seriously considered a 'No', and might even have turned it down. having been depressed various times, it's basically hell on earth, and i knew one super-quick way there could be getting rich. but today i'd almost certainly say 'yes', but i would still take it very seriously -- i know 100% i'd be risking my mental health in a very real way.

if i were you, i'd find and start going to a therapist today, tomorrow, at least set an appointment for as soon as you can. tho you could eventually find your way out on your own, i would not recommend it, in part b/c, if/since you haven't already told others (i'm presuming), then you're probably just not in a good place -- you need a trusted external party to help you get your thinking clear.

too many other reasons going to a therapist is just a good idea -- one being that, the modern world is completely fucked up and too many of us are trying to navigate is alone or alone-ish. and, to me, there's no magic in sufferring -- like, suffering for sport is just self-flagellation -- there are real people doing real suffering and dying all over the world, so if you have a choice, while you still have a choice, try to get yourself better. just my opinion. learned the hard way, so i'm not 'better' than you if you decide to suffer it out, too.

and, books. read them. listen to them. etc. good, old books. new books. books like 'the power of now' (which i have not read, but sounds semi-interesting). books can have some wisdom that can save your life, and/or make it better, including better for the people you care about, or used to care about.

and, if all else fails, i'm guessing you could probably find some, let's say, small-ish but too-expensive-for-normal-people problem, and pay to fix it, ideally anonymously - you might have to figure out how to do that anonymously - might be tough, but should be semi-possible. small-ish just because that way you can get a taste - see how you feel about it.

i have no idea what this project could be, but i can imagine a thousand things.

i usually like the idea of attacking structural problems. e.g. not necessarily giving homeless people homes, but maybe trying to stem the increasing rate of homelessness by re-constituting the boarding house thing that i think used to be hella popular in the US back in the day. but that's personal pref.

you could try to figure out how to pay for a new/improved library/public space in your town - maybe improve the air exchange at the current library to improve covid safety going forward, so people could still gather (important for humans) but not die. or just pay to renovate some basketball court or soccer field/clubhouse.

maybe read up on what the former ms. bezos did with some of her cash, and even give her a call - i'm guessing you can get thru if you try - ask her about it. i mention her not because she was newly-rich, but because she has seemingly not decided to be a typical billionaire -- she actually gave a lot of her money away. that shit is _really_ fucking radical, unless someone can tell me otherwise.

i actually wonder why i haven't heard more about her, but i assume it's mainly because she's not a complete fucking freak (like most billionaires), and because she's a woman (so, hated). like, she had some headlines, maybe even a cover shoot or similar, but....a billionaire giving away their money. not only for tax purposes? and doing it with little to no paternalistic assholish controlling over-reach? that's not even possible, but presumably she did it. i feel like it sets a really bad example, so she kind of got disappeared.

yeah, and just read about people who got thrown into your situation -- the people who were successful, and those who were not. i'm guessing there are books that deal with "how to live life once you accidentally strike it rich".

one meme that seems to be pretty familiar to me, maybe even most americans, is:

  - athletes who go broke right after they're done playing
  - people who win the lottery or similar going broke, dying, getting depressed, or worse, right after winning the lottery (think i heard this from 'the happiness professor', dan gilbert, harvard -- who i think may be full of shit, but you can judge for yourself).

one place you are lucky -- the problems we have today are vast and manifold -- you won't have a shortage of places to spend if you're so inclined.

that said, i usually advise newly-rich to chill for a bit -- a year or two -- let it sink in -- don't throw your money away overnight, etc.

i, personally, ... i might wait a week or two, maybe a month, talk to friends, etc. -- probably start handing out cash to family and close friends pretty quickly, but i guess even that has potential big problems. yeah, i guess there are some pretty big things to consider.

thus, therapist.

good luck!

Give it to me.

> And I also have no idea what to do with my life now.

Problems solved.

They will have had the same problem than you will see how they manage their life now.

On the other side have you lived out your wildest fantasies yet?

It's basically 197 k$ a year until he "retires" at 65 in 38 years. And that's if he's keeping the money without investing it.

Without any gain through investment, only maintaining the money on par with inflation (the real life one not the projected one that this or that EU government publishes) you can imagine it as constant draw or stipend.

That is roughly double what (I would call) a more than average pay in EU (50,000 Euro year net of taxes).

You can easily spend half of this money on on real estate.

It's the movies and Forbes list constantly in your face.

Di Caprio/Scorssese plus Steve Forbes screwed (and skewed) a lot of people perceptions.