That's a bit of a platitude, though, isn't it? You could say the same about anyone -- nearly all of us could be making more money, if only we'd give up family time, relationships, hobbies, whatever. But we don't judge those things in pure dollar terms, they're intangibles.
That's what makes stories like larsberg's interesting -- if we really were "just trading money for something else they valued greatly." then we'd see these types of stories more often -- but we don't.
Well how much of "just trading money for something else they valued greatly" works in real life is worth pondering.
After a while most people will realize that your spouse/kids would rather need money not time from you. Its far better to have a rich dad/husband than poor one who spends more time.
Over time even the guy who made this choices will know that, every time he sees someone buying a new car, going on a costly vacation, sending kids to a Ivy league and all the big money luxuries. Inevitable peer comparisons happen, and things get out of hand pretty quickly.
You generally get to hear 'How I learned to be happy with little' kind of stories from such people.
Its far better to have a rich dad/husband than poor one who spends more time.
No. And I don't even know where to begin to answer that, more than that you guys are talking extremes. From a millionaire that's never home to a guy not being able to pay his share of the rent but stalks his kids wherever they go.
Both would be far better of, in my opinion, by settling for something more in the middle.
We're not talking about working 100 hours a week at the investment firm vs. part-time at the burger shack here, though. larsberg's talking about managing a team at microsoft -- presumably the pay there is okay.
"Over time even the guy who made this choices will know that, every time he sees someone buying a new car, going on a costly vacation, sending kids to a Ivy league and all the big money luxuries. Inevitable peer comparisons happen, and things get out of hand pretty quickly."
I really don't know what to make of this? My family can't be happy if my kids don't go to Princeton? What are these "inevitable peer comparisons"? Will you really have a ton of marital strife if your wife isn't driving a German luxury car?
"Its far better to have a rich dad/husband than poor one who spends more time."
This is just plain wrong. Wrong and stupid. If you honestly think this... I feel really bad for you. I can't imagine what might have occurred in your life to lead you to this conclusion.
I think more than anything, the metaphysical view of what money is is totally bizarre. It's like money gets lumped into this special category of its own.
Money is just society's tickets to gain access to the collective productive capital that is the the totality of the economy. Money is just crystallized favors.
Try to replace "money" in your head with "favors" and you will see just how bizarre many beliefs about it are.
You may imagine that to be true, but more likely than not, you don't know what you are talking about. For one thing, Ferarri's aren't known for comfort...
OTOH, underground trains never suffer from traffic congestions. I feel more comfortable spending constant 0.5 hours in the underground than spending variable 0.3–2.5 hours in a traffic jam.
That's what makes stories like larsberg's interesting -- if we really were "just trading money for something else they valued greatly." then we'd see these types of stories more often -- but we don't.