STOP Trying to Get Rich – 8 Reasons To Avoid Wealth

Are you planning and working hard to become a future millionaire?

Have you ever stopped to think about life after wealth? Now’s the time, mate – while you are on the road to riches.

Here are eight consequences of wealth to avoid!

1.  Your Time and Effort Are Spent on the Chase – You Forget to Enjoy Lifes’ Journey
Don’t be like Karl Rabeder who gave away millions in February 2010, saying “Wealth doesn’t create happiness. For 25 years, I worked like a slave for things I didn’t want or need. Now my dream is to have nothing.” from E. Jane Dickson, in a Readers Digest article entitled “Nothing But Joy”

Do you sometimes feel that life is passing you by while you plug away at the computer keyboard? How do you make sure that you are living your life to its’ fullest?

2.  You Ruin Your Kids
You don’t get to spend time with them (because you are busy earning all that money) so you buy things for them to make up for it. They live in a privileged environment where every wish is met – paving the way for them to develop into a spoiled, egotistical, entitlement based person who can’t or won’t support themselves. Consequently, they develop no sense of self worth.

When was the last time you and your kids just hung out together? Have you started preparing your children to deal with the consequences of your future wealth?

3.  Your Tax Bill Goes Up
OK, so maybe we will all be paying a lot of taxes, but if you are rich you are going to pay much more than the rest of us. There is a reason rich folks hire accountants, lawyers and financial advisors to try to find ways around taxes! Did you know that the US marginal income tax rate  during the entire decade of the fifties was at or above 90%! As recently as the decade of the 1970’s it has been at or above 70%. With the trillions of dollars in debt that we are now, it will happen again!

Do you think it would bother you to give Uncle Sam (and Aunt Sally – your state government) ¾ of your yearly income in taxes?

4.  People Like You for Your Money, Not Yourself
You may suddenly become popular with long lost cousins needing help with the latest surgery for their 13th child. Your ‘friends’ end up always asking for a small ‘loan’ at the end of the evening.

How will you handle requests for money and other assistance after you are wealthy?

5.  You Spend Your Time Managing Your Riches Instead of Doing What You Want
Getting rich and being rich are two different things. You need money and investment skills to manage your fortune after you build it. That takes time and time is always in short supply. Even if you hire a money manager, you still need to provide oversight.

Do you enjoy managing your money? Are you prepared to spend more time at it after you are rich?

6.  Your Physical Security Can Be at Risk
Because you have money and nice things, you may become a target for burglars or kidnappers.

How will you counter this potential threat?

7.  You Can Lose Your Drive and Self-esteem
In Richistan – A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich, Robert Frank notes that after achieving success in two businesses and selling them for tens of millions of dollars, Michael Sonnenfeldt still talks about ‘finding meaning’ beyond wealth. Frank notes that Sonnefeldt “had an emptiness in his soul. The business had been the center of his life and now it was gone.”

Will life lose it’s meaning for you if you achieve your wealth goals?

8.  You Will No Longer Belong
You work hard, buy a nice new house in an upscale neighborhood and suddenly you are like the Clempett family (on the old Beverly Hillbillies TV show)– trying to fit in but not knowing how!

How will you stay connected with family and friends who aren’t in your wealth circle?

These 8 consequences could happen on the road to riches. If you are hoping and planning to be wealthy, what steps are you taking to avoid them?