Billionaires and the Evolution of Overconfidence

https://www.forkingpaths.co/p/billionaires-and-the-evolution-of

by onemoresoop • 2 years ago

16 5 2 years ago

deisteve• 2 years ago

ive known a few billionaires and the way they see their wealth is very peculiar.

they view their net worth as something that generates cash flow and will never ever touch that principal. so they end up having to work still even after becoming a billionaire.

ex) a billion dollar in money markets generate a "measly" 4.16 million per month which is 138k/day (they are a billionaire but they still have to work to increase cash flow!)

you might put 10~20% of that in stock market but that will only give you a marginal boost in passive income of 200k/day

the "right" amount of billions you need these days is 5 billion USD and up.

5 billion will give you roughly 1 million USD / day making almost everything within reach

but then you look at guys like Zuck who have 50 billion, and see they are making 10 million USD / day in passive income and for about half of the billionaires that becomes a sort of goal.

This is where the effect described in the article arises, you no longer see yourself as a billionaire but divide yourself in groups like "single digit billionaire in the south" vs "single digit billionaire in the north" and "double digit billionaire"

when you are in the third group, naturally your ambitions wane. $1M / day vs $2M / day dont really make much of a difference vs $10M / day or maybe even $5M / day

after a week you have $7M / week vs $35M / week

and this is where the quality of life drastically shifts from "hard working billionaire" to "weird billionaire"

I realized that many billionaires envy the unknown "triple digit millionaires" with solid cash flow from their business operations.

Cash flow is king at this level. Having a billion dollars just means you won't be able to spend that money at all and live off interests so naturally this pushes them to increase that passive cashflow.

Whats really fascinating is billionaires you dont even know about. They are not in forbes. Their assets are a mystery. Their net worth exceed those of Jeff Bezos and Elon musk and Warren Buffett combined.

For instance, one suspected trillionaire roughly pulls in $50 billion / year from money market.

thats $136 million dollars PER DAY. I don't think any human would be "normal" at that level.

rramadass• 2 years ago

Whats really fascinating is billionaires you dont even know about. They are not in forbes. Their assets are a mystery. Their net worth exceed those of Jeff Bezos and Elon musk and Warren Buffett combined.
For instance, one suspected trillionaire roughly pulls in $50 billion / year from money market.

Hmm... Who might this (and others like this) be?

ssalka• 2 years ago

Any resources online about this alleged trillionaire? And, re: the "billionaires you dont even know about" – do we know for sure that such people exist? I can't imagine it would be easy to keep a low profile with that amount of wealth, no matter how hard you try or how much money you throw at the problem. Surely they would be identifiable through some form of public filings...?

edit: the only way I can think of to remain anonymous at that level is basically through crime – drug lords, mafia bosses, etc

Chris2048• 2 years ago

Putin?

naveen99• 2 years ago

usa gdp is around $30 trillion. In cash flow terms at 5% interest, that's about $600 trillion. Household wealth is only at $160 trillion. So the working class is 4x richer than the capital class. For people at the brink of early retirement, its hard to give up that sweet labor created cash flow, especially if you enjoy your job.

Billionaires and the Evolution of Overconfidence

Related Stories