[Soulman]

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I meant that this is the point of the investments, not of their posts, and that the question we're getting at is: why would someone who knows and understands the benefits and risks involved not invest in attractive opportunities (where they agree that the benefits outweigh the risks) presented to them when this would lead to more financial freedom (not just why don't people wan't more money for the sake of money)?

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Ah right, misunderstood you there. I think you'll see cases like you describe rather rarely, I was talking more about the entrepreneurial types who start from scratch and see opportunity where others don't etc. Also, a lot of people are correctly risk-averse. But yeah, I agree that fear and complacency is too widespread.


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And true, many sucessful people will continue to work long after they could have retired, but most do it because they love it. They still have that option to stop anytime they choose, so they're able to be doing exactly what they want to be doing.

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I agree that freedom probably is a motivation for a lot of people to gain riches - but at the same time, I think there are a lot of other factors at work here. Like power, status, personality types and so forth. In short, I don't think a lot of the go-getter types use their freedom to work less, and I don't believe they lead happier lives than others. That being said, they would probably be dislike doing classic 9-5 work, just like I would hate to be the I-need-to-network, have-to-sell etc kind of type.

I do think people like Tien (nothing personal, I don't know you at all) tend to espouse their views as the correct one though, while in reality different criteria will lead to happiness, depending on the person in question.