Welp, I didn’t win Powerball yesterday; but I did win a whole whopping four dollars, which seems like a pretty solid consolation prize, I suppose. So I guess it’s back to fantasy land when it comes to imagining a world where I didn’t have to stress about finances and all the money I don’t have no matter what I do in my life.
One of the things I often hear about, mostly from professional athletes, is the general idea of the importance of banking their first million as fast as possible, because the idea is that once you have a million in the bank, you can start to get on the short road of being able to live off of the interest and dividends alone, as long as you’re smart and don’t go too crazy with newfound wealth.
Obviously, it’s easy for the wealthy to spout this kind of simplistic ideation, but seeing as how it feels like I’ll never see a million bucks in my entire lifetime, who am I to argue with such a broad stroked idea in the first place?
That being said, I think it’d be really cool if I could befriend a wealthy person who has several millions of dollars in the bank, and really wouldn’t be at all affected if they were to temporarily part with just one of those millions, and allow me to just hold and sit on it, so that I too, could feel what it’s like to be able to sit back and watch money come in, solely from having some in the first place. And after a predetermined amount of time, I would give the original million dollars back to this wealthy friend, and them being an actual friend, would charge me no interest and not make me feel bad about borrowing it in the first place.
I wouldn’t want to borrow a million dollars to frivolously spend and go nuts on all the outstanding mortgage and car payments. Or fix up the house, make additions, or buy any shit I don’t need. I just want to borrow a million dollars so that I can get a little bit of a boost at being able to passively accrue my own wealth. To literally let it sit in a bank account of mine, where it can generate interest and grow for no other reason than the fact that it’s there.
And if the rich athlete theory is truly correct, then after a while, the money starts working for itself, wealth continues to accrue, and I can give the money back and start to live on my own proceeds. And if this friend is truly a really good friend, they’ll float that million bucks over to someone else who just needs a boost at being able to start making their own passive interest wealth as well.
Obviously though, this is a pipe dream as unlikely to happen as the magical appearance of a fucking genie. People, especially the very wealthy, are far too greedy, far too possessive and far too protective over their money to be willing to participate in such an idea, no matter just how many people in the world it could help if they were just willing to try.
In one hand, I get it, it’s a risk to just trust that someone won’t go bonkers with a sudden mil in their bank account, or just vanish off the face of the planet once they have it, but in the other hand, if some rich asshole has $500 million in the bank, what’s 1-3 million going to matter to them, if some friends are sitting on them in order for them to be able to build their own modest wealth?
According to Google, someone with “just” a million bucks, if playing their cards right, can make anywhere from $10k to $100k a year, so by this logic, I guess I’d really need to borrow like $10M for like two years, in order to really reap some life-changing amounts that I could then just give the original $10M back and then start living off of my own interest-earned profits.
But like I said, this is the kind of shit that goes through my head whenever I’m feeling mopey about stress from financial matters. Regardless, it is fun to imagine how the quality of life would change if financial freedom could actually be achieved. This isn’t to say that I don’t think I’ll ever get there, but damn does it feel pretty dismal and bleak sometimes over others.
