Editor: Crass Cash

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/heres-why-people-crazy-even-195511534.html

Are you an "overearner"?  I'd never heard this word before I read the above article, but it's definitely interesting.  I fall into that category and it even baffles me.  I technically have more money than I need to live for the rest of my life and also I earn more than I know I need.  Reading the above it sounds irrational, but it's not.  

Everybody is different and there are certain circumstances in my life that have caused me to have certain financial insecurities regardless of how logical or illogical they may seem.  

Why does Warren Buffett still go to work or Larry Page, Donald Trump, or Sam Zell for that matter?  Well these cases are fairly easy to understand.  It's not that they're workaholics, it's more that they just really love what they do.  Deal making brings them happiness, as crazy as that may seem to you.  But what about the rest of us?

What about those of us who could leave, but don't because of some other reason.  For me it's due to watching people run out of money and having to live their remaining years in poverty surviving only thanks to the kindness of strangers.  Seeing this at a young age had a deep and profound impact on me.  

Others may do it for their children and future generations.  Working hard day in and day out to accumulate more in order to leave a legacy for their offspring.  This I think can be particularly dangerous.  As Warren Buffett has said, "I want to leave my kids enough money so that they can do anything, but not so much so that they don't have to do anything."  

This is a deeply personal question that everybody needs to answer for themselves.  Do you have enough money to retire and you hate your job?  Do you love your job?  Do you not know what you would do if you quit work?  

Life changes and I've seen people who love their job hate it a month later.  The important part that I think everybody needs to take away from this is that you should be able to walk away if you need/want to.  Get to a "position of fuck you" and have the ability to walk away, even if you don't have the desire.  

Editor: Crass Cash

Due to transparency laws, we are now able to see a great deal about how much money our politicians make and how much they're worth.  How much somebody makes is a lot easier to determine an exact number vs how much somebody is worth because the value of an asset is generally subject to much greater assumptions than income is.  

With that said as you read the article you'll see that there are large variations in their net worth based upon certain asset classes.  On top of that I don't think they're required to give an exact amount for the asset, but instead they pick a range.  This makes since because not only can people attribute a subjective range to the value of an asset, but for instance the value of stocks and bonds can fluctuate considerably as well.  

http://money.cnn.com/2015/05/15/pf/obamas-money/index.html

Editor: Crass Cash

"The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States, a set of ideals in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, and an upward social mobility for the family and children, achieved through hard work in a society with few barriers. In the definition of the American Dream by James Truslow Adams in 1931, "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement" regardless of social class or circumstances of birth." -Wikipedia (couldn't have said it better myself)

Talking with a friend the other night she offhandedly remarked what amazing things a person can achieve in this country.  She was talking about her family and how she was first generation to be born here.  The family migrated here with little support and no money.  The litter of children that they had have achieved simply great things given the circumstances that they were born into.  Out of the 7, 4 have graduated from college.  So far one is a lawyer and another a doctor, with another one on the way.  The rest are successful entrepreneurs like their parents.  

On my mom's side my grandfather never went past an 8th grade education.  He was born to farmer's and eventually bought and ran a butcher store.  His daughter graduated from college and became a nurse.  I went as far as graduate school and work in administration.  

This is the rule, not the exception.  Can you find people mired in poverty for generations, of course.  I have yet to find one though where it wasn't due to their shitty attitude.  Now the question is, was this attitude responsible for their place or a result?

When I took sociology in college my professor told all of us that the American Dream was dead because the current richest person in the country came from a privileged background (Bill Gates) instead of a poor background like Sam Walton.  This was news to me.  He some how had taken it upon himself to define the American Dream his way and then set it as impossible standards.  Bill Gates's dad was a successful lawyer in Seattle, but he was by no means even close to being a billionaire.  Did Bill grow up with more opportunity than Sam Walton?  Yep!  But if you can't see the difference between a lawyer and the richest person in the world, you're a fucking retard!

Coming to this country so that your children can have it better than you is what it's all about  That doesn't happen in 5, 10, or 15 years.  It takes generations.  That's what it's been about for thousands of years.  Nobody wants to have kids and see them get bogged down in the misery of life.  There has to be a dream!