The simple answer: moar. [2]
While hardly a scientific study, it should come as no surprise that in a recent poll of high net worth clients by UBS [3], the "recidivist [4]" bank found that the more money a high net worth individual has, the more money that same individual needs to retire comfortably.
Or, as the saying goes, "appetite comes with eating [4]" even though according to that other saying: "the rat race has no exit."
[5]
UBS' explanation:
Satisfaction goes up as net worth increases, reaching 85% for those with $5 million or more. But enough is not enough for many millionaires to be fully satisfied, because lifestyle expectations rise along with net worth. Fifty-eight percent of millionaires say their expectations for their standard of living have increased in the last 10 years. Those whose wealth has increased significantly during this time period are even more likely to feel their standard of living expectations have gone up (64%). As a result, the majority of millionaires want more. Those with $1 million want $2 million; those with $10 million want $25 million.
And those with $100 million want $1 billion; those with $1 billion want to move AAPL with a single tweet and to stop being so bored with their lives, and so on.
The bottom line, when UBS asks "When is enough…enough?" and "Why the wealthy can’t get off the treadmill [6]"...
[6]
... the answer is: never.
But there is good news, because all those overburdened millionaires now live in a crony capitalist system which rewards wealth above all else, and as a result the rich are assured of becoming even richer as the following summary of America's record class divide explains.
For the not so wealthy, well... this is your "chance" to get off the treadmill for the simple reason that when it comes to the US middle class becoming wealthy, the lights were turned off the day the Fed's printed was turned on.
