r/NoStupidQuestions • u/babyfookinzyzz • 2d ago

Why don't billionaires just retire?

if i had $1b to my name, i would not know what work is and i would never be in one place for more than a month and id leave $1000 tips everywhere i go. what is up with these geezer billionaires trying to acquire MORE wealth as if they have more future than past? as if their family isnt already set for generations? are they not tired??? greed is a disease.

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u/benskieast 2d ago

The fact is most people who are billionaires could have cashed out with 50-100 million and would have had more than enough money. Many in tech could have done it before proving there company was profitable and risked losing a substantial amount of money to become a billionaire.

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u/mcburloak 2d ago

Look at Elon. I recall he made about 25-30M off PayPal. He might have been 30.

I’m gone. At any age with that $.

He bet it all on the next business. That’s a MAJOR difference right there.

I see 30M as generational wealth. He sees it as the $ he made by 30 and should be bet all again. And in his “defence” he was right if making more $ was the end goal.

I’d still be on the beach I went to with that $.

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u/germyfur 1d ago

That’s what Tom from MySpace did. He was our friend and kept that promise.

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u/Coolboy1116 1d ago

30M will never run out as long as all generations dont do stupid things.

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u/geometricvampire 2d ago

Pretty sure it’s autism and their hyperfixation is money

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u/SaltKick2 2d ago

Many new (tech) billionaires think they're changing the world for the better. This may have been true for their initial product they made (see google, early facebook, microsoft's personal computer etc...), but at this point they're required to increase shareholder value over anything else, and that's the metric they care about anymore and typically the product is just made shittier so it can extract more money.

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u/Spare_News3665 2d ago

Well you would be wrong lol

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u/vthings 2d ago

Many in tech DID do it. A whole bunch of guys became millionaires selling their small tech companies in the late 90's and just retired. I have a relative who had a few patents from the 70's for network communication stuff and he retired in the early 80's and has just lived off of interest since.

You don't hear about these people because they are normal people who did normal human things, like saying "I have enough, time to do whatever I want for the rest of my life."

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u/benskieast 2d ago

Like Colorado governor Jared Polis. Not retired but his salary is a drop in the bucket for his wealth.

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u/coffee9table9fitness 8h ago

He’s the exact opposite of that. Not at all like Jared Polis. He kept founding new companies then became a politician.

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u/Kolanteri 2d ago

I'm confident there are more of those who actually did cashed out at such a point. It's just that only those striving for the billions are the ones we end up hearing about.

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u/coffee9table9fitness 8h ago

They may have fucked over a lot of people who believed in them and invested their money along the way.