I honestly think most people would do what you think you would do: Just reinforce what makes you happy and remove stressors.

We just notice more the ones who believe happiness is showing off how big they are.

In addition to what you listed I think you’d probably travel more and consider hiring people to do regular house cleaning and garden maintenance.

So, we have a reasonable house but one that still needs a lot of work. I had a dream that someone offered us a million dollars for it in a forced sale because there were apartments to be built on our block, and I realized that wouldn’t be enough. I wouldn’t move out of our house for a million dollars. I want to live here.

If we got stupid money, I’d do all the stuff to the house that we want to do. I think we’d travel more too.

Having been both so poor I was homeless and now firmly middle class and everything in between - there is lifestyle creep with more money. We have done some of the stuff to the house that it needs, we host family holidays and parties, it costs money; we have two cars, not one, pets, occasional trips to the beach with a hotel stay instead of just for the day.

But the curve of this lifestyle inflation flattens as we approach our ideal, if that makes sense. There is a point where more just isn’t better. We are so close to it now.

So if the money was infinite, but couldn’t be distributed to others as charity, I think we would retire, travel, improve the house, get new cars (well, husband would, I love my car). Not move, not live super large, not eat much differently.

Either that, or I would open a little bar in my neighborhood, give up the dream of leisure and make it a wonderful, welcoming place with great drinks and food, start a business as my kids all are almost grown. That’s more likely, I am not so good at slowing down.

If you did get a seriously large lump of cash… after a settling in period a lot of changes will happen, and you will be happy they did (IMHO).

The reason is that one of the biggest gifts that wealth gives you is TIME. A lot of the day to day crap that the rest of us need to deal with just evaporates. No need to shop (there are people for that). Want to travel… people will organise everything. There will be no waiting in lines at airports, at restaurants, at government offices… there are people for that. Someone to clean, someone to pick up the kids (unless you want to of course), someone to cook, holidays on a fuck-off huge yacht with crew to manage everything, or just to zip to Paris for the weekend.

You will probably really appreciate not having to deal with most of that crap. Also, while you probably don’t want a stupid large house, you do want privacy and so will want to get a house on 1000 acres in a gorgeous landscape (plus perhaps apartments in various cities that you like).

Imagine moving from a food insecure lifestyle to a secure lifestyle where food, safety, housing is always there. Would you want to keep your old food-insecure lifestyle? No. Same with going from a food secure lifestyle to a time-and-resource abundant lifestyle.

I think most people who come into money probably say the same thing, but I think it probably depends on a few factors, sociability and impulsivity probably being up there. I think as your standard of living rises, it’s just going to change most people who aren’t well-grounded. Some people blow it all at once, wanting the money to change them because they weren’t happy with their life before, others change over time, but both are changed just from the experience of not having to deal with the anxiety of “survival” anymore.

When you’re not worried about making your rent/mortgage or getting all your bills paid each month, that’s just naturally going to free you up to think about other things. When barriers to life dissolve away like that, you stop having reasons to not do things what you feel like doing. “I’ve always wanted to see London/France/underpants, I should just do it,” or “I could get a nice entertainment system in the living room… and my bedroom… and the bathroom…” At some point, your standard of living is so far removed from “normal” people, that “it” has already happened, money changed you.

It depends on how much money it is, and whether you keep it all.

If the amount were, say, less than 10 million, you’d probably do exactly what you say. If the amount were more but you gave a bunch away to have around 10 mil or less, same thing.

If the amount is billions and you keep it all for yourself, that’s when it starts doing things to you. In order to keep that for yourself, you have to justify it internally–why is it you deserve this money while others are struggling? The only way to justify it is to demonize the poor–believing that poverty is a moral failing, or otherwise believing that you’re better than others.

Extreme wealth hoarding is bad for everyone–both the poor and the rich.

I’m going to assume this isn’t “lottery” ultra-wealthy where you can spend it all and suddenly be back to destitute. So you say you wouldn’t live that differently, and immediately begin with “quitting work.” That’s the first step, because being wildly wealthy does change you incrementally because in this situation you’ve just bought yourself a commodity that once spent can’t be bought back, time.

You now have 40 hours a week that you were giving to someone else. Add on 5-10 hours for commute time (.5 to hour commute) that can get up to 50 hours for whatever the hell you want to do.

Buying a new car just a quick glance at Carmax and you’re looking at around $13,000 for a standard sedan. Not many have that pocket change going around, much less to buy the house that at low end houses cost $100,000 so you’re done, no worries, no muss, no fuss and you didn’t give some company your money in interest because you bought for cash. And on buying houses, as competitive as the market is, buying with cash right now at least in my region is about the only way to do it.

So lets assume you’re working from home right now, you gained back 40 hours. Hey, I want to have a party/trip/etc! Well, your buddies are all working, possibly can’t afford to go on trip, night out to eat. Offer to pay, but it’s still the getting the time off. They’ve got bills to worry about, the ones you’re not even thinking about. Sometimes they’ll show up, other times, not so much. So either you’re out fishing and working on your hobbies during that 40, or working to a new project job wise which really by this point is how the wealthy keep getting more and more money because build up a new thing, hire someone else to run it, passive income. But you don’t have your friends to hang out with, travel and the like, you’ll run into the others that don’t have those concerns because you can buy your way around inconveniences (airport seats are uncomfortable, but those lounges are nice. Why have to take connecting flights? etc) those are also going to be the ultra wealthy. And they have a standard of living that will look more and more “normal” to you. Little bit of peer pressure, little bit of “take a ride in my Lambo” and finding it fun, it’s a frog in the pot situation, you’ll go back to your roots and go “How did I live like this?”

Congratulations, you are living your life according to some values and standards, instead of just being envious and dissatisfied all the time.

You actually won’t become wealthy.

The people who weren’t born destined for it are the only ones that sit around imagining what it would be like…

I’m just a “temporarily embarrassed millionaire!”

I have similar wants. Just a standard house, maybe some land for a bit of gardening, and a workshop to make things. Donate to certain charities and open source projects etc. Travel a bit.

But they’re one little thing I’d do that would definitely show I’m rich:

I’d travel to local forest parks around the world, and bury actual treasure. Like a 3 gold bars. In in actual chest too. Maybe every now and then I’d do smaller treasures that are like a fancy sword or platinum ring or just medieval armor. Idk.

Then I’d go to the local university and set up riddles they’ll lead to a part of a hidden map, with the map being hidden both throughout the university and maybe online too, depending.

But it wouldn’t be a straightforward map. It would be a map to a random house built near the park. And somewhere in that house, would be the final map leading to the treasure.

Why? Because the world could use a little bit of magic adventuring I think. That’s something that just doesn’t really exist anymore in the modern era, in a way. I feel like finding treasure and going on a treasure hunt is something a lot of people as a kid probably thought would be fun.

And second, university students can always use some money, so they get first dibs too.

Likewise when I die any children I have would have to go to a mini mansion and solve the puzzles in order to get my last will that grants the finder my money.

You are suddenly super rich. Now all your friends and family expect you to provide for them. Every kindness they offer is suspect, are they doing it because they like you or because they want your money? How can you really know?

You don’t have to work and can go anywhere in the world. But your friends still have jobs, so you travel alone.

Some of your friends start to resent your new lifestyle. Others may just be staying quiet. You read about “crabs in a bucket” and distance yourself more from them.

It’s really isolating, but you meet some other wealthy people and you know they don’t need your money. And… you actually have some stuff in common with them. Yes Ibiza is overrated, but they suggest another place to check out. You go out with them to amazing restaurants that your old friends wouldn’t even appreciate. You can commiserate about how hard it is to get good help these days.

On top of all that, you slowly start to notice an emptiness inside. You should be happy! You don’t have to work anymore! You have everything you could ever want! Why do you feel this way!?!? Drugs and expensive purchases fill the need momentarily. If try telling your old friends that you’re not all that fulfilled, they’ll pull out the world’s tiniest violin for you. You lack purpose and goals, and feel like you are drifting in a life of luxury completely devoid of meaning.

If you’re lucky you find a way to have a new purpose in life and accept that the money changed you. If not you spiral and, best case scenario, wind up broke.

Over the years Ive worked up the salary I earn. I am not wealthy, just earn more than most. I am bad with money at the best of times, but I found my spending just naturally grew as I had more available to spend. If I was suddenly ultra wealthy, at the start I would probably live “normally” but honestly I would likely end up spending vastly more money just because its there

I feel like the wealthy people you see are the ones who either get excitement from flaunting it or from lying about it (for example, mtv cribs was all fake). There are plenty of stories (yes i know they’re just stories) about multi millionaires who drive the same old truck, wear regular blue jeans, and have a nice quiet (albeit larger than average) home.

It’s not crazy at all. I just think we see the outliers more frequently than not because they want us to see them.

Dunno bud, I’ve met and heard about a lot of rich people in my life (my partner builds high-end houses), and they’ve all been absolute assholes, though some more overly than others. I know exactly 2 nice rich people out of dozens.

My theory is two-fold: one, to get rich you probably screwed somebody else over, and two, once you get rich you feel an inherent need to protect your resources without ever actually feeling satisfied (gated communities, voting for your own self-interest, suspicion towards normal people).

I do think that having large sums of money almost always lead toward personal corruption, and I wish we all just had enough resources and societal support to be healthy and happy.

Well I know someone who regularly fantasizes about winning the lottery and the world of possibilities that would open up for them.

I’m sure more money could help with a lot of the stuff that life throws at you. But honestly, when I think about the things that I really want or would like to do… then it’s rarely about money. For example, you want to become a photographer. It’s not being unable to buy the priciest camera on the market that’s holding you back. I even doubt if it’s easier if you have the money to do just that.

Definitions matter, 18% of American households are millionaires. Many of them live just as you describe.

Ultra wealthy is likely much higher. Let’s say $100 million or more. This is unlikely to happen overnight (in the literal sense.)

I don’t see how it wouldn’t change you. Even giving the money away would change your time use. (If I gave away $10 million, I would be checking on how it is used. And be very critical.)

Even just removing annoyances will change you. A nicer car, then why deal with traffic. Food prep turns into no going to the store, which turns into not knowing about advances in checkout scanners (see George HW Bush during some election.)

Maybe it is not your not changing. The world always changes. Will you change with it?