How it feels to lose $18B over the last 12 months

being able to sleep soundly at night is enough reason for me to keep my finances in check. worrying due to debt is a painfully slow way to kill yourself.

Yeh, losing 18 billion will probably drive me off the cliff if that means losing my home, the shirt on my back and the lifestyle I'm used to. But if you still have another 18 Billion stashed somewhere and still be in the Forbes billionaire list, it may be just another pain you you'd lose sleep for in a few days but will get over with in time.
Sometimes I wonder what the satisfaction and peace of mind threshold of these people. Me, I would say I'd be happy to have in the bank enough funds to give me just a million in interest every year, and have all the time with my family. friends and do charity work on the sides.

Losing $18b? WAAAAHHHH! that's enough to buy, um, Zimbabwe? :D

no need to dwell on the misery of these few billionaires, the world can sleep soundly without them stacking up most of our wealth in such few hands..we should focus more on the billions of people who are suffering due to lost jobs and depressed incomes due the economic crisis brought on by the greed of these few individuals..

This topic is quiet timely as Oprah has just made Jean Chatzky's book The Difference available for free download for the next 24 hour (until 10:59am ET March 14).

http://www.phbestdeals.com/2009/03/another-freebie-from-oprahcom-jean.html

In it Jean Chatzky shares the secrets she learned during her groundbreaking research on the self-made wealthy. What is interesting to me is the theory that Money doesn't breed happiness but happiness can breed money.

Her tips:
• Get happy, but not too happy
• Do what you love, but don't quit your day job
• Read every day
• Remember that failure is not an option–it's a necessity
• Harness your intuition to take risks that make sense
• Practice the Kevin Bacon Principle–make connections
• Say thank you–and mean it
• Make your money work as hard as you do

try to prevent yourself from dwelling into credits and debts. learn how to live life below your income and you will be satisfied on your daily cash flow!

billion dollar losses for billionaires if added could pay almost half of the country debt.

Knowing that you have enough money to pay your bills, your employees, your taxes on time and still have enough to have a good meal, drive your own car and pay for your own car - these were my incentives for strengthening my finances before. Recently, I added a new one - save enough for my husband's and my retirement.
Thinking about making more money and saving is not really a bad thing, if you take them into context. What's bad is doing bad things to get the money. What's worse is feeling jealous of those who have money, indulging in self-pity and being apathetic, all at the same time.

keeping our finances in order allow me to focus on the more important things in life: my family. if i know that our finances are okay, then i don't have to worry while i'm spending time with them.

To be Financially independent by not being dependent on a job. Corporations only care about their own welfare and they can easily replace employees without any remorse. Having Passive Income to cover expenses is a step towards independence

Money is not the root of all evil. It is the love of money. Earning a living is a necessity for everyone and doing something about it is a must. If your God given talent is writing then by all means write about it.

Though it may seem out place in this blog, I try to look at my finances based on God's point of view. If I gain or earn money, I give thanks to Him for providing for me and my family. If I lose money, I still thank Him because I see it as Him taking back what He gave me in the first place.

I also give thanks by trying to practice tithing regularly. And remembering that with or without money, I should always rely on God's providence.

Having said that, I make financial decisions as prudently as I can, not because I can lose money, but because I want it to benefit as many people as it can.

I think these billionaires didn't lose money from their bank accounts nor did they lose money from their pockets.

These rich men only experienced paper losses in the form of falling stock prices through their companies listed in stock exchanges.

You see, this market value is merely a market value meaning that the value of their companies is only percieved as they are reflected in stock quotes which could be real or imagined. If today a liquidation process for these companies take place the market value may be meaningless because what is considered is the net realizable value of the company assets.

These rich men probably woudn't worry much because they are fully aware that these events are inherent in their position. Many a times in the past, Bill Gates became the number one loser in the world like the 1987 Black Monday where Wall Street lost 508 points only to become the number winner when the market eventually rebounded.

Warren has already donated his wealth although on a staggard basis until he dies. Technically, if he dies now, all his wealth will go to his friend's foundation who happens to be the Gates Foundation. Warren's heir would only received around 1% of his current wealth or even less I think. Having known that, Warren for sure is not worried at all moreso he is fully aware that falling stock prices due to negative sentiment may not be reflective of the real worth of his Berkshire Hethaway.

We cannot compare Juan De La Cruz from these people. It's not only a comparison between an orange and an apple. It's a comparison between . . . ahhh! there's really no point of comparison.

INDEXrider

hi index rider, I had to laugh at how you read my post. well, of course you have a point. i guess it wasn't my intention, really to compare because we all know that would be a foolish exercise, wouldn't we? but i merely wanted to share that the news article made me think about how we look at money, or how we face the loss of money, perhaps not in the same magnitude as their paper losses, but losses nevertheless, in the same vein that what happens to people we know sometimes makes us think about things that happen in our own lives even if these events are not totally the same.

oh well, hehe, i don't know but to me there's a connection there :). but then again, maybe i'm just weird about watching connections.

IndexRider,

You beat me in telling about paper loses

These rich men having lost billions in estimated value of their wealths also probably felt bad. If I was them I would. Not that I can hold literally $18B in my hands at one point in time. Maybe I will never see such money in my bank account. Having much money is also as challenging as having too few of it. Remember the times you had more than the usual monthly pay (e.g. bonuses, unexpected windfall)? Can you say it was actually your happiest day/s of your life? These rich men must be very pragmatic to know they can't take a single cent of these riches with them to heaven one day. Best to leave some will to transfer to heirs, legal or natural. In effect, the worldly riches get recycled and goes to some other guy one day. Or to another empire, company etc. Well Salve said we might think money is all she/he thinks about, but this particular blog topic is good for mental exercise: what if we were these 'poor' billionaires?

come to think of it... even if you have cash... your money's worth will still go down, because of inflation.
well, for Bill Gates and other billionaire, I think they are well aware of their losses. But I guess they won't mind it. With so much still in theri pockets, I doubt they would still need more money to fulfill their wants.

how it feels like to lose $18B..

think of it this way.. if you play those on line games where you make so much money by the hour.. every time you log on you find you have so many millions in the bank.. you would definitely NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO with all that money anymore.. as opposed to at the start of the game, when you only make so much money by the hour and you have problems budgeting it..

maslow's triangle of needs at work?

The person who loses billion of dollars during global financial crisis are money smart people anyway.

If they lose that big amount they know where, when and how to gain it again.

If they ain't smart on their money maybe or perhaps they lose it before the global financial crisis started.

Well, having or doing mistakes in investing their money is another way of getting or learning some lessons on it.

(^_^)

i won't mind as long as i'm not in debt...i don't need all the money anyway and would've given so much to CSR or charity...

how would i feel?..... sad.... but part of the game.... if i lose 18B ..... that only meant i have more where it came from.... at the most, that amount would be half of my holdings.... can get them all back nect year

oh what a waste of time thinking what bill gates feel losing 18 billion dollars. thats their money thats their problem. thats theirs

to imagine that if i have 65 billion dollars and loss 25 billion dollars what will i feel ha ha ha ha ha ha ha oh what a fantasy. a useless fantasy.

if i have 65 thousand and loss 25 thousand, oh its different. it will realy make me perspire. it will make me think and ask what have i done. the experience will be hurting but it will teach me a lesson on how to be carefill.