Girdley: Marginal Utility of Wealth Turns Negative Above Private Jet Level
Michael Girdley · How Holdco Legend Michael Girdley is Playing Multi-Decade Games (and Winning) · Sep 7, 2023 · at 19:20
Holding company entrepreneur Michael Girdley discusses the psychological burdens of extreme wealth with Greg Isenberg.
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“Well, it's also this idea that nobody talks about is that there is a diminishing return on money. Like, and I also have this like weird idea I've been toying with that. It's actually, there's negative marginal returns on money as you get more of it. Like, as I watch people who are like super rich, like super duper rich, like G six or whatever, whatever is the more expensive version of that. Like those people are actually all very, like, they spend a lot of time, like a protecting the money and be like trying to figure out who around them is not a faker. And to me, like, you know, I think being somewhat rich, you know, someday I'll get there, right? Like that's the perfect thing rather than have to get more money. And then, you know, you eventually get to a point where you're like Jeff Bezos, where you're just like, he's just trapped in his fame and each additional dollar, like that actually makes his life worse in my opinion. So I think there was an inflection point and somewhere around being able to afford flying private, but you know, it's like above that, I think the marginal utility of dollars, like Eventually turns negative.”
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