> I highly doubt I'm doing this for status

I mention status so much because my current learning goal is to better understand how we tick: why we chase certain goals. I do wonder if I've been countersignalling status for a while!

> back in sales

Ahh - I presumed you were a shape rotator (I skimmed your post) and answered as though you were an engineer, sorry. I respect sales as a career path (maybe not when I was younger).

> congrats on hitting your wealth goal!

I am not sure I hit it. Need 30x post-tax return (as per VC risk-reward for one investment) to justify time investment (2 years $0 income which is negative 2 years of wages). My invisibles (e.g. satisfaction) wasn't any better than working for someone else.

> I'm sure there are points in your life where you're glad to not be in need of [money].

More importantly is having time available to help friends and family.

I find that managing money is a job in itself and it has downsides. Either you tell people you have it (causes some downsides) or you need to be deceptive (uggh). I don't yet feel I have enough retirement funds that would keep me at job level income: so I'm not ready to donate a lot (which has other issues). A metaphor might be that having more food than you can eat is not that helpful.

Most people from developed nations are given similar amounts of time. As I age I dislike the exchange rate from time to money. I donate my time, but I value my time rediculously highly in dollars (and I try to balance saving money against saving time).

> - Joined a startup accelerator. Found it’s like playing the lottery.

Yeah - we learned a lot of negative lessons by being involved with an accelerator. Fortunately government funded and they didn't demand stock. Saw lots of incubees get screwed by bad decisions related to investment (own goals, and poor investor advice).

Sorry - another spiel!