Earning 35 billion VND/year at the age of 27, Silicon Valley engineer admits: Money does not make you happy, the richest person is not necessarily the best dressed.

The following article is shared by Duncan Riach, a computer engineer from California. As NVIDIA’s first employee, he now specializes in artificial intelligence.

In the early 2000s, I was the first employee at the world’s leading technology company specializing in computer chip processing in Silicon Valley. With a highly specialized job, my annual income can reach 1.5 million USD (about 35 billion VND).

With that money, my life is quite abundant. And material wealth has taught me many lessons.

Money doesn’t make you happy

Many people often say that “money doesn’t make you happy”. But they still try every day to make themselves richer in the hope of being happier. Talking or thinking is one thing and experiencing it is quite another. As an experienced person, I admit that money doesn’t make us happy, nor does it make you happier.

I have a luxury multi-million dollar home in Mountain View. Although the house is still in debt, I can completely pay it off if I want. In another country, I also own a house. I also have a luxury car for commuting.

At work, I am well paid and respected by my colleagues. In general, my life is abundant in material terms.

Even so, I still feel anxious and unsatisfied. To some extent, my drive for success was motivated by the belief that my suffering would disappear when I became rich. But in my own experience, I’ve learned that once our basic needs are met, satisfaction and happiness have nothing to do with how many possessions we have.

In fact, wealth can make life worse. Life can also get a lot more complicated when it comes to wealth.

I realized that I tend to worry about not having enough money in the future. This fear has been with me all my life. It didn’t go away as my wealth increased more.

You should only help people when asked

Instead of buying a vacation home in Lake Tahoe or some real estate for investment, I bought a home in another country for some of my cousins ​​to live in. Basically, I put out of my own pocket money to give to my loved ones tens of thousands of dollars a year.

But I discovered that these people resent me for doing this. They feel that they are being treated like children when they do not have the right to choose their favorite home. They stated that they did not like the house that I bought.

Financially, not only did I lose a monthly rent, I also had to spend a huge amount of money to buy this house in the first place. This whole process consumes me a lot of energy and time.

Through this story, I realized that with the gift I give to the other party, they will not necessarily appreciate it as I thought. Now I never help others without an offer. Even I only help them to the extent required. I also try to find ways to help without being affected by myself.

There is always someone richer than you in this life

If you compare your worth with the amount of assets you own, you will always be attracted to people who are richer than you. At this point, you will feel very inferior.

If you let this emotion dominate, you will never see your worth. In fact, this problem can make your life always tired because you have to run after the wealth of those around you.

I bought a larger, more luxurious home in Mountain View. Because I always thought that my house in Santa Clara was not luxurious enough. When I moved to a new house, I knew a couple who moved from Palo Alto – which is more beautiful than Mountain View – to Los Hills.

Tired of that race, I gradually realized that each person just needs to find the amount of money you really need, can meet the actual needs. You can also calculate how much wealth you need to accumulate to become financially independent.

What’s more important is that you need to see your own worth based on what you own. After looking at it for a while, I believe that each person has a unique value. It doesn’t matter how much money you have.

Don’t look at a person’s appearance to judge rich or poor

After a few years of work, I decided to take a few years off to study for a PhD and start some businesses. I still remember when I was at a party, an attractive woman approached me and asked “What do you do?”. I honestly answered that I was a student waiting for a doctorate.

When she answered like that, she immediately turned away without saying another word. Maybe she thought a practitioner like me wouldn’t have much money.

Thinking for days on this story, I realized that I was the richest person at the party that day. I also understand how lucky I am to not be stalked by that girl.

I know many people with very high net worth. Many of them spend most of their time in casual clothes. So you can’t judge a person’s wealth by what they’re wearing. You also can’t tell how rich a person is by their words.

According to CNBC