Super-rich worry most about love, work and children: Study

The study titled 'The Joys and Dilemmas of Wealth' by the Boston College's Centre on Wealth and Philanthropy, and co-funded by the Gates Foundation finds that the rich are brimming with anxieties and "turn out to be a generally dissatisfied lot, whose money has contributed to deep anxieties involving love, work and family."

The super rich are "indeed frequently dissatisfied even with their sizable fortunes. Most of them still do not consider themselves financially secure; for that, they say, they would require on average one-quarter more wealth than they currently possess," the study said.

Among other woes, the survey respondents said they feel they have lost the right to complain about anything "for fear of sounding - or being - ungrateful." Those with children, worry that their children will become "trust-fund brats" if their inheritances are too large or will be forever resentful if those inheritances are instead given to charity.
Apart from making the children less ambitious, who may feel assured in their financial well-being, money "runs the danger of giving them a perverted view of the world. Money could mess them up - give them a sense of entitlement, prevent them from developing a strong sense of empathy and compassion."

As one respondent pointed out, "We try to get our kids to do chores but it is hard to get them to mow the lawn when we have an almost full-time gardener."

Psychologist and one of the survey's architects Robert Kenny said it appears that the "only people in this country who worry more about money than the poor are very wealthy. They worry about losing it, they worry about how it is invested, they worry about the effect it is going to have. And as the zeroes increase, the dilemmas get bigger."

Kenny said extreme wealth can take away some of the basic joys of living. Some wealthy people do not look forward to the holidays "because they were always expected to give really good presents."

The study, published in magazine The Atlantic, questioned roughly 165 households, 120 of which had fortunes in excess of USD 25 million, about how prosperity has shaped their lives and those of their children. The respondents' average net worth is USD 78 million and two were billionaires.