As reported in yesterday's upFronteZine, "Over the last 12 month, Autodesk CEO Carol Bartz netted US$230.5 million from the sale of ADSK shares, according to finance.yahoo.com."
When I ran the 12 months of stock sales through a spreadsheet, I arrived at $237,112,467. CAD Insider Roopinder Tara checked the figures, and came up with net proceeds of $230.5 million, so that's the number that got reported. Another editor wondered, "How on earth does anyone justify earning that kind of money?"
I figure Exxon-CEO-like incomes are hard to justify; OTOH, we don't know what she does with the quarter-billion dollars -- quietly hand it over to charity or buy more knickknacks for the home. I wonder how much you need to earn to live comfortably -- at what level is income sufficient -- coupla' million?
Upon hearing that yesterday, my 19-year-old son responded, "Man, I'd be happy if I could earn $50,000 a year..." and I replied, "No you wouldn't, because it's never enough." (Part of the reason, of course, is that as income raises, so do expenses, such as income tax.) I'm at the point now where I can't be bothered buying much of anything anymore; the main expenses are the 3 kids' education (due to jump by $22,000 this fall) and daily living.
"What would be your reason for getting out of bed in the morning?" wondered the editor.
I think people get driven in two ways. For me, I become slothful when I don't make much money, and I get hyper-energized when I make lots of dough. Others slow down when their fists fill with cash, and then scramble when the cupboard's bare.
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