why e rich feel anxious about not having enough money

Subscriber exclusiveEven rich people feel anxious about moneyAngela TanFollow topic:InvestPublished 1 hour agoUpdated 1 hour agoListenMany assume financial anxiety disappears once people become wealthy. That is further from the truth. You earn $100,000 per year and think you would stop losing sleep if you earned double that.Or you might have reached a net worth of $2 million but think you would feel safer with $3 million. You continually shift the goalposts on what would give you peace of mind. While this might seem like a “nice problem” to have, any issue that causes distress is worth trying to address. Unwarranted money anxiety is essentially the same as other forms of anxieties. You feel more anxious than the hard numbers would suggest you need to be, and it consumes your thinking, gets in the way of your relationships, or holds you back from doing activities that reflect your values.“Even the rich feel anxious,” Teo says.Wealth frequently comes with a bundle of expectations, and there is anxiety and pressure to make smart money decisions, such as how it should be managed, spent, passed on to future generations or used to create a legacy.Nvidia’s co-founder and chief executive, Jensen Huang, offers an interesting case study on the psychology of wealth and success.Huang is ranked by Forbes as the eighth wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of over US$187 billion (S$238 billion) as at Aug 29, 2026.Yet, despite leading one of the world’s most valuable technology companies, Huang often says he operates in a constant state of anxiety as though Nvidia could fail at any moment. Success does not prevent anxiety, he says. Sometimes it simply changes what we are anxious about. When you are struggling financially, you worry about paying next month’s bills. When you are wealthy, you may worry about protecting what you have built, staying ahead or losing it all.“What this tells us is that financial anxiety is rarely truly about money,” Teo says.“It is about safety, control and identity. When we place our entire sense of security in something the world can always threaten a portfolio, a business, a title, every fluctuation becomes not just a practical problem but an existential one. The anxiety is not irrational.”More on this topicHow much money is enough? Watch and learn from the video of the second InvestMe eventBeing rich is successful? 40% of Singaporeans seem to think soWanting moreWealth is like seawater – the more we drink, the thirstier we become, said philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer.Like salt water that dehydrates the body, more money does not quench our desires. Instead, it intensifies them, triggering a craving for an ever-bigger fortune. Modern psychology calls this hedonic adaptation. Have you ever noticed how quickly something you have longed for simply feels “normal”?Teo recalls meeting a mid-level professional who had worked for years towards a promotion. When it finally came with a pay increase, she was elated. Three months later, she said that exhilaration had evaporated.  When something good happens – whether it is a pay rise, a promotion or a new purchase like a car or a bigger house – we experience a genuine spike in positive emotion. But before long, we recalibrate. The excitement fades, and we find ourselves roughly back where we started emotionally, but with a higher baseline expectation.“The capacity to find genuine satisfaction and contentment in the present – in relationships, in small pleasures, in meaningful work – is an important determinant of our ability to experience happiness,” Teo says.For rich individuals, wealth is rarely assessed in isolation. Social comparison can fuel anxiety as wealth is measured relative to peers, to past performance and to an ever-expanding set of future liabilities. A $1 million portfolio may once have represented security. Today, it can feel insufficient in a world of rising asset prices, longevity risk and inter-generational planning.Stock markets themselves amplify this dynamic. Over the past decade, periods of strong returns in equities, especially in technology stocks, have led investors to expect outsized gains. More on this topicLearn how to manage your money better at InvestMe event on Sept 17Why being asset-rich can still result in no cash and debt The burden of preservationAccumulating wealth and maintaining it are different challenges, experts say.Accumulating wealth may require risk-taking, concentration and timing. Maintaining it demands diversification, discipline and, often, restraint. For some people, making that psychological shift from taking risks to exercising restraint can be challenging.See more onInvestST InvestMeFinancial planningFinancial literacyWealth managementTop storiesExplore top stories from all sections in one placeAsiaAsiaAsiaSingapore‘The river… was going to consume the entire world’: Nepal flood survivors recount harrowing experienceTour boss searches for missing brother and 54 pilgrims by air after Nepal floodsChinese rescuers zero in on Tibet mudslide site as lake threat easesThe Million Dollar Round Table: Is insurance’s most famous accolade now an overused honour?

caregiving for someone with autism

Walk a mile in my shoes as mother of two children with autismThe daily weight of caregiving is exhausting, and affects caregivers’ mental health, not to mention careers. What can be done to ease the burden?Lim Hong HuayFollow topic:Caregivers/CaregivingPublished Aug 19, 2026, 5:00 AMUpdated Aug 19, 2026, 5:00 AMListenWhen middle age struck, my body gave way. Three operations and multiple health problems in the span of five years taught me that I have to care better for myself, in order to care longer for my children even as adults. I began to learn to say “I cannot”, “I need a break”, “please help me”. Forgiveness and self-care are essential survival skills for a caregiver. I started CaringSG in 2020, a non-profit initiative to support caregivers of children with special needs. It has served more than 5,000 caregivers. I was also a steering committee member for the Enabling Masterplan 2030 and co-chaired the Alliance for Action for Caregivers of Persons with Disabilities. These national initiatives help develop solutions related to support for caregivers. As for the impending task force recommendations, to prevent families like Soo and Lu from slipping through the cracks of our society, we need intentional and tighter care coordination across life stages. Embedding mainstream funding for caregiver support within the provision of disability services would ensure programme sustainability. In the workplace, I hope for more support for caregivers to find and stay in jobs. Work gives dignity, purpose and relief. With a job, caregivers can continue to contribute income taxes and to the nation’s economic growth. With the Tripartite Guidelines on Flexible Work Arrangement Requests, I hope more employers will support caregivers’ requests for flexi-place, flexi-time and flexi-load options. For businesses, supporting a worker who is a caregiver could reduce needless turnover and boost employee engagement. Ultimately, a caregiver’s well-being is proportional to the amount of societal support.Some caregivers stop hoping for help, accept the status quo, and stay in “bubble” lives of seclusion. In CaringSG’s CAREkaki programme, we visited homes with grassroots workers. It was not surprising to find those with disabilities or autism locked away in the home with aged caregivers. On the other hand, many caregivers have grown new businesses and spearheaded ground-up initiatives.My wishes are for more medical, allied health, social service and educational professionals to go into our homes to know our lives and our children better. When things do not work out as expected, please stick with us to search for new answers together. And also that when we caregivers are no longer able to look after our children, we would like to know there are dignified and trustworthy care options so our children will not be left behind and forgotten. Family, friends and professionals – all of society – walk with us. We need you.•Lim Hong Huay, a developmental and behavioural paediatrician, is the founder of CaringSG and a senior consultant at Rophi Clinic Novena.•The Spectrum is an Opinion series that examines the issues and challenges people with autism and their caregivers face across the different stages of their lives.See more onCaregivers/CaregivingAutismSingapore societyTop storiesExplore top stories from all sections in one placeSingaporeAsiaAsiaSingapore‘I don’t know what to tell our 7-year-old daughter’: Husband of S’pore woman missing in Nepal floods9 Singaporeans among 517 foreigners out of contact after deadly Nepal-Tibet floodsSearch for 1,300 missing after deadly Nepal-Tibet floodsEn bloc reforms may spark more deals, but not a repeat of 2018 boom cycleq