New anxieties can accompany Silicon Valley's new money

The trappings of wealth for dot.com millionaires can include luxurious houses

February 26, 2000
Web posted at: 10:57 p.m. EST (0357 GMT)

In this story: House hunting in Australia 64 new millionaires a day RELATED STORIES, SITES

From Correspondent Rusty Dornin

SAN FRANCISCO (CNN) -- The boom in computer industry millionaires could be producing a host of new victims of what psychologists call "sudden wealth syndrome."

Tim O'Mahoney still lives above a hardware store, but he could buy a whole chain of hardware stores if he wanted.

When his company -- VA Linux -- went public last December, O'Mahoney's dot-com ship came in.

"After it happened, my mom asked me, 'So what did you make, about $1 million?' I said, 'Yeah, it's more, mom, it's a little bit more,'" O'Mahoney said.

Now he can go on shopping sprees and plans to buy everything from planes to property Down Under.

"I did find some good-looking places in Australia, so I may have to do some house shopping there, too," O'Mahoney said.

But after the new millionaires have shopped until they've dropped, other, less desirable consequences may set in, psychologists say.

For Stephen Goldbart, of the Money Meaning & Choices Institute, sudden wealth syndrome behaviors are "associated with feeling guilty, impeded, anxious about coming into money."

Goldbart says many of the estimated 64 new millionaires a day in Silicon Valley are barely out of college.

"The dot-commers are in their late 20s to mid-30s," he said. "That's extraordinarily early in life in one's adult development to come into a whole lot of money, to where you wake up in the morning and say, 'I don't have to go to work this morning.'"

Andre Marquis does not have to go to work. His dot-com company -- iPIX -- merged with Bamboo last month, making him a multimillionaire.

He says anxiety is not an issue for him, but his phone definitely rings a lot more now.

"The biggest difference for me is, people who have ideas and want to start companies call me up and want me to invest in their company," he said.

Stephen Kirsch, of Propel, struck it rich overnight four times since the 1980s. He has the $7 million house but says you get to the point where you say, "OK, what now?"

"When you look beyond that, then you start looking at what you can do to make a difference," Kirsch said, "that if you have several hundred million, what can you do with it besides sit on it?"

That means giving it away or starting your own charitable foundation.

Psychologists say that's one of the best ways to alleviate guilty feelings ... about getting filthy rich.

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