In self defence class we learn to fight… so that we won’t have to. Personal finance is very much the same way. 🙂 The best thing that money can give us, is the freedom to not worry about money anymore. Sometimes we can become so focused on our finances that we can easily forget about actually living a life. To me financial wealth is not simply about having money. It’s more about having better options in life. A lack of money is a great disadvantage. Poor people have a greater affinity to stay poor. Their lack of resources keeps them from having access to better opportunities and choices that many middle class and rich people take for granted. Having a limited amount of choices can lead to further unsatisfactory circumstances, so it becomes a self-reinforcing cycle.
We spend a lot of time planning our budgets, building up our savings, and looking for profitable investments, but in the end we should realize that doing all this work is not about the money. It’s about the freedom and the awesome choices we’ll be rewarded with! 😀 We do not want to become obsessed about “money,” in and of itself. We don’t want to turn into those kinds of people who think that the best thing about wealth is that it allows them to buy material things. 😐 If that’s what they really want to believe then I wish them good luck in life. 😛
There’s a popular story that demonstrates the silly nature of materialism in the world today:
A successful businessman bought a brand new BMW M6 convertable. He parked it right in front of his office so that he could show it off to his fellow co-workers. As he got out his vehicle a passing garbage truck lost control and side-swiped his car, ripping off the door on the driver’s side. The police quickly arrived and the businessman began ranting hysterically that his new BMW was now ruined. 😡 After 10 minutes of profuse shouting and cursing, the businessman was finally able to calm down. The police officer then said to him, “You are so focused on your car that you don’t notice anything else. I can’t believe how materialistic you are.” The businessman looked confused. “What do you mean?” he asked. The police officer explained; “Haven’t you noticed that your left arm is missing? It must have been torn off in the accident.” The businessman’s face went white. “OH NO!” he screamed. “My Rolex!!”
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Random Useless Fact:
“Money can’t buy me love…” or happiness for that matter. You’re right, the real rewards from our pursuit of independence are the options we’ve gained by not being beholden to others for our fiscal well-being. It can be hard to remember that at times as we get so caught up in the rush of saving, investing, and watching dollars.
Thoughts and ideas are often worth more than money. As long as we don’t lose track of what true wealth means we’re sure to achieve it eventually. 🙂
Your post resonates with what I wrote on my ‘About’ page regarding money and what it can do for you. I fully agree with you that money is simply a tool to afford us freedom and is by no means an end all goal. I think too often we get too focused on the savings, investing and frugal nature of our lives that sometimes we simply forget to just ‘live.’ Thanks for sharing. Great random useless fact 🙂
It’s the little things that make life worth living. Money won’t lead us to success, but the freedom to make it will. 🙂
I heard a good saying the other day that is good enough to become my motto:
“- I only want to have money so I don’t have to worry about money” 🙂
That’s a great reason to have money. It’s like learning karate. Once you have your black belt you won’t have to worry about getting mugged or losing another fight. Once you have a lot of money you no longer have to worry about your financial situation. 🙂
LOL that’s a funny story. Too many ppl focus on money instead having the big picture.
So many people can’t see the wood for the trees because they’re not looking at the important things. 🙂
We have some people here at my company that are working into there 70s. They do it not only for money, but they also love their job as well. I think they can afford to retire by just choose to work. I think I would like to be in that position sooner than them, that’s all. 😛 As far as greed goes, I’ve been living a moderate lifestyle, scale down to the college student level, I could drive a BMW convertible, but choose to buy a 10 years old Acura. I actually like my job more as I get closer to FI, Unless I have kid, I might just stay on part-time or something. Maybe go back to school to learn language, art, and a few more things I haven’t had a chance to do.
Good for you. Acura is a great make anyway. 🙂 I don’t think I can work until I’m 70. I’m too lazy lol.
I love that picture of the man chasing for money! lol! Unfortunately, some of us act like that one, sometimes all we need is to have a quality time with ourselves.
If I could buy more time with money I would gladly trade all my money for another 10 years added to my life. 🙂
For me it’s all about Time and Money. When I was younger I had lots of time but very little money. I worked 3 jobs and still lived paycheck to paycheck. I was working very hard, but not working smart. Slowly I started to realize the value of saving and investing so now my time is worth more to me than money. I now have more time to spend with my family and that is the only thing that really matters in life. While I’m not financially free yet, I’m slowly getting there and I no longer have to work crazy hours for money. In fact, I’m now thinking about “work” in a different way too – as something that I would “like” to do instead of “having” to do it to pay the bills. That’s what financial freedom is all about – it’s giving yourself choices in life.
Great point. I think most people can make $100,000 per year or more if they really tried to, but that would involve 65+ hours of work a week for most of us which is probably not sustainable. Slow and steady wins the race. It’s all about balancing out time and money and not getting burnt out, and having fun. 🙂
I definitely agree it shouldn’t be about chasing material things. Mrs. SSC and I are in comfy jobs, have good salaries, and we save a lot of it. We got out of the buying for buying’s sake rut a few years ago when we realized it was just accumulating more stuff we didn’t really need. As my wife says a lot, “yeah, we CAN afford it, but do we WANT to?” Usually the answer is, “Nope, not really.”
But ultimately, we’re going to walk away from those jobs for the freedom it will give us to be stay at home parents and enjoy more time with our kids. That’s way more important to me than making a name for myself at work, or in the academic community, or achieving more and more money.
That’s a good question to ask before buying anything. Having material goods that you won’t use is a waste of space and causes clutter and inefficiency in the home. 🙂
Money is a tool for us to have freedom of our choice on what we do in life… Lack of money causes a lack of options.
Great Fact… Food for thought.. If your Girlfriend has $30 and you have $15… that means your Girlfriend is buying dinner… 😉
Plot twist: She takes you to McDonald’s and makes you order from the Dollar Menu. 😆
nice… you win some you lose some…
Loved the the story….missing an arm…and all he can say is where’s my rolex…LMFAO
You’ve got to hand it to him. He lost an arm and he just shouldered on. 😀
Eye always on the prize… a comfortable life… Money, health and happiness, it’s a comfortable balance that is required… Funny, I found a Rolex not so long ago, no arm attached though 😉 – Cheers. Assume you are still holding those AVO shares B|
If someone is missing his left arm then I guess you can say that he’s all right. 😀
Yes, I still have all my AVO shares. It’s a good thing I bought 100 more when it dropped to $14 several months ago. The company’s quarterly earnings come out next week I believe. 🙂 Can’t wait.
I think PF bloggers tend to go to the extreme and forget the here and now while others are more like spend spend spend and forget the future. it’s all about moderation in my opinion.
I like to live in the moment while planning for the future. It’s a balance like you suggest. 🙂