Most people believe that the antidote to financial stress is more money. But it’s not. A stress-free financial life is a function of how you structure your financial affairs, your attitudes toward money & how you use it.
Society has trained us to believe we need to treat ourselves by spending our money.
How does that work?
You work hard to earn and then spend that money in a few minutes?
How does that give you satisfaction?
Personal finance is not a mathematical or logical concern — it’s emotional.
Humans spend based on their emotions, even when they involve logic.
Logic says: You’re supposed to save & invest for the future – and then when the future comes, you actually have to spend it.
But most people never get to the second part – they are in accumulation mode their entire lives, while after age 45, they should be in decumulation mode.
Blame your emotions or your habits or your mom.
Sometimes we take delayed gratification too far – we never get to the gratification part.
True wealth involves contentment, not dollar signs.
Measuring something this nuanced, like individual happiness, is more complex than your retirement number.
Pondering this isn’t time wasted.
Remember the goal is not to be a billionaire. The goal is to be happy.
This is your life, not a rehearsal.
Hi Tacomob
It is not a one or zero situation. That is, accumulating wealth and finding contentment & happiness are not mutually exclusive. Many people are enjoying both, just that with wealth, one does get that much more options.
True that. With money it’s so much easier to avoid misery if you have enough.
Do you see being rich = being wealthy?
Feeling wealthy can mean so many things.
And then there is this: Today’s economy is good at generating three things: wealth, the ability to show off wealth, and great envy for other people’s wealth.