MONEY IS A TOOL
❝Don't let making a living prevent you from making a life.❞ -John Wooden
Audrey makes $110,000 per year. She barely remembers that five years ago, her main goal was to be able to make at least $100,000 per year. She met her goal a couple of years ago, and it felt good - for a little while. Then she got used to it, and she set a new goal of making $150,000 per year.
Ben goes in to see his financial planner and tells her that his "magic number" is $1 million. He thinks all of his financial worries will be over once he has a million bucks saved and invested. Two years later, he now had over $1 million invested, but it didn't feel like enough. He changed his magic number to $2 million.
Cassie wants to be a part of the FIRE movement (financially independent, retired early). As such, she hopes to be financially independent and retire by age 40. She accomplished her goal and, at age 41, doesn't know what to do with the rest of her life.
It's common to think that money is a goal, but this is likely to result in regret. Nobody lies on their deathbed wishing they spent more time with their money.
It's not about money.
It's about life.
LIFE IS SHORT
I was lucky enough to be born, and someday, I have to pay for that privilege by dying.
Not only is life finite, but I've already lived some of the life that I get to experience. Every day I wake up is one less day I have left to live.
Everybody knows this, of course. Yet, people don't live their lives with this in mind. People tend to live as if they will live forever. People believe there will always be more time and that their quality of life will remain the same.
That's the discrepancy; we will run out of time, and we may lose physical and cognitive function before running out of time.
MONEY IS NOT A GOAL
Money has no value in and of itself. Money is only useful insofar as it can be traded for other things. In other words, money is a means to an end but can never be an end itself.
That's why when people look back on their lives from their deathbeds, they never regret failing to spend more time with their money or ruining more relationships to get more money. You can't take it with you, and there is no value in being the person who dies with the most money.
Christopher Walken once said that if you knew how quickly people forget the dead, you would stop living to impress people.
What would you do with your life if you didn't need to impress anyone?
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The Value Compass is designed to help you gain insight into your own values and how they guide your thoughts, feelings, and actions. It can be used to explore your personal goals and motivations, as well as to gain a better understanding of others' values and how they may differ from your own. |
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MONEY IS A TOOL
Rather than being a goal, money is a tool. Like other tools, it makes sense to know how to use it. It makes sense to tend and care for it. It also makes sense to understand what it's for. And much like any other tool, it can be used for good, and it can be used for evil. A hammer can be used to pound a nail into some wood, or it can be used to what me in the kneecap!
Separating the idea that money is not a goal and is instead a tool helps you hop off the hedonic treadmill and break from the endless pursuit of more. It helps you understand how much is enough.
DEFINE YOUR FINANCIAL PURPOSE
Understanding that money is a tool allows you to ask yourself what you will use the tool for. You can define your financial purpose, which describes the role money plays in your life. Your financial purpose can become the lens through which you view your financial decisions to make sure you're using money in a way that is consistent with your interests, values, and aspirations.
Understanding the role money plays in your life helps you view money as a tool so that you can use it to design a life that you would be happy to look back on.
You get one life; live intentionally.
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REFERENCES AND INFLUENCES
Barker, Dan: Life Driven Purpose Ben-Shahar, Tal: Happier, No Matter What Boniwell, Ilona: Positive Psychology in a Nutshell Burkeman, Oliver: Four Thousand Weeks Burkeman, Oliver: The Antidote Dunn, Elizabeth & Michael Norton: Happy Money Emmons, Robert: THANKS! Hagen, Derek: Money’s Purpose in Your Life Hagen, Derek: Your Money, Your Values, and Your Life Hefferon, Kate & Ilona Boniwell: Positive Psychology Ivtzan, Itai, Tim Lomas, Kate Hefferon & Piers Worth: Second Wave Positive Psychology Kinder, George & Mary Rowland: Life Planning for You Lindsay, James: Life in Light of Death Manson, Mark: Everything is Fucked Manson, Mark: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck
McKay, Matthew, John Forsyth, and Georg Eifert: Your Life on Purpose Sinek, Simon: Start With Why Vos, Joel: Meaning in Life Ware, Bronnie: The Top Five Regrets of the Dying Whelan, Christine: The Big Picture
Yalom, Irvin: Staring at the Sun
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