How do you come to view money and its role in your life? Do you see it as the highest priority or is it a means to live your life? For each one of us, the significance of money will differ. For some it will be the biggest thing that they are chasing and for others it might be a low priority but no matter what it has some effect on us.
Money is used as a universal form to receive groceries, a home, electricity or to see a concert live. Since it is so extremely hard to be great at so many different things like cooking, building a house, repairing things, growing food, we have come to specialize in a craft or skill to make a living. This allows a society to be more efficient. This means you don’t have know how to do all those things, where you can just focus on a few or maybe just one and can earn a living.
We all need to make a living somehow or someone else might be supporting you. It provides the ability to meet our needs to survive and the more money that one has the more they feel secure, where their needs and certain problems can be solved. This means that you have enough to buy certain needs and wants, to enjoy life and if you happen to get sick or injured money can get you the help that you need.
This will dominate our thoughts, how we behave and the decisions that we make. From a young age parents and teachers ask kids what they want to be when the grow up. Kids are thinking about what they enjoy doing now that will shape their choice whereas the adults are thinking how much income their choice of career will make so they can sustain themselves.
Money measures performance that affects significance
In a capitalist society, money is used to measure progress to see how many goods and services have been produced and trickles down into our everyday lives. Schools measure how well students are doing by the test scores they receive, the higher the score the more they are valued and rewarded with more funding.
Businesses measure their productivity in the amount of revenue is produced that tells them how well the business is doing. The better the performance is the more money can be used to expand the business and or reward the people in the business. Either way, people are viewed as an asset, and this affects our own thinking. Others see us or expect us to contribute to the overall bottom line. And if your not contributing to it, you are somehow are a problem.
This is understandable why many people see the amount of money you have or earn as a direct measurement of your significance. The more money someone has, the more significant others will view them as where it makes them feel so special. People will cater to them because they probably want the same thing, and they may offer advice on how to do it or better yet they will share their money. But the less money someone has the less significant others will view them. And this affects our view on money and even how we see ourselves and others.
Logically this is why pursuing more money makes it worthwhile, that when I have a certain amount that I’m somebody or at least it lessens some of my worries. This could slide into viewing money as a way to feeling validated. If making more money seems within reach, we are more likely to go for it even if it means compromising.
This could be taking on a job that you are not thrilled about but can tolerate, knowing that it is not aligned with what you want. It is much harder to turn down more money in the short-term than it is waiting and working towards the passions that drive you because those passions early on do not pay off immediately. The common things are said like be sensible or make smart choices which means do the safe things even it if means being miserable. What is this being safely miserable instead happily uncertain?
Money further brings out survival instincts
The way money is viewed has that crippling effect that can make one scared into making decisions they are not happy with. They might take a job or stick to one that they are unhappy with and depending on the research that you look at, as much as 85% of people do not like their jobs. It’s a way to make a living and if they leave that job the repercussions are obvious of not having enough to survive.
The fear of being wrong, having people that depend on you for income, not knowing what will happen can make a person reconsider that, maybe it’s not so bad where I’m at. I can make this work or we’ll see how it goes only when enough time passes it can feel as if life is getting away or feels like being trapped.
Money also supplies an emotional need, like when you win or do something good. It rewards what you’ve done. It satisfies that competitive side. When you have put a lot of effort into what you do it makes it so much more enjoyable. This can make you want more. It can even become an addiction where no amount of money can feel satisfying.
Ivan Boesky was a millionaire on Wall Street in the 1980s but had a lot of insider information about companies that would be bought out that he used to profit from which is illegal, yet he continued to partake in. He eventually was arrested for his action but what was interesting was he didn’t need to make any more money. He was already making a massive amount without the insider information, but the rush of more money were huge wins that seemed to satisfy maybe his ego.
Evaluate your relationship with money
We should look at the relationship we have with money. Money is not all bad or good, it’s what you do with it and how you manage yourself. An important question to ask yourself to be in better control of yourself is how much money do you need to be happy. Usually, more money requires more work and more sacrifices to attain and even retain it. So that is something that should be considered.
Find out what you want and what you need and really know the differences between the two. You may want a new car, but you need to have enough money for food or enough extra money for unforeseen expenses. The things that we want gets us emotionally excited so pay attention when that happens because this is a great way to know it’s a want. You probably won’t be too excited to pay for the water bill or for healthcare and this is a good reminder that boring things are what is needed. Calculate your expenses and then you can figure out how much you need to make.
There have been studies done to find out how much money you need to make to be happy and according to the 2010 study by Princeton researchers Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton, people tend to be happier the more money they make up until a certain point which is about $75,000 a year person.
After that the amount, happiness levels off. This is going to differ from person to person, but it gives an idea of money to happiness ratio. It seems like it is enough to cover a person’s necessities while still having enough saved over for unexpected expenses but also enough time to enjoy that money.
People are realizing more now that a high amount of money is just not worth it as it comes with so many different headaches. It’s understandable, every job, role or business has its pain points, but certain ones are just dealbreakers.
People want to enjoy what they do for a living because it is what they spend the majority of their time doing. There are several people with an excessive amount of money that work 90 hours a week and might feel unsatisfied because of the lack of time off. This includes being in roles with a lot of responsibilities and maybe very little to support their effort.
Money magnifies who you are
It’s easy to think that having more money will result in a better life, but if you’re waiting on money to be a solution or a way out it can disrupt life for the worse. Some would say that money is the root of all evil or that money brings out the worst in people or it changes people, but others will say having more money just magnifies who you are. It can expose the deficiencies that were probably unnoticeable. So if you a jerk with very little money, it can make you a bigger jerk. If you are a kind person without it, then you’ll just be an even kinder person with it.
Warren Buffett’s first wife Susie Buffett is a great example of money magnifying her qualities. She was known as a sweet, giving person all her throughout life. When Susie and Warren first began their family, Warren was heavily focused on his investment business, constantly working and Susie was the one who took care of everything at home, the kids, the house and everything Warren needed. Warren said that she was the one who put him together, that really cared and loved him.
Once their kids grew up Susie started many philanthropic foundations and focused her efforts on them and people that truly needed her help. The aids pandemic was a big cause she committed to and Warren would give her a few million dollars at a time which she would use for the foundation and people who were in need of it. At times she was a bit too generous but impacted many people’s lives for the better. She even swayed Warren to get involved in philanthropic work himself. Stories like these are overlooked because negativity grabs the headlines, but this shows that money just magnifies who the person is.
What would be beneficial is to ask what deficiencies you have and how can you improve them. This gets you to be ahead of things before it really becomes a problem. We all have deficiencies, and this is something that we should reflect and find ways to manage and improve on. Taking this proactive approach helps improve yourself and the situations you find yourself in, especially if you start earning a high amount of money. You’ll better be able to control the money as opposed to it controlling you. Correct things when it’s still relatively manageable because the longer you take to do so, it becomes so much harder to correct it later on.
This is just going to help you manage whatever amount of money that you do have. Being impulsive or too emotional can lead to a lot of money troubles. It’s not just about how much money you earn but how much you can retain, having wise spending habits will ensure you have it when you need it. So just because you have a little bit of money left over or an excessive amount does not mean you should spend it but rather use it as a cushion. That’s when self-control and discipline is going to help you out, without you just dig yourself into a deeper hole.
Final thoughts
The relationship you have with money is not all about calculating numbers or how smart you are but it’s more about your thinking and behaviors that relate to the currency system. It is merely a tool to aid you and not a magic wand to correct things. Money is limited in what it can do, it can’t cure low confidence, anxiety, being loved, change the past and especially can’t buy time. It can inflate your ego thinking your above others, that the rules don’t apply to you, and this can setup for an extremely rude awaking. Millions and billions can be made and lost. The higher the climb the greater the potential fall.
But money can allocate resources to help find cures for diseases, to give people the ability to improve their lives with good living standards, to gain information and become empowered, it can provide the chance to spend time with your loved ones. Use it to your advantage and be careful not to be consumed by it. Don’t be defined by it but instead define what you will do with it. Know that you are independent of it. It was created so people can specialize in a certain field to be more efficient
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