August 8, 2022
I've gone through multiple phases with the way I feel about money. From a young age, the echoes of my father always talking about it still ring in my ears from time to time. I'm grateful for those memories, though. Despite them being annoying at a young age, I LISTENED. That is until I reached a moment when I just decided to block them.
See, I always had my eye on the price when I was a kid. The problem was that the price was just money, so I didn't value the other things in life. I started making more of an effort to pay attention to memories, love, family, strangers, hardships, and experiences and just trying to do what I loved to do during that specific era of my life. The simple things in life are not about money and shouldn't be taken for granted. It was a nice change of rhythm because before this; I was so money hungry in the worst way possible. I was willing to sell my soul and screw over people. And that was no fun either. So, I decided to force myself into telling money to fuck off for a bit.
There was a reason that I was comfortable not caring about money for a while, though, and the reason was that I had a comfortable safety net.
My safety net has always been my upbringing and my dad's lessons on how important money is. But more than that, it was my understanding of how complicated and simple money could be all at once. The complex factor to it was just the hard work, which I'm not afraid of. And the simple part to money was that there's work and a lot of money out there to be made once you find the opportunities.
You see, here's how I always viewed money. MONEY is not hard to make. Making the amount you idealize in your mind is the magic trick you must pull off. The concept I always had, but throughout my years, the insights have constantly been changing for me as it does to everyone else. I mean, we've all heard it before, right? How money is happiness. Money can mean security. Money can make you a worse person. Money can help you get everything you want. And then we've heard the opposite: money is not what will make you happy. Money doesn't secure anything or ANYONE. Money can make some people a little better. Money won't get you everything in this life.
Whatever one has heard, it's up to them to see how they grasp the information. I always chose the side where money will help no matter what. Because money does help, it isn't the answer, but it helps.
During the pandemic, I decided to change my concept of money. I decided to have a healthier relationship with it. I got into investing, budgeting, learning, and more. It's good to know what kind of relationship you have with money. That way, it doesn't hurt you so much when it affects you, and you also don't put it on a pedestal when it saves you.
I'm still on my financial journey and still have ways to go, but I think I finally heard something that has made me believe that I have found the true meaning of money, or at least this expression is what I've gravitated toward the most. It was an "oh shit" moment. That's what money is.
Funny enough, I heard it from Marty Byrd. If you don't know who he is, you need to binge-watch Ozark on Netflix. It's a great show.
Here's the whole phrase from Marty:
Patience. Frugality. Sacrifice. When you boil it down, what do these three things have in common? Those are choices.
Money is not peace of mind.
Money is not happiness.
Money is, at its essence, that measure of a man's choices.
Now that is what I wish I knew my whole life. The idea of choices. Those successful people made choices, right? The people who don't have much money have also made their choices. Some people surprise you in this world with how they make money, and it's all because of their choices.
Frugal people might surprise you with how much money they have invested, and it's because of their choice. And rich people might surprise you with how much they've lost. Everyone can have the same goal, but the choices made in between those goals are what will make or break you.
The measure of one's choices is how money should be looked at to have a healthier relationship with it.
Comments