Because money is something that we all basically need, and the need for it keeps coming back, it’s easy for money to become this overriding concern that kind of takes over our whole world, our whole life.
And some of it can be looked at as greed, like we want more, we want more.
But it’s also the fear of not having enough.
Being preoccupied with money is not necessarily about being greedy, materialistic, wanting things you don’t really need.
It can also be about wanting things that you do need.
And especially, the less money that you have, the more that you have to care about money, and the more money you have, the less you have to care about it.
In fact that may be really the most valuable thing about having more money, is not being able to buy more things, have more experiences, but to be able to worry less about money, to have money become a more peripheral thing in life, rather than the central preoccupation.
If I had exactly $0, I would be very concerned about money, because I would have to be where am I gonna get my dinner?
I’ve got to scrape a few dollars together to get some food.
Maybe, hopefully, a shelter, somehow.
If every day I just ended up with zero dollars again, I’d be having that concern every day.
And I could easily have my entire life just be thinking about how to scrape money together.
And I’m picturing somebody who is very poor, but I can imagine, rich and poor is all about that balance of income and expenses.
So if you’re spending money and just pouring it out there, then you may really be- you may have just as much of that net zero money, that feeling of always running out.
Because whatever you’re taking in, you’re spending again.
Now, if you have a lot of money coming in and a lot of money going out, you do have a lot more flexibility to OK, well, maybe I’ll still be able to scrape enough money together for food and shelter.
So your immediate survival may not be at risk the way somebody with absolutely no money would be.
But there’s still, no matter how much money you’re taking in, if it’s being spent at the same rate, then there’s always that feeling of coming down to zero, not having enough, and always focusing on how do I get this back?
How do I get more?
More money, more money.
The endless daily repetition.
So this is why I find it helpful to calculate all my money, all my income, expenses, calculate everything I’m going to need, and get a picture in my mind: how much money do I need?
And getting that so that that becomes a contained part of my life.
It’s not something I have to think about all the time.
It becomes a part.
OK, yes, I have to take care of finances.
I have to get enough money to meet my material needs.
But I don’t have to then be always thinking about it.
Because I don’t even want to be thinking about it.
Only as much as I need to.
And this is not all about mindset.
There’s also so many factors involved, of course, in making money.
Factors of the environment where we’re living, our background, our situation, what the conditions are in the world of business, all these different factors.
It’s never something that can just be easily dismissed.
But my idea here is that, rather than focusing first on making more money, to think about really getting a clear picture of how much money do I need, and really understanding that requirement and filling that requirement.
In some cases, it may be easier than it seems.
It may not be as much of an endless hamster wheel of generating income, trying to keep up with expenses.
We may not need to be spending as much as we are.
We may not need to be making as much as we are making.
And so wherever that number lands, and those different numbers, income levels, expense levels, projecting them over the future, the rest of our lives, what we want: wherever that lands, I believe it’s possible for money to become only one contained area of life, so that we don’t have to build our whole lives around it.
But I’d love to hear your comments.
What do you think about this idea?
Is it possible to contain money like this?
Or is this just a luxury that comes from having enough money, but in most cases it’s not possible?
What do you think?
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