I’m currently reading Morgan Housel’s latest book - the Art of Spending Money and came across this quote -
Most of what makes you happy in life has nothing to do with money, and realizing that once you have money can be a painful admission.
That’s a profound realization hidden behind a very simple sentence.
Many people spend their lives chasing money, hoping it will solve all their problems. But it doesn’t.
Often, ‘successful’ people work tirelessly to earn it, only to realize later in life that they have broken families and a lack of friends. Is that winning?
That’s not to say that money can’t make our lives better. Its benefits, however, diminish drastically after you reach a certain basic level of financial comfort.
In his book, Housel quotes the legendary music producer Rick Rubin:
It’s hard to get really depressed until your dreams come true. Once your dreams come true and you realize you feel the same way you did before, then you get a feeling of hopelessness.
I think we mistakenly think that some kind of outward success is going to change something in us. And it does not. It may make life more comfortable. But it doesn’t change who we are. And any hole in ourselves that we’re hoping to fill does not get filled. And let’s say you spend 20 years of your life working towards something that’s going to solve everything, and then you finally achieve what you’ve been trying to do for 20 years, toiling away…and nothing changes. That’s when you get hopeless.
What many don’t realize is that money is an enabler for an already content life. It can’t buy a loving partner, children, or friends.
This is a message I don’t want to forget.