Have you ever wished you would win the lottery or suddenly inherit scads of money? If so, be careful what you wish for. You might miss out on most of the fun – getting rich can be more fun than being rich!
The following post is by MPFJ staff writer, Marie. You can read more of Marie’s articles over at her own blog, Family Money Values. Enjoy!
Picture yourself a billionaire. Maybe you see yourself on the beach hosting an enormous party with lots of food and drink, song, and sun. Perhaps you see yourself flying around in your private jet, visiting different scenic and popular locales. Would that be fun? Maybe, if you enjoy those particular activities and don't have a guilt complex for spending unearned riches.
However, I believe that it is much more fun earning the money than spending it!
Why else would sons and daughters of the uber-wealthy deny their heritage and seek to make it on their own? Why else would billionaires keep on working? Wouldn't Warren Buffet have quit Berkshire Hathaway years ago? Wouldn't Steve Jobs have said, “to heck with Apple” instead of going back?
I can list at least four reasons getting riches can be more fun than having them.
Challenging yourself to meet a goal forces you to accomplish.
I'm hardwired to enjoy my accomplishments.
If I am not trying to do something new and different, I'm not happy. When you are striving to accumulate riches, you are pushed into setting and meeting goals which lead to you accomplishing things!
Even though I have retired from a very satisfying career, and have plenty of funding to live out my life, I deem a day with nothing new as a day lost and gone forever. Without goals and making the plans to get there, my life would be very dull. Sure, I could lay on the beach and drink all day, but how boring would that be on the 5th day?! Life can seem meaningless to someone with wealth – wealth without goals can spell discontent.
Striving for wealth helps keep you learning and growing.
You want a bigger salary, so you take classes to learn how to do your job faster and better. You want to start your own company so you find a mentor to help you through the learning process. Your business needs customers so you learn how to market with new age tools and techniques. You are forced to learn and grow to meet your goal of becoming wealthy.
Learning, expanding your horizons and growing into a new and different person each year keeps you younger, more interesting and gives you a fuller life. Studies have shown that activities such as these keep your brain more active and healthier. Sometimes, if you aren't forced to change, you just plain won't do it. That's when you start to die.
Your journey to wealth causes you to make new connections and friends.
A person doesn't make more money in isolation. We all depend on networks, co-workers, friends, and family to advance. Consciously seeking wealth can trigger your search for new networks, associations, affiliates, mentors, instructors, guides, friends and other connections. Although these connections may benefit your quest for financial riches, they also will benefit your human desire for connections and belonging.
Those that you find along the way can become your lifelines. They are the ones you know and trust. The ones that you help and that help you. Friends made after you achieve wealth may be false friends, just ask many a person who has inherited, won a lottery or experienced another 'sudden money' event.
That old Brownie song has merit, “Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold.”
Our connections and relationships with other people are among the most important factors in our ongoing health and happiness. Failure to develop those connections can isolate us, and hinder our fun and happiness.
The path you take to getting rich teaches you how to deal with wealth.
You will have problems whether you are poor or rich. Sometimes the problems you encounter after you achieve wealth are far worse than any problems you may encounter when you are very poor.
Along the way to wealth, you learn how to manage your money, first by saving, then investing, then giving or bequeathing. Along the way, you teach your children how to live their lives in spite of wealth. Along the way, you learn what is really important to you (hint, it's probably not the money).
You learn how to deal with other peoples envy and desire to part you from your wealth. You learn, as your wealth increases, ways to protect yourself and those you care about from the effects of wealth (such as shysters, thieves, kidnappers, beggars and more).
Once you are on that road to riches, you know you will never feel any guilt about your wealth – you earned it!
***Photo courtesy of https://www.flickr.com/photos/lorenkerns/13951613742/in/
