It may not make sense right now, but you may spend the next decade or so chasing money to get to a point of contentment only to realize that you’re chasing after money because you think it’s going to give you peace. The turn is when you figure out money doesn’t give you peace.
Contentment, happiness are choices. They aren’t milestones that can be achieved, or goals to be met. They are choices just like choosing what color shirt to wear in the morning.
Source: myself who has been terribly poor, and eventually wealthy. I’d rather have back the lost decades of career and status chasing than any of the money I gained.
No, but you need to it to survive.
Invariably, I find the "You don't need money to be happy" crowd is nearly always people who have enough money that they don't have to worry about money.
"Being happy with what you have" only really works once a certain minimum is reached. If you never have more than one paycheck's worth of money in your account, trying to figure out how you can live off of $2/day for food, then you're going to have a hard time being happy with that.
it does give me peace, it relaxes me to know my son will have food and shelter. That we'll be able to pay for learning resources and fun things. It helps to know that, if things get a bit rough, we will have some money to hold on until things get better.
It relaxes me to know that if any of us get sick, we'll be able to pay the bills... hopefully.
You're not the first person I read writing something like this on HN. I have always thought of this situation as something that only happens in movies. As someone who is going through a mid life crisis, reading what your comment breaks my heart. I miss the fun I had in my twenties and I had a lot of it. I just was not fully aware of the chance I had.
“Money isn’t everything but not having it is” - Kanye
The thing is returns start diminshing faster than people realize. Once you get yourself housed, fed and clothed its much more of a hamster wheel than people are often willing to admit to themselves, at the expense of their own happiness.
Kanye has peace of mind?
Once you cross into fame and multi million or multi billion (Kanye, Elon), that sweet spot is nothing to them. Their sweet spot is influence, impact, and the like. In their bracket I think few reached a sweet spot without tarnishing their desired presentation. Someone like Bezos is looked at as a villain, so he didn’t get it. Bill Gates is one or two allegations away from affairs and Epstein stuff being leaked. Warren Buffet is somewhat at the sweet spot but he is a much older man who doesn’t need the validation that Elon needs. In other words, their sweet spots are about as hard to hit as our sweet spots (financial well being).
The second one is pondering the meaning of life.