Honestly, How Important is Money to You?
So how important is money to me? To me, having money is very important. Why? Because it helps me with all of the other priorities in my life, including the following:
Our Health
My first priority in life is for my husband and I and our 2 cats to continue to be in excellent health.
Having money helps us do that. It pays for our extended health insurance which covers us for dental visits, chiropractor and naturopath visits, and so on.
Money allows us to take our pets for their annual vet visits and to be proactive when it comes to their health.
It allows us to buy healthy food for both us and our cats.
Comfort
It allows us to live in a warm, safe, quiet home in a safe neighbourhood. Our home isn’t too big (except on house cleaning days) and it isn’t too small. We have everything we need.
Security
It allows us to purchase home insurance, car insurance, and life insurance, should something unfortunate ever happen. It allows us to continue to pay off our bills and build a nest egg for the future.
Travel
Having money will allow us to travel again, one day soon, as we both love travelling.
And, if all works well, money will hopefully allow us to relocate to Germany or Switzerland one day in the near future.
Money
Even though money is important to me, I am not willing to settle for a high paying job that makes me miserable, stressed out, or chews up every waking moment of my day, just so that I can have more money. Those days are behind me.
Balancing Act
So how can a person balance the two? How can a person make enough money without making huge sacrifices? I have a couple of ideas.
Do What You Like
Are your currently sitting in a cubicle all day watching the clock and waiting for quitting time?
When it comes to making a living, the most important thing for you to consider is that you have to do what makes you happy above all else.
What kind of profession is most rewarding to you?
What are you good at?
Both of these questions go hand in hand, because there’s no use even trying to get a job in something you like if you’re not skilled enough to find employment in that particular field.
And there is no use even trying to get a job that you are good at but get the least amount of pleasure from.
Now, if you can find gainful employment with a fantastic income while simultaneously living your dreams, that’s absolutely perfect.
However, if this happened, and then a different job came along whose only advantage was that it carried with it a higher pay cheque, would you take it?
This is something to really think about.
There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with taking a job just for the money – after all, we have families to feed and futures to protect, and sometimes that means sacrifice.
But do you want to continue to work in the hopes of building a good retirement fund, if you spend your working years doing something that doesn’t make you happy?
The Importance of Luxuries
One big factor in determining how important money is in your life is finding out just how much you like the things that require a lot of money to get.
Besides, if you don’t really care what you do for a living as long as you can take a great vacation a few times a year, and buy expensive vehicles, what’s the difference?
However, there are some who may not want to wait to reap the benefits of their work.
For these people, they’d rather spend a bigger part of each day, right now, in the moment, enjoying themselves, instead of being cooped up in a full–time job they could care less about.
They don’t care so much about taking lavish vacations or having really nice stuff all the time.
Instead they take pride in the little things, like their family or their friends, and being able to do something they enjoy, even if they’d end up with a slightly smaller house in the end.
These people place a premium on emotional richness as opposed to mere financial wealth, which is something for all of us to think about.
Achieving Your Dreams
What are your dreams?
How long do you plan to work?
How much money would you need to do all the things you want to do?
All of these questions should be considered very carefully, because they can really shape your priorities.
Consider the things you want to do in life. Would being rich make them that much easier to do?
You might find that you can still pull off everything that you want in life without having to slave away at a job that you hate.
You may not need the vacation house or the sports car, or even an early retirement, but you do want people who care about you, a family, and a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction that you can feel on a more regular basis.
Besides, what’s the point of being rich if you have to give up so much of yourself that you don’t enjoy your hard–earned wealth as much as you would like to?
I mean look at all of the extremely wealthy people that died young due to the all the stress they endured while trying to make millions of dollars.
It’s entirely possible that you don’t even need to make as much money as you think.
Consider the material things that you’d like to get – your dream car or house, the ideal number of vacations a year, and other nice stuff.
Can you get all that while doing something you love to make that money?
If the answer is yes, then you’re set for life.
As long as you can take care of your family, follow your dreams, and enjoy what luxuries you simply cannot do without, you can rest assured that you have the means to live a great life. So next time you start to feel anxious and worried about making more money, remember to ask yourself “Honestly, How Important is Money?”.
