I am currently reading How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis. The front cover says that it should reveal some secrets of getting rich. I’m currently on page 70 and I’ve never considered myself a revolutionary (hope is high), but one thing that struck me was the paragraph in the foreword, written by someone, worth about half a billion. dollars:
[I wrote this book to]…show that that wealth has given me the most precious thing in life. And what is the most valuable thing in life that wealth can bring? Lula: It’s time for me. Time. Time to read and write poetry if I like. Or writing a letter if necessary. It’s a time for leisurely walks, walking in the woods, thinking, commissioning art, reading, drinking, hanging out with friends and loved ones… doing anything really, as long as it doesn’t involve a day after grinding to make money in someone else’s office or factory. That’s what money can do.
Hey! This is from a guy who “helps” me by a factor of 1000 and what he wants and has is the same as what I want and have. Actually, when I release my book cover it can be considered submission art, and when blogging is poetry (ahem!) we enjoy the exact same things. This is unexpected given the difference of factor 1000. I usually expect differences in species where the difference exceeds a factor of 10.
Very good news for all! You don’t really need $500,000,000+ to have that time and be healthy.
He talks about some of the cars he can buy, which I don’t know, but on the other hand he can’t drive them, so I guess that makes us even
On rare occasions I’ve considered working harder to pick up more money to buy things, but frankly, giving up time to buy things is a lot to ask, so I’ll settle for cheap gratification.
Thus I conclude that I am more than what extra money can do for me. More precisely, the marginal utility of capital is lower. It’s been like this for a while. Even while I was working, the money quickly grew into a way to keep score. It is a natural consequence of spending much less than income.
Lately, I’ve noticed that I’m getting old. I am in my mid thirties. Double that and I’ll be seventy years old. For me, 70 is old. So I have as much time to go back to 0 as I do to 70 and I don’t feel like I’ve lived very long. Overtime side gear is up!
So wasting precious time making more money than necessary is not worth it. Sure, accidentally making money is great, but spending so much time pursuing more when I already seem to have reached the limit of what’s possible with money (apart from owning big luxuries that I think I can live without) is just nuts. when there seems no more satisfaction to be had.
Sure, everyone probably thinks, as the book says, that they are the only ones who are different that money really does buy happiness, but I’m not willing to bet 15 years of my life on that.
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First posted 2010-05-31 23:22:55.
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