Daily Blog #253
This has always been somewhat of a difficult topic for me. It may turn into a full on rant, but hear me out.
Normally, I am the type of person who is incredibly… oh what’s the word that I am looking for… “stingy” with their money. I mean, I like making money, I like spending money, and I love the idea of making even more money than I am currently making. The only issue is that when it comes to spending money, I don’t necessarily enjoy spending my own.
I started out on my personal development journey as a way to not only help and test myself, but also as a way to help and test others. When I first started writing, I told myself that this is what I wanted to be doing with my life, but that I didn’t want to do it for the wrong reasons. I was going to live my best life, I was going to follow all of my dreams, and I was going to help inspire others to do the same.
At the same time, though, I was also telling myself that money is evil. I was telling myself that writing and inspiring others was my passion, and that if I wanted to prove that, then I could earn absolutely zero income from it. But is this the right way to look at it? Does money make us evil? Is it wrong to want more money? These are some of the questions that hesitated me from ever accepting any money through writing.
Recently, I have been reading the book, You Are A Badass at Making Money: Master the Mindset of Wealth by one of my favorite authors, Jen Sincero. The more that I dive into this book, the more I realize that money itself isn’t bad. It is what we, as humans, choose to do with money that can make it seem bad.
Let’s say for example that your dream is to help the homeless, and end world hunger. If this is you, then wanting more and more money should be something that you focus on. Why? Because you can’t give what you don’t have. You can’t take care of others if you are first not able to take care of yourself.
If you want to help the homeless, then your main objective is going to be providing the homeless with shelter. If you want to end world hunger, then your main objective is going to be providing the hungry with food. If you want to give to charities, then your main objective is going to be providing the charities with money. See where I am going with this? Regardless of how small or big your dreams are, you are going to need money.
Some of my many dreams in life are to travel the world, help to raise awareness for mental illness, move to New York, Boston, or Hawaii (or maybe all three), and simply live the best life that I can possibly live. I want to continue to write, and I just want to be able to feel free and do whatever it is that I want to be doing. Despite the fact that making more money is not a dream of mine, it does provide me with the freedom and resources to help and make my dreams become a reality..
On the other hand, if you want to make money just for the sake of having more in your bank account than your friends, then yes, money can become harmful. But it isn’t the money itself that is becoming harmful, it is your mentality of saving it just to have more than others that makes it harmful. It is what you are doing (or lack thereof) with money that makes it wrong to want more.
Now I know that some people (my family) are really going to rip into me for saying that. I save everything. If I find a quarter on the ground, I admit that I will probably pick it up and place it in my coin jar. Yes, a quarter, even when I have enough saved up to last me years.
But I can also admit that the reason that I saved so much was because I allowed fear to control my emotions. I saved for so long because I feared of something catastrophic happening. I saved so long because I feared of losing my job. And I saved for so long so that someday, I would be able to pursue my dreams while being financially stable. While this was not necessarily me being greedy, it is also not the right mindset to have when it comes to money.
So, to answer the questions earlier of does money make us evil or is it wrong to want more money?, I personally believe the answer to be no. I believe that money can be both good and bad, it simply depends on who is in possession of it. As long as you are not greedy with money, as long as you want to do good with money, and as long as you do not allow money to define who you are as a person, then no, money is not evil, nor is it wrong to want more of.
I’m just going to go ahead and say it: I LOVE MONEY. I’m not sorry for admitting that, rather, I feel somewhat relieved. I like the fact that money can help me to turn my dreams into a reality. I like the fact that with money, I can continue to write, I can continue to travel, and I can live the life that I have always wanted to live; a life where I am my own boss. And the best part is, because I want more money, and because I believe that I deserve more money, I have every ability to make more money.
Despite what you may think, and despite what you may have been told, money is not evil. Right now, the world could use some more good, and money can help with that. You deserve money, you deserve for your dreams to become your reality, and you deserve to be happy. Believe in yourself, follow your dreams, and strive to do good in the world.
Michael Bonnell
1/8/2018
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