Money equals Freedom and Money can express Love:

Ego has so many forms, and one of the strangest and most misleading forms comes in the shape of humility. Often we feel that we should live a life of poverty or not take things for ourselves because that would be egotistical. But oddly, denying ourselves what life is offering us, just so we can hold onto our image of ourselves, is actually one of the most egotistical things we can do.

Recently, I had a discussion with a LinkedIn connection about the future of the world’s financial system. I had never physically met this connection so neither of us knew much about each other. During our conversation, I began to share some investments that I have interest in and I feel could be worth a lot in the future.

My LinkedIn connection told me that there is more to life than money and I should invest in people, especially family. It was a well-meaning comment, but it triggered me slightly because it suggests that I am a person who is solely interested in money and not in people, especially not in my family. I responded by saying that money equals freedom, to which my connection responded that I “clearly knew little about life”.

I understood my connections trail of thought, and I respect it, I used to think this way but recently I’ve changed my thoughts on money. We are all raised in a society where we grow up believing that money is evil, or that the pursuit of money is always at the expense of family, friends, and people in general.

As kids we are programmed this way by the books we read and the films we see, the bad guy is usually rich and the good guy is usually poor. As teenagers, we all love the bands that are “about the music man” and not about the money, when they finally go commercial; we say they “sold out”. This conditioning creates a feeling of guilt around money.

We live with this belief that somehow we are doing good by not earning or spending money, we are doing good for the world by just getting by. I’ve spent many years of my life looking to creep by with a humble existence and never seeking to make more than I deserve; if someone offered me a raise I’d nearly turn it down. I felt there was a virtue in being humble.

What do I have to show for it? I have bankrupt parents, a sick mother, I work nearly every day, I have friends who work all day, I hardly ever see these people, most of them are frustrated and sad with life, and I’ve made very little contribution to the world.

I’ve grown up with the phrase “you can’t have your cake and eat it” spoken to me repeatedly. Has there ever been a more stupid phrase that has sunk its way into the rhetoric of the common man? Why would anyone want cake if they can’t eat it? Why do we believe that we have to make a choice between money and love? Why can’t we have both? Why don’t we believe they both go hand in hand?

Most of us are trapped in jobs we don’t like but we accept. We are confined to geographical locations because we have to turn up to these workplaces 5 days a week. We get 2 days a week off from work, and one of those is spent worrying about Monday morning.

We only see our close friends and family a few times a year. And worst of all, most of us are broke!! Struggling to live from month to month. It all ends in retirement, where you get a pension that still doesn’t pay the bills, with a decaying body, and the next step is death. Does this sound like freedom?

And what about how we contribute to the world? Can we help out a friend who is struggling for cash? Can we pay off our parent's mortgage? Does our purchasing power contribute in a massive way to store owners and society in general?

Think about this, if you buy a second-hand car for $1000, is anyone really delighted with that sale? If you buy a car for $100000, you can be damn sure you’ve made someone’s day. Being rich doesn’t mean you hoard money, it means that you have more to give. Many wise people have said that money makes you more of what you are. If you are a giving, loving person, you’ll be exponentially more giving and loving when you have more money. If you are a greedy person, you’ll be even more greedy when you are rich.

If you are rich and have a passive source of income, you will have far more free time. You won’t need to be confined to one place at a certain time, trading time and life for money. If you are rich you will have free time to spend with your loved ones and to help them achieve freedom in their lives. If you are rich you can find a materialistic way to share love with so many people by helping them pay off a bill, giving to charity, tipping people some extra cash, or buying someone a present they’ve always dreamed of.

It’s very true to say that money isn’t everything and it certainly doesn’t make a good person, but it doesn’t stop a person from being good either. If you can learn the fundamental lessons that make a decent well-adjusted person then having a lot of money is only going to help you express your decency to the world. It will provide you with the freedom to express yourself, freedom to go where you want, the freedom to use time as you want, the freedom to spend time with your loved ones, the freedom to express your love for the people in your life without having to worry about the confines of just getting by.

Money equals freedom, and it can help you express love…

Barry Masterson