“The Psychology of money” is a book authored by Morgan Housel. The book shows how the personal finance is connected more deeply with behaviors and psychology than with numbers themselves.
Today we will look at one of my most favorite lessons from the book: Freedom
We seldom come across the lines : Money does not matter and it cannot buy happiness. I have always maintained that these are the lines devised by some losers who were unable to succeed in making money. It is just like the story of the fox who could not get the grapes and later consoled himself by saying that the Grapes are Sour.
I am not saying that we should run after money blindly. I am not saying that money can buy everything. There are numerous things where money alone cannot stand the ground.
But there is one thing that money can buy for us and it is really worth working for that. Money can buy us TIME. Money can buy us freedom.
‘Time is Money’: These words are so true that I cant even begin to explain. Money may not be able to buy us happiness. But it can buy time. Time to do whatever our heart desires. Time to spend time with family. Time to spend time with your kids. Time to explore the world.
To quote the book :
“The ability to do what you want, when you want and with whom you want, for as long as you want is priceless. It is the highest divided the money can pay”
We cannot deny the truth in these lines… can we … 🙂
The greatest intrinsic value of money is its ability to give us control over our time. If we have a small amount of wealth, we can take a few days off while we are sick without breaking the bank. In case we are fired, we could actually wait a few days for a better opportunity as we would have an adequate amount of emergency fund to take care of us.
Our mind needs to keep working It needs to be busy. Thats the reason why even billionaires who don’t need money still work. But their reason of working is different from the majority of the population.
If today, you were told that you don’t have to work and all your requirements are fulfilled, you will be elated. You will feel happy for few days but after those few days of euphoria your mind will automatically desire to do something. You will be back to work. But this time things will be different. This time you are working because you want to work and you love the work and not because you are forced to work for making the money.
Working for money and working for your heart are completely two different things. When we are working for sole purpose of earning, you are a slave. There is a difference between a maid cooking at someones house and a high end chef working in a hotel. The maid is working for survival. The chef is working with his heart exploring new dishes, trying new recipes.
Similarly consider us cooking daily to eat food and cooking occasionally to try a new recipe. These 2 are different things. In one case we have no other choice as we need it to satisfy our hunger while in other we are doing with interest and fun.
Money is one of the most desirable thing by any man. And seldom, people have destroyed their lives chasing it and when they actually found it, it did not give them the pleasure they expected. Again, it is because of the thing called ‘Time’. People end up sacrificing their time to make the money.
Money, no doubt, should not be chased blindly and no doubt it cannot buy all the happiness in the world. But the one thing that it can buy i.e freedom is worth working hard for it.
Also Read:
1 thought on “Great lessons from the book : The Psychology of Money”