Outlooks & Setbacks Saturdays
Challenges & Pitfalls
Does Money Solve Your Problems?
My husband and I were talking the other day about how our life would be different if we were rich. Sometimes we like to dream about what we would do, where we would live, and how we would like to positively impact the world if we had a lot of money.
I said that I would love to not have the stress that comes with money if we were rich…to which my husband made a very profound statement. He said, “money simply makes you more of what you already are. And you’re already a worrier, so if we had a ton of money, you would just worry about other things.”
My first gut response was to disagree with him, because what could there be to stress out about when you have a lot of money. But then I realized that he was right. There are just different (and arguably bigger) things to worry about when you have a lot of money to manage.
It’s things like family feeling like they have a right to your money, or pressure to give to every cause out there. It’s things like taxes and managing your money effectively when you have a lot…there are a lot of things to “worry” about when you have a lot of money.
So it really made me think that money doesn’t solve everything - it’s not a fix-all for everything that is wrong in your life. Sure, let’s be honest - having a lot of money definitely solves SOME problems. Like you wouldn’t have to worry about having enough to buy groceries or pay for basic living expenses. So it does help to solve some things…but it definitely is not a one-stop-shop to fix everything that is wrong in your life.
The moral of the story is that money is important in our world today and it provides a lot of opportunities that are (nearly) impossible without it..but it won’t suddenly make everything good in your life. That’s work that you have to do…whether you have a lot of money or not.