Why don't I make more money? Why can't I save more money?
It is easy to become angry when we see that others have more than us, or when it feels as if our personal finance plans have stalled due to either a lay off, pay freeze, unexpected rise in one of your living expenses (if the landlord raises rent, for example), etc.
When we feel frantic and angry about the state of our finances, and feel that we need to grow our wealth and earn money quickly, it can lead to shortcuts. It can lead to taking on too much risk in the stock market -- or outright gambling, desperation, forgetting our core values.
It is important to build wealth in a way that won't seem bad to us when we look back on our journey a few years from now. It's not a race. Comparing yourself to anyone else, whether it be a neighbor, classmate, or even a billionaire, is not effective. Every person's experience is profoundly different; compare your finances to a friend's is like comparing an apple to a full moon. It doesn't make sense.
You may feel that you don't have enough money right now, and that anger can be used for good rather than evil. Maybe that anger will motivate you to go back to school, or to finally launch your small business so you can give your two weeks' notice at work, or to invest in something you believe in... to take measured and appropriate risks.
I certainly get pissed off at times when friends my age seem to have much more than I do: better jobs, more money in the bank, extravagant vacations whenever they want.
But then I remind myself that comparing my experience to a friend's is pointless. Although I may want a friend's money, I certainly wouldn't want to trade my character, my past experiences, or my personality with anyone else on Earth.
And when I compare where I am today with where I was financially four or five years ago, there is no doubt that I am making huge strides forward. I am no longer in debt. I now live frugally and buy only what I need. Although I feel like I'm not moving fast enough toward my $1,000,000 goal, I do have some money in the bank -- an incredible feeling, even if it's far less than what I need to be comfortable or to quit my day job.
I am going to continue working hard, continue living well below my means, and continue to enjoy all that life has to offer in the present -- a nice restaurant once per week, dating, exercising, occasionally watching the sunset or going for a jog around the Central Park loop -- so that if I get hit by a bus or become ill tomorrow, all of my personal finance discipline will not have been totally in vain.
I want to be frugal and aggressive about acquiring money and building my net worth, but I don't want to miss out on what life has to offer right now, today. It's a tricky balance.
Outlaw
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