The Desire to Have Money

[Kiwi Mustache]

I have this deep rooted desire to make money. I love learning about ways on how to save more, how to invest better, etc. I just want the feeling of being wealthy. I really enjoy ways to make money and it is almost like a game, that I like to play and win.

However, I don't really desire anything major to spend it on. I don't want a flash house, nice car or boat.

Do you desire money just to have it? Many of my friends dream that if they had a million dollars, they would buy x, y and z. However, I'm happy to just have the million sitting there with no need to spend it.

[Bucksandreds]

Pretty sure that you'll get the vast majority of your responses being financial security is the driver of their mustachianism. We tend to reject most types of consumerism.

[Exflyboy]

Right.. a Million dollars in a 50:50 stock:bond portfolio will provide a maximum of $40,000 per year safely.

If you need $40k a year to live on then saving a million bucks will mean you never need a job.. $40k a year is not the lifestyle of the rich and famous of course, that's just living normally including paying for your own health care if you live in the US.

So if your friends get to that point and start making lavish purchases (fancy foreign cars, boats etc) they won't have that million dollars for long.. Or perhaps they will, but they will have to continue to keep working to pay for insurance, mooring fees etc... I.e they won't have financial freedom.

[Kiwi Mustache]

But do you desire money just because you want more of it?

[Holyoak]

I enjoy tending to my stash, thinking what good it might do as an endowment, helping my daughter fulfill her ambitions some day, etc...  As with you, and at a mil-four, I have absolutely no desire to buy anything but the basics, and I have never had less stuff in my life.  Money to me is a freedom cushion, a buffer between potentially bad things (major health issue), and a tool of living in a $$$ driven system where I need very little.

I use it to test, keep a check on my true self; the one who never sold out, compromised just because I had a little coin, giving the raspberry to consumerism, where the paradox is I could buy all the stuff so many folks covet.  I have been dirt poor, and although I never want to be there again, you could exponentially compound my stache, and I'd remain the same.  Funny to how I see folks who constantly complain about $$$ spend $60 for a store bought sheet cake, $27 bottles of hair spray, high cost lunches everyday, huge cell plans...  Yep, they would be just as broke, only they would have bigger toys to have to have repoed. 

[Bucksandreds]

But do you desire money just because you want more of it?

I would take a Billion dollars if you gave it to me but I only want to work to get enough where I am not a slave to my job.  The desire for the accumulation of power over others and possession of goods in the form of money is probably much lower here than the general population.

[morning owl]

My goals do not centre around having more and more money. My goals centre around having more freedom. Money happens to help out with that goal. But it's just a means to an end. It's not the whole shebang. People can be very wealthy and not free -- so more money doesn't equal more freedom. But as I get older, I realize that having some money does buy a certain degree of freedom.

[FatCat]

I value my time more than my money. If I won a million dollars I would put it into investments of either stocks, bonds, or income producing assets so that I could live off that instead of working. I would be essentially using the money to buy my free time back. I strongly dislike having to be on an 8 to 5 schedule with someone else bossing me around until I'm so old that I don't have the interest or health to do the things I want to do.

I don't have strong aspirational goals for having money or assets. Money and assets provide a means to my true goals of time off and freedom to pursue my own interests.

Having more and more money would make me feel more and more secure in my freedom, so in that respect I would like it.

But the idea of saving lots of money, while continuing to work until standard retirement age, not buying extra luxuries with it, while just saving it up to see my net worth go up? What's the point? To leave a huge inheritance for someone else? I've seen people do that. I'll pass.

[Exflyboy]

But do you desire money just because you want more of it?

I don't have to work (I am ER'd), but heck, they keep throwing outrageous sums of money and airmiles, hotel points etc at me... so I'll take the job.. short term projects since last September.

So why do I work occasionally?.. Yes I like the money!.. I like seeing my stash grow!

So yes I desire more of it, for the pure thrill of seeing the that total number get bigger....

In a year's time my Wife will quit and as Arebelspy pointed out, at that time my priorities will probably change and we'll try actually living off the stash and not work anymore..:)

[okits]

Wealth accumulation is a game to you, and money is just the way you keep score.  I don't think that's a very common outlook, to be honest. For me, I desire money to buy freedom and feel secure.

[Ricky]

I believe you're headed on a one way road to burnout if you continue this thinking. Working for money in itself is about the most empty thing I can think of doing.

[lostamonkey]

I also see it as a game but my objective for playing the game is to achieve freedom from my job. I enjoy seeing my "paper assets" rise in value and I love hitting new net worth benchmarks.

[Rural]

Money is a tool. A change in the amount of money on an order of magnitude may very well change the things that you can accomplish with your tools. I can think of a number of cases where that kind of "more money" would be worthwhile. But it's not something that's worthwhile in a vacuum. What are you going to use the money for? Why do you have the tool in the first place?

[daverobev]

From one of the David Eddings books.. one character, Silk, talks about money not being the point per se, but about being a way of keeping score.

I kind've liked that. But people like that are self made, entrepreneurs - if you set Richard Branson back to $0 he'd likely be a millionaire again in a couple of years.

For the rest of us.. well, I guess some (me) worry and penny pinch a bit too much because I don't like seeing the money going out.

I'm working on that. That's happened over the last few years as I've gone from a steady job to contract/part time.. makes it much more real when the question is "where is the next chunk of income coming from?" - and this is despite having "enough" to retire on (frugally).

[arebelspy]

But do you desire money just because you want more of it?

No.  I don't care about money.  It's just a tool.  Once I have enough, what does more get me?

Let's say I need a hammer.  I get one.  Maybe a second as a backup.  Maybe a sledgehammer, maybe a rubber mallet.  At that point, I'm pretty set.  If someone said "Want 100 more hammers, just for the sake of owning hammers?" The answer is no.  I get no value out of "more" hammers.

Money is a tool in the same way.  What does "more" give me once I have enough?

So any excess money I have will go to charity.  I have no need or desire for it.

A quote I have in my Good Quotes file, from E-R.org years ago:

Yes I could stay work more years and earn more money.  And I could breathe twice as fast and soak up twice as much oxygen.  I think at some point, one has "enough" and just doesn't need anymore.  I am not really into accumulating stuff, and we're happy with what we have.  There are few things that I would rather spend money on than my freedom.

[Schaefer Light]

But do you desire money just because you want more of it?

Personally, I desire money because it would give me more freedom.

[MrsPete]

No, money isn't the goal.  I don't care to have money so I can say to myself, "I have X amount". 

Rather, I value money because it represents security.  I want to know that I will not go without things I need -- and by that I don't mean restaurant meals or a nicer car.  I mean I want to know that I can always pay my electrical bill, go to the doctor or the grocery store, or whatever.  I want to know that I'll always be able to take care of myself. 

[Sid Hoffman]

Working for money in itself is about the most empty thing I can think of doing.

Well it could be worse.  You could be addicted to AdVenture Capitalist where you pretend to work, it pretends to pay you, and the only thing that is for sure is the hours you never get back.  :D

Still, actually as a casual gamer myself, I like the gaming analogy.  I finally created a major spreadsheet for past analysis & tracking as well as future projections last year and have been using that as my score card, if you want to call it that.  It actually helps to keep the slow march towards FI somewhat exciting, as I can bring up the spreadsheet and update the numbers after each paycheck and see the crucial numbers (dollars saved per year) moving in the right direction, even if the total savings may go up or down based on market swings.

[arebelspy]

Working for money in itself is about the most empty thing I can think of doing.

Well it could be worse.  You could be addicted to AdVenture Capitalist where you pretend to work, it pretends to pay you, and the only thing that is for sure is the hours you never get back.  :D

That looks like they just stole the cookie clicker idea/model.

[Jeremy E.]

If I had a million dollars, I would start a Custom Car and Boat shop with my dad, I'd spend a lot of money on building a huge nice shop (i'd do a lot of the work building it myself) and I'd buy a bunch of expensive used and new, but priced well, quality equipment and tools. I'm thinking this probably isn't very mustachian, but it's maybe a little bit more like buying an "experience" rather than consumerism sucka goods? But I definitely enjoy trying to find as many ways to save money as possible.