"Saving Money versus Using Money"
or
"Living Richly or Living Poorly - You Choose"
It's easy to see people who save money, may have quite a bit saved and yet live poor or maybe more accurately live poorly.
How is that?
I used to know some people in a coffee club. A group of men who would get together at a local cafe to drink coffee, have a bite to eat and share conversation. They were businessmen, salesmen, attorneys, small business owners who had enough income to provide them with comfortable lifestyles.
One of them was maybe what we consider "rich". He had a lot more money than the others. He had saved and invested his money wisely. He was also so cheap he wouldn't pick up the tab for coffee. He worried about money - a lot. He focused on collecting money and had amassed quite a bit.
He was good at saving money but not good at using money, at least not when it came to using it for living or helping others. He was one unhappy camper, thinking about how he might lose his money took up most of his time. The other members of the group on the other hand used their time and money to enrich their lives and the lives of others. Simple things like going fishing (taking the time to go fishing), attending a play or musical performance, keeping up a vacation cottage, buying a boat, traveling, vacationing with their children and later in life helping them through school and donating time or money to schools and churches.
Not too long ago I was at a professional sporting event and had a good view of the owners box. The owner was sitting by himself looking quite unhappy and lonely...at least to me. How weird that is to "own" the team, have a ton of money and have to sit by yourself. Maybe whoever he invited just didn't show up that night. I'd think he would know a lot of people in the stadium he could invite into his box though...my point is I wouldn't automatically assume the guys driving the fancy cars in fancy suits have any more happiness than you or me.
My viewpoints on money and material things, are colored of course by my perspective -
I have a personal understanding of the disconnect between money and happiness from my childhood. Big houses don't make people happy.
I believe that God will look out for me. I don't believe I have the power to know what will happen to me in the next 20 or 30 years or for that matter the next 20 or 30 minutes. I understand that what we think is going to happen may be completely turned upside down in an instant ala hurricane Katrina, the loss of a loved one or discovery of a terminal illness. Any plans I make have to work for me in the possible scenario of loss of material things, my own life and loved ones. I can't wait for tomorrow to start my life.
I've been around enough entrepenurial people to understand that using money is critical if you want to make money.
I've been around enough people who grabbed the gusto from life to know that worrying about money (or anything else) is not going to help. Let it flow let it go. It will work out...
I have an abundance mentality. I think there is enough to go around. If I can give or buy you a drink or lunch or dinner I will. My family and friends are the same.
Having an abundance mentality doesn't mean that you think there is an unlimited supply of material goods or money at hand. Rather that there are enough non-material things; love, care, attention, sprituality. In addition there are enough critical material things; money, food, clothing, shelter, to go around. A person living in a hut in India may very well have an abundance mentality and be perfectly happy...because they have enough, and understand that a heck of a lot better than we do in our materialistic world view. I'm not talking about the extremely poor who don't have the basics of life, the lowest level of needs on Maslow's hierarchy of needs - food, shelter and appropriate clothing.
It's interesting to consider the hierarchy of needs on Maslow's pyramid. The only one that has to do with money/material things is at the bottom. You need money to obtain food, shelter and clothing. Once you start to move up the pyramid, to self-actualization, the needs for Safety, Love/Belonging, and Esteem have little to do with material things. Not to say they are totally unrelated.
You can find some connection between the higher levels and material things. One example would be to consider being poor and living in a dangerous neighborhood making it impossible to feel safe.
You could also make an argument for an inverse relationship between the higher levels of the pyramid and material wealth. You're more likely to get car-jacked in a BMW than a Pinto. Love/Belonging might be harder to find for people who are so busy with careers and gathering of material things than for people living a simpler life. If your esteem involves keeping up with the neighbors purchases it's a tough road in the good old U.S.A. land of the giant shopping mall.
If you have spent time with people we consider "poor" I think you might buy in to the latter argument that money can't buy you safety, self-esteem, love, happiness, a life or a personality.
Some time ago I was riding in a nice vehicle owned by a woman I know. One of her coworkers (who had essentially the same income as my friend) asked her how she could afford such a vehicle? She told her she had taken out a loan.
You have two people with similar incomes. One driving a junky old car that tended to break down the other a nice big vehicle she could use for her own and her family's pleasure. No problem if you like to drive and fix old cars when they break down as some of us do. It is a problem if you are driving an old beater car not by choice but because you think you are forced to ie. you are too cheap to buy a new or better car, complain about how unreliable the car is and more importantly if you are bitter or envious of others because of you have an old car.
Here we have two people with similar incomes; one who lived poorly when it came not only to transportation, but also food, housing and clothing, and another who didn't. The one who lived poorly envious of the other, but still in their own mind superior for not having any debt.
I'm not suggesting anyone over extend their credit, only that money be used rather than amassed solely for a rainy day that may never come. People who are sucessful at business understand this concept. People who are able to travel, take vacations, help others, provide their children with computers, education, books, experiences that cost money...understand this.
Investing for the future doesn't necessarily mean investing money with the hope of amassing more money. I would be less concerned about having a perfectly planned retirement than I would be if I got to retirement and figured out I never had a life. I'd like to invest money so in the future I can have interesting stories to tell my grandkids. I'd also like to invest money on my kids futures via education so they can be active vital contributing members of society...rather than saving up a nest egg for me to use when I'm too damn old to enjoy it.
If no one borrowed money Detroit would have gone out of business long ago. For the most part we wouldn't have homes, farms, or businesses since those all depend on credit at some time or another.
Assume you were very careful with your money. You keep it tightly held while your children grow up. Need a video camera to record a birthday or a vacation? Better wait until video cameras get to the price you think is "best". Maybe your children would benefit from having a computer when they are four, five, six, seven, eight, nine....years old. You decide to wait for that computer or video camera to get to the price you think is "best". The problem is they never get to a best price. The price continues to go down and you can easily end up with a lot of missed irreplaceable opportunities.
It's better to do things than have things (unless we are talking about having memories).
Saving money is wise. Using money even wiser.
