Does Always Thinking About Money Really Make Me Happy?
I
placed 2nd in a golf tournament and I received the trophy today. I was
so excited because I never won anything other than getting certificates
and ribbons before so it made me really happy to say the least. My
credit card balance, my next paycheck, the stock market tumbling all
didn’t matter seem to matter. As someone who always thought about money –
how to save more, how to earn more, how to accumulate more – this prompted the question “Does always thinking about money really make me happy?”The answer to the question is probably pretty complicated. On the one hand, the thoughts often stress me out unnecessarily. I certainly don’t need to worry about survival. My business is doing well, I have a substantial amount of savings and my overall debt load is small. In many ways, I’m probably too frugal. After all, money isn’t just for hoarding, so I should really live it up a little once in a while.
On the other hand, unexpected events can always happen. The economy can tank, the stock market may have many down years and my business income can be volatile. Furthermore, my expenses in the future will only go up as my family grows. Hopefully, my income will also increase but I can’t count on it to grow faster than the increased expenses. This means that I cannot just project the same savings that I do now indefinitely. Add to the fact that I’m still very far away from reaching my retirement goal since I’m so early in my wealth accumulation process, and I should try to save as much as I can, as early as I can just in case. There’s no such thing as saving too much right?
This is definitely a good problem to have but sometimes having choices can lead to confusion. This will probably be a question that I will ponder again and again through the years. In the meantime, I will be content with my first sports trophy ever.
How often do you think and worry about money? Do you think you are worrying too much? How do you deal with it?
