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The hardest part of this type of journey is realizing you don’t need money to be happy or feel contentment. It may not make sense right now, but you may spend

The hardest part of this type of journey is realizing you don’t need money to be happy or feel contentment. It may not make sense right now, but you may spend the next decade or so chasing money to get to a point of contentment only to realize that you’re chasing after money because you think it’s going to give you peace. The turn is when you figure out money doesn’t give you peace. Contentment, happiness are choices. They aren’t milestones that can be achieved, or goals to be met. They are choices just like choosing what color shirt to wear in the morning. Source: myself who has been terribly poor, and eventually wealthy. I’d rather have back the lost decades of career and status chasing than any of the money I gained.

b20000 5y ago
the main issue is that housing costs money no matter where you live in the westernized world.
1270018080 5y ago
Not working would make me very content. I'm going to need money for that.
onpensionsterm 5y ago
So if you become content with your money and then find you have medical or retirement bills that your contentment failed to plan for, what happens next? Do you choose to be happy about foreclosure? Money is the thing that frees up your time and mental bandwidth for what matters.
caente 5y ago
> It may not make sense right now, but you may spend the next decade or so chasing money to get to a point of contentment only to realize that you’re chasing after money because you think it’s going to give you peace. The turn is when you figure out money doesn’t give you peace. it does give me peace, it relaxes me to know my son will have food and shelter. That we'll be able to pay for learning resources and fun things. It helps to know that, if things get a bit rough, we will have some money to hold on until things get better. It relaxes me to know that if any of us get sick, we'll be able to pay the bills... hopefully.
toto444 5y ago
> I’d rather have back the lost decades of career and status chasing than any of the money I gained. You're not the first person I read writing something like this on HN. I have always thought of this situation as something that only happens in movies. As someone who is going through a mid life crisis, reading what your comment breaks my heart. I miss the fun I had in my twenties and I had a lot of it. I just was not fully aware of the chance I had.
Sohcahtoa82 5y ago
> The hardest part of this type of journey is realizing you don’t need money to be happy or feel contentment. No, but you need to it to survive. Invariably, I find the "You don't need money to be happy" crowd is nearly always people who have enough money that they don't have to worry about money. "Being happy with what you have" only really works once a certain minimum is reached. If you never have more than one paycheck's worth of money in your account, trying to figure out how you can live off of $2/day for food, then you're going to have a hard time being happy with that.

b20000 5y ago

the main issue is that housing costs money no matter where you live in the westernized world.

1270018080 5y ago

Not working would make me very content. I'm going to need money for that.

onpensionsterm 5y ago

So if you become content with your money and then find you have medical or retirement bills that your contentment failed to plan for, what happens next? Do you choose to be happy about foreclosure? Money is the thing that frees up your time and mental bandwidth for what matters.

caente 5y ago

> It may not make sense right now, but you may spend the next decade or so chasing money to get to a point of contentment only to realize that you’re chasing after money because you think it’s going to give you peace. The turn is when you figure out money doesn’t give you peace. it does give me peace, it relaxes me to know my son will have food and shelter. That we'll be able to pay for learning resources and fun things. It helps to know that, if things get a bit rough, we will have some money to hold on until things get better. It relaxes me to know that if any of us get sick, we'll be able to pay the bills... hopefully.

toto444 5y ago

> I’d rather have back the lost decades of career and status chasing than any of the money I gained. You're not the first person I read writing something like this on HN. I have always thought of this situation as something that only happens in movies. As someone who is going through a mid life crisis, reading what your comment breaks my heart. I miss the fun I had in my twenties and I had a lot of it. I just was not fully aware of the chance I had.

Sohcahtoa82 5y ago

> The hardest part of this type of journey is realizing you don’t need money to be happy or feel contentment. No, but you need to it to survive. Invariably, I find the "You don't need money to be happy" crowd is nearly always people who have enough money that they don't have to worry about money. "Being happy with what you have" only really works once a certain minimum is reached. If you never have more than one paycheck's worth of money in your account, trying to figure out how you can live off of $2/day for food, then you're going to have a hard time being happy with that.