Living for wealth and missing out on life

[Winston]

I'd like to share this chapter I read in Darryl Sloan's book "Reality Check", which you can get at http://www.darrylsloan.com

Page 164

The wealth virus

The reason why it’s so easy to become materialistic is because
of the value we place on material. But what is the material
universe? It’s just a frequency your consciousness is tuned to.
It has no more solidity than a videogame. The pursuit of wealth
in the real world is the same in principle as scoring points in a
videogame. In life you can use your wealth to buy a new car; in
a game, when you accrue enough points, you might have the
choice of equipping your game character with a variety of
164

power-ups. The game ends, and the points vanish. Likewise,
life ends, and all contact with your wealth is gone forever.
Oh, sure, your wealth still exists in the world, and you may
feel a sense of satisfaction in leaving it to your sons and
daughters when you die. But let’s take a look at the way of life
you’re perpetuating. You’re born; you have a few years in which
to enjoy a childhood; then the business of making money
begins. At some point, you may get married and start a family.

Instead of enjoying your money sensibly whilst looking after
your family, the system dictates that you must make more and
more money, to invest in your children’s futures. So you work
harder and harder, thinking about your kids needing cars and
college later on. Now there is no room left for you to have a
life of your own – to pursue things you want to do. This kind
of altruism sounds commendable on the surface. But in living
like this, what are you really offering your kids? A chance to
live in exactly the same way you’re doing – to have a brief
childhood followed by a long life of slavery to the system, as
they seek to do for their own children what you did for them.

In principle it’s good to labour for your family’s future, but
it’s important that this doesn’t get out of control. When you
have a family, you can easily allow so much of your life to
revolve around preparation for the future instead of living in
the now. You become a slave to the future, never stopping to
realise that the future, being the future, never arrives. Wealth,
instead of being used for what it is – a means to an end –
becomes an insatiable monster that must be fed by you, then
by your sons, then by their sons, into infinity. Wealth itself
takes on more value than the lives that use it.

If we want to live a life that has any meaning, we need to
first have a life. And that means living in the now. The pursuit
of wealth turns you into a junkie to the future, always grasping
for what’s ahead and never stopping to enjoy what’s here. It
may sound selfish to claim the right to enjoy life in the now,
but if you deny that right to yourself, you perpetuate the system
that denies it to your children, too.

[momopi]

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... 28,00.html

[NorthAmericanguy]

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... 28,00.html

Funny how my goal is to generate 60k-70k worth of business and not much more unless it happens on its own because I really don't NEED anymore as a single, child free, FRUGAL guy.

I figure with 65k I can comfortably save for early retirement, take 1 trip out the country a year and pay all my bills Stateside.