Money mindset shift

In my younger, more idealistic days, I would always say money doesn’t buy happiness. “Work just for money? Over my dead body!” I saw adults around me and was horrified of a potential future where just like them, I just worked soullessly in a job “just for the money”. Money felt dirty, wrong. Such is the arrogance—and ignorance—of youth. I didn’t know better.

But there’s something about becoming a father than changes things on a root level. Suddenly a young, fragile life that’s your blood, is totally dependent on your care. Then a global pandemic, coupled with lack of work, poor market, and being sole breadwinner. Stuff like that challenges those idealistic mindsets about money.

So now I know better. Money does buy happiness. For a lot of things. For 90% of things in life. Even the best things in life that’s can’t be bought with money can be enabled in a huge part by money. It gets you real close. All the things I want to do with my family now, the dreams I have that would make me truly, deeply, madly happy, needs money to happen. Travel, education, nice meals, classes. All money. Lots of it.

I see it now. I truly do.

And it’s not just scarcity of it that made my mindset shift, because that would mean once I have enough money again, I would fall back into the same thinking. No. It’s something more fundamental, about the moral value of money.

Before: “Money, bad. Money, dirty.”
Now: “Money, good. Money, happy.”

At 45, I guess it’s better late than never.