No doubt you have heard of the saying The Best Things In Life Are Free… it is quoted a lot by a lot of people. But it’s a load of old codswallop. It simply is not true.
People who generally say it are trying to make peace with the fact that they have no money and that their life is hard. They use these quotes to hide behind. Like a mask made of philosophical sound bites.
Yes, walking along a moonlit beach holding the hand of your soul mate or seeing the first smile from your newborn child are magical and beautiful moments which cost nothing… at that time.
But without money, there will be very few other moments to cherish.
Would your wife or husband still want to take moonlit beach walks with you after 20 years of constant poverty and struggle which could have been avoided with a little money?
Would your wife and husband have become your spouse if you had not invested time and money into the relationship with them?
Would your child still be smiling if they had no bed to sleep in or had to go to bed hungry because you couldn’t afford to put food in its belly?
The answer to the above questions would be a resounding NO!
I’ll tell you what is free… poverty and suffering.
Sleeping rough on a park bench is free.
Roaming from bin to bin looking for food is free.
It costs nothing to become poor and struggle with poverty.
Well, it is financially free, but poverty and struggle costs you your dignity, your confidence and both your physical and mental health.
Very few ‘good’ things in our modern world are free.
And even if you find the smile of a poor street urchin in a third world country beautiful and something which money can’t buy… (even though money – yours or someone else’s – got you to that destination in the first place) I am sure they would choose to not live in poverty over the knowing that you found their smile nourishing to your soul and enjoy sharing the story with others over brunch back in Blighty while they still live with struggle.
Money is a tool. Nothing more, more nothing less.
And like all tools, it was designed to make life easier and better.
Unlike a hammer or a saw which were developed to make one specific job easier, money can make a whole range of different things easier and better.
Money is the ultimate tool.
It buys food, it buys water, it buys shelter and it buys fuel and power.
Money helps feed us, it helps to shelter us and it helps us to keep clean and see in the dark. It is the most useful tool known to man.
And when money pays for basic survival needs like food and shelter, it reduces stress and anxiety.
Money makes people less stressed, and being less stressed makes people more happy.
Having money reduces many daily stresses people have to deal with.
The lack of money in today’s society causes a lot more stress and anxiety than having money. Very few people with money suffer the same kind of stress people living in poverty have to deal with.
I am not going to say that money makes everyone happy. Even multimillionaires can feel sad and depressed and suffer from bouts of long term sadness. Those can be biological and physiological in nature or even from years of living a specific lifestyle such as enjoying excessive drink or drugs.
Depression and anxiety isn’t clear cut. There are many factors which can cause it.
However, having a lot of disposable money does take away a lot of other stressors and issues that other people suffer when they are low.
Being depressed and knowing that the rent is due and that you have bills to pay which you cannot afford adds to the situation and can push people over the edge which unfortunately can lead to some people committing suicide.
The sad thing about suicide is that it is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Too many good people sadly have taken their own lives all because they had financial problems.
Having money gives comfort and gives a person peace of mind. Even at their lowest point, whether they realise it or not and do not feel it, having money can make their suffering less severe.
Living a life without money is not a happy life.
Life is hard when you do not have money. If you need a holiday but cannot afford it, how do you feel?
If you fancy going out with friends for a meal and a few drinks but cannot afford it, how do you feel?
If you have been invited to a wedding by a close friend but cannot afford to hire the suit and the hotel room hire for the night, how do you feel?
The best thing in life is a life of memories and experiences.
Without money, you will have very few new and lasting memories to cherish.
- Do you remember that time when you went snowboarding in the Alps during your six week tour of France? No? Why not?
- I didn’t do it because I couldn’t afford it.
- Do you remember that long hike through the Peruvian jungle to the ancient abandoned mountain top city Machu Picchu? No? Why not?
- I didn’t do it because I couldn’t afford it.
- Do you remember that time when you… oh wait, nevermind.
A life without money is no fun at all. If you are not earning much through your job and life is a struggle then it is imperative that you have a second income.
You owe it to yourself and your family.
Money is not the root to all evil. It really isn’t.
It is a shame that money has such a bad reputation. The money itself is not bad, it is the people who do bad things to acquire more money who are bad. As mentioned before, money is just a tool. It is completely neutral.
But unfortunately, people see those who have a lot of money as selfish, greedy and often evil. You only have to look at the big Hollywood films to see how the wealthy are portrayed. Bruce Wayne in Batman is probably the only best known billionaire philanthropist who is on the side of good.
All other multi-millionaires and billionaires are either gangsters or they are trying to take over the world, start a war or destroy civilization. James Bond has had more punch ups with billionaires and their henchmen than he has with honest down to earth hard working tax paying civilians.
Do you see what I did there? That is how people are perceived differently in the media.. And by people in general.
Mega wealthy people = selfish and greedy megalomaniacs with a messiah complex.
Average Joe public = honest, down to earth, and hard working tax paying person.
Times are changing a little, with Instagram influencers, shows on MTV like MTV Cribs, The Real Wives Of Dullsville, and musicians making millions and proudly showing it without wanting to destroy society, the idea that money is the root to all evil is slowly changing.
In fact, the real quote I believe is ‘the love of money is the root of all evil’, and even then, it is not referring to money itself.
A poor man who wishes above all else to be mega wealthy may do more harm to people to acquire wealth than a wealthy and compassionate man who wants to use his money to alleviate the suffering of others.
Sometimes money can do a lot more good than time.
Many wealthy people donate money to charitable causes and help open up schools and hospitals in areas of the world where there are none. They do this because they want to and not because it helps to avoid paying taxes as many cynical ‘anti-wealthy socialist types’ will tell you.
There is no harm in trying to earn and make as much money as you can. It is a must. You must try and generate as much money as you can without killing yourself or others for it. Money can give you and your family a better life.
And if you have much spare, you can use it to help others if you wish.
People in general love to help others and it feels great when you do something good for someone who is in a less fortunate situation. If it feels good, why not do it some more? Make more money and help people on a regular basis.
Many people love to volunteer and donate their time, which is wonderful and many charities need volunteers, but when you volunteer an hour or two of your time, you can only help a few people out. If, however, you donated a million pounds to a charity, you pay for a lot more people to help a lot more people.
The money you donate amplifies the help you can give.
How much food would a thousand pound donation buy compared to volunteering an hour or two of your time each month?
I am not saying that volunteering or donating time is worthless or useless, far from it. It is vital to many charities but I want you to realise that money can do a lot of good.
And why is that?
Because money is a tool. A universal tool which can help a lot of people all at the same time.
Money is a necessity and it is one that you should understand more if you want to avoid hardships and have a better life.
If you believe either or both of these statements…
Money is the root to all evil…
The best things in life are free…
You need to stop and spend some time looking into your opinions on money and how they may actually be holding you back.
Myths about money could be preventing you from earning more.
Another myth about money is that you get paid proportionally to the amount of time you work.
This too is not true.
A person can be paid tens of thousands or earn tens of thousands of pounds for doing something which takes a few days or even just a few hours. All because of the results that work delivers.
It doesn’t matter how little time it took them to complete the work or whether they broke out into a sweat or not. What matters is what results come from the work done… not how long it took them.
There are many jobs and careers which can have you earning a lot more money per hour than other people. If you are struggling for money and life is hard then instead of trying to be happy with your lot, figure out a way which will allow you to earn more for doing less.
Now imagine that you earned £1,800 a month from your job and that your living costs for the month come to £1,500. Imagine that it was only you and that you did not have a second income coming in from a partener. You will be left with just a few hundred to play with each month.
That can soon be eaten up.
Now imagine getting a puncture in your car tyre and your washing machine packs up in the same month. Similar things have happened to me at the same time. Some months have been incredibly costly.
This is when life becomes hard and each month becomes a struggle. It is hard to bounce back when your money starts to dip down into your unarranged overdraft and credit cards.
This is where you need that extra money. But it takes a whole month for you to earn £1,800 through your job. That is 160 hours of constant work.
What do you do now?
Find a way to earn more by doing less.
What you need to do is find a way to make money which will pay you a lot more for doing a lot less.
One example of a seriously well paid job is writing sales letters for businesses.
Imagine that you were able to write a sales letter which you charged business £1,000 for, and it only took you a couple of evenings to do.
How good would that be for you and your life?
After a couple of evenings of work you have already earned more than half of your monthly income.
That is on top of your normal job.
What if you were able to charge more for your work?
Some sales letter writers charge upto £30,000 per sales letter. We are getting into the territory of the seriously good professional sales letter writers, but there is nothing to say that you cannot charge £2,000 maybe £3,000 for a sales letter… as long as it is good of course.
Now you have earned more than your monthly income by doing only one job which took maybe a few evenings.
What is stopping you from doing a couple of sales letter writing jobs per month? Maybe more?
That money would make a huge difference to your life. And it would have taken you less time to do than other jobs.
You could work in a bar or restaurant in an evening for less than £10 an hour, or you can find a skillset which has you earning hundreds or thousands per hour.
Life can be hard.
Having no spare money is hard.
There is very little you can do when you do not have any spare money.
The best things in life are NOT free… they cost money.
It is imperative that you find a way to make more money without a lot of long and hard work.