Life becomes more meaningful when the quality of life is given more importance than the than the materialistic aspects. For example, you can probably earn a relationship using the money, but you can’t buy the love. However, to a certain extent, the modern way of life has become a money making business. In many cases, love of money is the root of all evil. Money can make lots of things, such as education, retirement planning, health care, etc. in our life affordable. Money is definitely not everything, but it does play a crucial role in our lives.
Why money making business??
One important reason to pursue a career (say pursuing a PhD, or a job) is to earn a livelihood. How much money we actually earn out of a particular career is a subjective topic. For example, the money earned may vary from person to person, profession to profession, organisation to organisation, etc.
In this article, let’s discuss about the amount of money practically needed to sustain a meaningful and dignified life.
Love of Money is the Root of all Evil!
We should learn from the history. Alexander the Great was so much enthusiastic about accumulating the territories that he came up to the western part of India with the intention of conquering India. He was always undefeated in the battles, and had already conquered a vast amount of territories before coming to India. In India, on the bank of the Indus River, he had a chance to interact with the Indian sages who were busy meditating and discussing philosophy.
The sages were not pleased about the territorial greed of Alexander. In fact, the sages were speaking fearlessly in front of the world conqueror. They reminded Alexander that when he would die, he would only own a few meters of land that would be sufficient to bury him. Alexander, in principle, agreed with the opinions of the sages and went on to even inviting the sages to accompany him to Athens (Greece).
Later Alexander returned from India. There were many reasons for his return, including unwillingness, and tiredness of his soldiers to continue with the battle. However, Alexander was deeply influenced by his talks with the Indian sages, which further inspired him to return from India.
Greed is not great!
Let me put another perspective, suppose there are two types of persons
- Person A – he earns US$2500 per months, lives a happy and dignified life, and dies at 75.
- Persons B- he is a business magnate. Makes US$10 billion in life, lives happily, and dies at 75.
Which one of the above two is better? Or to put in another way, which of the two is worse? The answer may vary, but to me it’s really difficult to judge two people solely based on their purchasing power. In a normal situation, none of them are good or bad just because they have earned more or less amount of money. What you can think about is – which category you want to be in? 🙂
Money making business and Trade-off in life
In a life there is a trade-off between the following three
- Time
- Energy
- Money
I mean, if you compromise one of them, other two factors would get affected accordingly. For example, if you want to make more money, you have to invest more time, and in the process, you will also be investing more energy. Similarly, if you spend less time for a work, in a normal situation, you will invest less energy, and then you may end up with a less amount of money. Although, we can’t rule out exceptions, but the trade-off seems to be more like a general trend.
To put it outrightly, the question is- how much money we need (say per month) to have a good quality of life? Well, the answer is quite subjective as the amount depends on several factors, such as
- An individual’s eating, and drinking preferences
- Hobbies
- Social circles
- Materialistic interests (e.g. buying gold)
- Attending events – parties, social gatherings
- Interest in real estates (buying a house or renting a house).
The handsome amount!
I have experienced visiting a good number of countries, and to me it seems that an amount of US$2500 (per month, per person) is virtually a humble amount of money to live anywhere in Asia. If you happen to be in a country like India (including the country’s capital – New Delhi), even an amount of US$1000 would suffice (as of March 2017).
Singapore is one of the most expensive places to live in Asia. I have been in Singapore for more than 5 years, and based on my experience, the aforementioned amount of US$2500 per month is good enough for one person to live in Singapore. Even for a married couple, as long as both the husband and wife are working and contributing US$2500 per month each, US$2500 would really be a handsome amount of money.
Is that really enough?
Obviously, if you take more responsibilities (such as having a kid), you need to have more income. Remember, I am not talking about surviving in this world, but rather about living a beautiful life. I mean with this income of US$2500 per month you can
- Have a couple of insurance policies
- Manage daily expense (food, etc.)
- Travel 3 to 4 countries per year
- Visiting bars, clubs, etc. – at least fortnightly
- Attend social events every fortnight, and so on.
Life is beautiful – I had a few hours in transit at Seoul Incheon International Airport and I spent most of my time with Korean kids. They were playing hide and seek with me- where no one was hidden, nothing was being sought – they just kept running all around. Nothing about money making business!
No compromise with money!
I wish to emphasize that, given the fact you have decided to work say, 9am-5pm every day, then do make money – don’t compromise with money. If you are not concerned about earning money, then you’d rather be a volunteer. However, money introduces its own sets of limitations in our life.
For example, time is one of the most important resources that we all have. But if you work for 8 hours per day, that means you work for nearly 1/3rd of your life. Not to mention that many people work more than 8 hours per day. So if you do work very hard, do make money as well.
However, don’t compromise your life in this process.
Example – Love of Money is the Root of all Evil
I have seen examples – where in the process of making money, one compromises his precious health. Then in the process of recovering lost health, he ends up compromising the hard earned money. At the end of your life, he neither has health, nor the money. Is this what you want in life? I bet NO! Well, this is just an example of how the love of money is the root of all evil. Then why the human has been running behind the wealth? Well, that’s because we live in a mad world. 🙂 Imagine – Iraq war had cost the USA more than $2 trillion (March-2013).
Don’t chase money, lead them!
My point is – don’t run behind the wealth (or money). Remember – there is a difference between chasing and leading. You need to lead the money on a right track heading to your side. So, sit down and use your mind. Money would come to you if you use your mind smartly. You don’t make money by chasing money; you make money when money starts following your lead, i.e. when money starts chasing you.
Don’t get caught up in the money making business.
That’s it for this post. If you find the write-ups useful, buy me a beer! 🙂
With love. 🙂
Last updated: Friday, September 15, 2017