Saving and Sacrificing Without Purpose: Why Do I Want to be Rich?
Posted on | January 28, 2010 | 10 Comments
I want to be rich. I’ve never actually said that out loud, much less confessed it to a large audience. Perhaps it’s some leftover youth fantasy of mine when I linked a certain lifestyle with having lots of money. I even have an entry in my kindergarten diary where I write in crayon that I want to have a million dollars when I grow up so that I can give it away to needy people.
With my money habits—soon to be out of debt except mortgage, very frugal, saving consistently each month, increasing my income—I am headed on the road to becoming wealthy. I am sacrificing a lot in my present life in order to continue building this cash and asset reserve, such as limiting my spending money each month to cover groceries, gas, and a little bit of fun, buying used for almost everything (furniture, cars, books), carpooling, etc. But why do I want to be rich?
Becoming rich—admittedly still a life goal of mine—is some shapeless, amoeba-like idea acting like a puppeteer to all of my financial decisions, but with no real purpose. In other words, I am sacrificing a lot right now, for no particular reason.
When I came to this realization, I began asking myself questions.
- What is my definition of ‘rich’?
- Why do I want to become rich?
- What do I think my life and lifestyle will be like if I become rich?
After thinking on these questions for quite a while, here’s what I came up with. Being rich to me is still hitting that $1 million mark, but I admit $300,000 looks good, $500,000 looks good (heck right now $100,000 looks good!). To me, reaching the million dollar mark means that I will have the freedom to live however I choose. Right now, and for the first 27 years of my life, my choices have basically revolved around money, with all other decision filters in the background. In fact, I don’t even know that I would be able to switch off the “can you afford this” or “should you buy this” filter even if I were rich!
Understanding what motivates you is a very important step in any type of goal that you have. It will give you purpose, and help you in actually attaining your goal. In my case, analyzing my own motivations has brought me more purpose to the seemingly repetitive decisions and sacrifices that I make each day and to the money that I put into my accounts each month. It is why I automatically deposit into an IRA retirement account, why I diligently pay off my entire credit card balance each month, and why I wing my arm around like a vertical carousel to get the last bit of ketchup out of the bottle (this does work!).
I certainly have some more analyzing to do on this goal, like what choices will I choose once I am wealthy? Are they choices I can choose now, but am simply putting them off because I feel I cannot attain them without wealth? Perhaps my next step is to make a list of specific things I feel that I can do once I attain this goal.
What sort of financial goals do you have, and what is your motivation for having them?
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10 Responses to “Saving and Sacrificing Without Purpose: Why Do I Want to be Rich?”
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January 28th, 2010 @ 4:31 pm
Our largest financial goal is to be able to comfortably retire at the age of 51 when my husband can draw his full pension…that is in 25 more years. Financial calculators and our own musings have led us to conclude that we would need $2 million.
IMO, retirement means having financial freedom. My husband will still want to officiate high school or college sports. I will still want to volunteer. Retirement simply means having the freedom to choose whether to work or not.
$2 million plus my husband’s pension would allow us financial freedom. We could take a few cruises, pursue a few hobbies, and continue to live the way we do now (even with huge additional medical expenses). Currently we are on track for having closer to $3 million, so yay!
What would you want to do if you had financial freedom?
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January 29th, 2010 @ 9:22 am
I’ve definitely asked myself the same questions, because we’ve all read (and may know from observation) that money and being rich does not bring happiness. In fact, sometimes I think people with less money tend to be happier, because they don’t feel entitled to things or have high expectations. Sometimes I think having less helps you appreciate what you have even more. With that in mind, I pretty much came to the same conclusion as you- although money doesn’t buy happiness, it can buy options that can make life easier and less stressful. Our biggest financial goal is to be free of a mortgage (and all debt for that matter)someday. Imagine how little income you would need to get by on if you only had property taxes and all your necessities to pay for each month!
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January 29th, 2010 @ 9:42 am
Hello Crystal! Thank you for your comment.
I actually sat down and started a list on what I would do with financial freedom to help me figure out why I want to be rich and to stay motivated and focused.
Here are a few things:
Travel, travel, travel (my fiance and I are globe trekkers at heart, and met each other in Japan!)
I have always had the drive to volunteer somewhere in the world that is deep in poverty, so something like the peace corp, a mission, etc. for an extended period of time (a year?)
Writing colony for a few months (doesn’t have to be far away)
Visit with my family in PA for an extended period of time instead of just holidays (although we do get to see them usually two weeks at a time, which is a nice length)
What are some of the things on your financial freedom wish list?
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January 29th, 2010 @ 9:44 am
Aurora: Hello!
Yes–not having a mortgage, or any other debt, would be incredible. Even if you don’t have a bundle of money saved at that time, you could probably do whatever type of work you prefer because you would need so little to live on.
I am still debating in my head about paying off the mortgage as quickly as possible, or investing that money in an index fund…though I certainly have more time to think about it with the wedding/honeymoon, and paying off our car coming up soon! Those are first, and then I can really focus on what our next big financial goal (other than to retire wealthy!!) should be.
Thanks for your thoughts.
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January 29th, 2010 @ 11:45 am
You hit the nail on the head with “… means that I will have the freedom to live however I choose”. I believe the goal is not so much “being rich”, but more like having total freedom to choose how you spend your time – traveling, visiting family, helping others, learning a new skill… all those things that we enjoy but can’t do as often as we want because we spend most waking hours working to keep a roof over our heads and our family fed
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January 29th, 2010 @ 9:20 pm
My hubby and I enjoy taking comfortable vacations. We want enough to take a few cruises a year or visit bed and breakfasts in interesting places.
I want to volunteer for Meals on Wheels as well as my normal charities.
My husband wants to be a college sports official when he retires.
We want to be able to visit all our family and friends on a regular basis (they’re spread out).
That is what financial freedom will buy us.
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January 30th, 2010 @ 11:02 am
Hello Crystal!
Thank you for sharing your list with me!
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April 30th, 2010 @ 1:43 pm
i am hopping that with very hard work on Affiliate marketing, maybe i would be able to achieve Financial Freedom in 2 years time.’~:
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April 30th, 2010 @ 1:47 pm
Hey Sophie!
Thanks for the comment. That would be great for you!
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August 30th, 2010 @ 8:15 am
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