The Feeling of Wealth

You are standing outside of your small and cosy house. Overlooking a beautiful valley, surrounded by your loving family, there is food on your table and you don’t need anything. That is true wealth!

It is a subject that has been a topic of discussion for a while now amongst the ones I engage in everyday life. We have observed how some people get all kinds of opportunities and utilise them for the best at every turn. A few principles have risen from this discussion that are worth sharing:

1. Wealth is not about money. There are people around with tons of it that still feel they need more. And there are people with almost nothing that feels like they have plenty.
2. If your income is low, you can downscale as much as realistically possible to achieve a feeling of affluence. For most people this will require selling almost everything they have and paying off loans. It might require you to move to a cheaper place where you can grow or otherwise procure your food for free.
3. I have noticed people at work who are very strained financially might spend a lot of energy trying to get promoted or get good job assignments. In the majority of cases these people will appear needy, lose their image of being successful and thus undermine their own efforts. They might even make grave mistakes in the wish to impress and then risk losing their job. It’s better to just downscale your living costs to the level where you don’t even need to keep your job. Then you can relax and enjoy the opportunities that inevitably will arise.
4. Aim for the essence of what you really want in life rather than a figure or a specific object. You are not really aiming for that million dollars in the bank, you are aiming for a feeling you assume they will give you. Maybe you could already have reached the feeling of financial freedom, just by cutting costs.

The Advantages of Feeling Wealthy

1. You will feel instantly lighter in life and get more enthusiastic about actually doing more for your situation.
2. You will pass on the less good opportunities in favour of good ones. Often, when in chronic money trouble, you will find yourself committing to less interesting or profitable opportunities. This may force you to regretfully turn down an excellent opportunity when it arises, because you don’t have the time. A wealthy person can afford to wait!
3. A less obvious advantage is that you will live longer and healthier. Stress is a major source of health problems. Remove your stress and your body can free energy for more important healing tasks.

Investments

Downscaling will always come with hard decisions. Although my costs are incredibly low in general, they are too high for the lifestyle I wish to lead. So I decided to sell my bitcoins, an investment I have some belief in, to pay off the mortgage on my farm. The money was just sitting there, when I could be wealthy now!

Investments reinforce your belief that you are in shortage of something and need to change the situation. It’s better to free up those money to get to your goal more quickly instead of gambling in desperation. Getting into investments should be reserved for those who are already feeling wealthy. They can make rational choices without too much attachment and are consequently more likely to be successful at it.

On a related note, purchases are best done with caution. Do not get tempted to buy things you don’t need at the moment; the need can disappear before you know it.

Stinginess

Although it’s good to have control over your costs, being too stingy is signal to yourself that you are in shortage and immediately removes your feeling of affluence. Sharing of what you have will make more come back to you. Probably tenfold.

I hate luxury. I exercise moderation…It will be easy to forget your vision and purpose one you have fine clothes, fast horses and beautiful women. [In which case], you will be no better than a slave, and you will surely lose everything. – Genghis Khan (quote from here)