With more thought on money, I’ve come up with an alternate perspective to add to my current thoughts. The past couple posts I wrote on money painted a picture of excessive spending and showing off wealth. My thoughts were that when you have more money than you need, you start buying things you don’t. Money no longer is a tool, but a way to prove your status to others. While I still believe this, there’s an additional part of the puzzle I didn’t consider – expensive hobbies and passions.
While listening to an episode of The Tim Ferriss Podcast, the guest brought up his love for unique, historic watches. For instance, his watch – the Rolex Milgauss – was specifically designed for scientists to withstand exposure to high electromagnetic forces. This hobby of his isn’t cheap, but he’s passionate about it which makes all the difference to me.
I will concede that there are people in the world who have expensive hobbies. I personally do not have the same interests and can’t wrap my head around them, but they could say the same about my hobbies. Just like I choose to spend money on coffee and art, someone else wants to spend money on cologne, clothes, cars, etc.
The differentiator of excessive use of money is the intention behind it. There are people who buy these things because they genuinely love them. People are passionate about niche things and love collecting them. There are also people who do not have a passion or hobby in these purchases and are therefore more likely to buy them for more surface level/ insecure reasons.
I will never tell someone how they should spend their money. If you have a lot of it, do whatever you want. In my eyes, we’re all trying to feel worthy of recognition, feel like we matter, and have some level of success. For some, external validation is necessary to feel those things while others receive it internally. Some feel nice clothes, cars, watches, and houses give them the feelings they crave.
That’s not how I see it and that’s ok. Do whatever makes you happy and motivates you to achieve something bigger than yourself. Just try your best not to let objects ruin your life and destroy your dopamine receptors. Money is a tool. Use it to fund the life you want to live, not one that looks good to someone else.
January 23, 2023
