A Healthy Obsession with Money
A Healthy Obsession with Money
By Retire Before Dad
I’m obsessed with money.
I think about earning, saving, and growing money most of the day. I’ve written about money for more than seven years. Saying someone is obsessed with money might conjure to mind words like greed, fame, power, influence, and opulence. Picture a celebrity flashing fancy clothes and jewelry on Instagram and their millions of envious followers. Or a hedge fund manager posing in front of a Hamptons mansion for a Fortune Magazine feature. How much is enough?
Money and politics? Barf. But money is a powerful tool for good. Sites like GoFundMe help us support families in our communities when they suffer a trauma. International charities such as Doctors Without Borders and World Central Kitchen can’t operate without generous financial donations.
The pursuit of money for abuse of power or to oppress others is a stain on humanity. But a healthy obsession with money, for individuals, leads to smarter money decisions. Years of making smart money decisions will eventually lead to personal wealth. Wealth provides financial security, the ability to purchase useful things and meaningful experiences, and the opportunity to give to others — all of which make our lives better. But the reason I’m obsessed with money is that it gives me options.
Options When Unemployed
In late summer 2017, I learned that the project paying for my employment would endure deep funding cuts. Management had to reduce staff. I was particularly vulnerable as a subcontractor. Though my experience and tenure might have been enough to carry me through the cuts, I asked the project managers to let me go. They dropped me, forcing my employer to lay me off (I wasn’t happy with my employer, but that’s a different story).
It all happened within a few days. I didn’t have a new job to fall back on. I wanted to leverage my expertise to build on my career, finding a better employer with excellent benefits and growth opportunities. That kind of job wasn’t immediately available. I had to wait for it. We had about $19,000 in emergency savings and $1,000+ of monthly income from investments and a rental property.
Instead of heading to the unemployment office, I focused on my side business to earn supplemental income. Sufficient emergency savings, investment income, and side income gave me the option to be patient during a potentially precarious situation.
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