The Money Middle Way: My Evolving Relationship from “Money Pay” to “Metapay”

By Kyle Kowalski

Naval Ravikant, who apparently has a net worth in the tens of millions, says:

“When you’re finally wealthy, you’ll realize it wasn’t what you were seeking in the first place.”

Jim Carrey, who apparently has a net worth in the hundreds of millions, says:

“I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.”

Over the last decade—and especially the last few years—I’ve noticed an emerging evolution in my relationship with money toward what I describe as the “money middle way.”  I’ve received some questions about my relationship with money, so I figured I’d finally cover this part of my journey.  Each phase below includes an overview of some milestones and highlights to bring it to life.

The Money Middle Way: My Evolving Relationship from “Money Pay” to “Metapay”

Phase 1: A Non-Existent Relationship with Money

This first phase covers the vast majority of my adult life to date (sad, but true). Maybe that’s why so many (now obvious) mistakes were made along the way!

From 2007-2018 I worked in the marketing & advertising industry. It’s hard to believe that as recently as a couple years ago I was the Marketing Director of a global apparel brand. It simultaneously feels like yesterday and a lifetime ago.

My relationship with money evolved fairly expectedly during this time. I was bad with money when I got my first job and blew a good chunk of each paycheck. Then, I grew up a little bit, got married, took new jobs, and started getting better with money over time. I’ve never been primarily motivated by money. For whatever reason (personality type, nature, nurture, some combination?), I’m wired to care more about doing high quality work than I am to care about money. My primary aim was smart, hard work—I moved up the corporate ladder as a byproduct of smart, hard work, and made more money as a byproduct of moving up the ladder. Nothing too out of the ordinary from 2007-2015.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.sloww.co/money-middle-way/#non-relationship-money