Stop Thinking You Need More Money (2024)

Money buys a lot of things. But 80% of the time, it buys convenience and comfort.

Convenience and comfort are like a patch of grass on a perfectly mowed golf course— it looks nice on the surface but nothing can grow there.

I grew up poor. And poor people share the same thinking: ‘You need money, lots of it’.

If you don’t have money:

• people give you no respect

• you can never be free from the suffering of life

• you cannot stand up for yourself or your loved ones

To be fair, they are correct. Partly.

All of that is true if you are stuck inside society’s one-track mind.

You will gain no respect if the people you surround yourself with are only interested in keeping up with the Joneses. You cannot stand up for yourself if you believe lack of money makes you less than everyone else. You cannot be free from suffering if you find happiness in having what other people have.

Ah, we see a pattern here. It’s you. It’s me. It’s us.

It’s how we live, how we think, and how we see ourselves.

If you don’t have money and are miserable, it’s because you are still trying to fit into a place that doesn’t serve you.

‘But I need money to do this and that’

Maybe what you need is to do less and be more with yourself

‘But I need money to support my family’

Maybe what they need is for you to help them let go of their grip on money

Hear me out.

When I lost all my money, I was miserable. I experienced everything that my mom warned me about. I was insecure. I was defensive. I was envious of my friend’s success.

One time, my friends were visiting the island. They asked to stop by my place for a bit before their Airbnb check-in time. I straight up told them no because I was ashamed of the old, tiny apartment I lived in.

I was suffering. A lot.

But then something happened.

As I stayed in the same apartment, I began to change. I learned new skills. I did more work around the house. I spent more time outside. I meditated more.

I started noticing how spoiled I’d been. I noticed how often I ran away from discomfort. How quickly I hid in the corner when something grossed me out. How often my mind ran to “let’s pay someone to deal with that”.

And I began to feel better. I started liking myself for who I was, and for the changes I’ve made. As I kept learning more and more about my relationship with money, I realized money never protected me from the things my mom talked about. It only created an illusion that I was safe.

Deep down, I still felt impostor syndrome. I still feel disrespected by people in higher positions than me. I still suffered from envy, jealousy, and the feeling of not being enough when I compared myself with other people.

The illusion of power makes you feel stronger than the weak and weaker than the strong. It is a constant game of comparison.

True power is seeing everything with equanimity.

Let me share with you how being broke has made my life infinitely better and more fun:

— I stopped watching TV when I couldn’t afford one. Now I don’t care about the news. I don’t get sucked into any TV shows. I spend most of my time lying outside, watching the sky. I become more available to beauty and peace, rather than anger and hatred. More beauty and peace kept entering my life.

— I can’t afford to go out to eat. So instead, I invite my friends to picnics. We cook together. We have paint nights. We bake. We play games. We go to the beach. We hike. Our friendships have grown so much deeper since we stopped partying.

— I stopped drinking because it’s an expensive af habit. I used to be an alcoholic and now I have no interest in making my body feel like shit like that again.

— I started cooking every day to reduce my monthly spending. Now the food I eat is healthier and more delicious than anything at the store. I can also whip anything up with what’s in the fridge with no effort. This skill will 10x your life.

— I am out foraging for fruits every single week. I can’t describe the joy of eating something that you handpicked in the wild, full of stories and sometimes a few battle scars.

— I can’t afford to use money as a crutch to feel better about myself. So I spend a lot of time learning to resolve my traumas, insecurities, jealousy, envy, and anger. I have a long way to go, but I am more in tune with who I am than I have ever been.

— I replace expensive gifts with handmade things. One time, my friend Starfruit almost cried because we secretly got together and painted a painting for her on her birthday. She kept exclaiming: “This is the best birthday gift ever!”

— I don’t have money to throw at people I love and feel like I’ve done my job, so I try to support them by being there, by putting in my time, by being present.

I am in the best shape of my life; I have the best relationship with myself and the people I love because I don’t have money.

Money kept me in this bubble where I didn’t have to face anything I was uncomfortable with. It gave me a false sense of security— as long as I like the number in my bank account, everything is fine. It allowed me to take the easy way out every time.

Money made me lazy, weak, unhealthy, and insecure. It kept me distracted from fixing myself and living up to my potential. I used to think if I had more money than you, it meant I was doing alright.

Do I hate money? No. Absolutely not. I love it. And I’m going to make lots of it, on my own terms.

Money is an object. It is neither good nor evil. And as it is an object, don’t allow it to have so much control over how you live your life.

The problem lies in the way we see money and how we attach our needs to it. Everything we truly need must first be found within ourselves. Once we are complete, once we are whole, we can use money to amplify its magnitude.

Otherwise, we will constantly be chasing the right things in the wrong direction.

Of course, you don’t have to give away all your money. You only have to challenge yourself to rely on it less. Learn to create for yourself and others what you need without money. In time, a whole new world will open up. A whole new you will be born.