Depending on its use, money can provide a temporal or eternal benefit.
Taking a step back from—what I would label—the cacophony of market upheaval, I want to reflect on the larger picture of money and encourage all of you to utilize it in a way that will obtain ultimate good in your own life. (Side note on the current market, The Only Way Is Through and also Why is this happening to the market and what to do next?)
Temporal Use of Money
We live in a fast-paced world preoccupied with instant gratification, spending most of our daily lives seeking to satisfy our immediate needs and wants; money is the primary means by which we do so.
That is not to suggest that we do not derive some benefit from achieving temporary pleasure by spending our money. Sometimes the pleasure even lasts beyond the immediate purchase. When I buy an overpriced Chai Tea Latte from the local coffee shop, I enjoy sipping it while I walk down the street of our village. Thinking back to something as simple as strolling down our one-street village time to time fills me with enjoyment.
Enjoying a recent purchase, home improvement, meal, or other temporary experience a recent expenditure provided does generate an immediate pleasure. Emotional pleasure can be found with the way one spends money as well; maybe it’s a vacation with family or friends that enables a shared experience with people you love. There can even be a spiritual aspect to a spending choice. Perhaps it’s donating to your church or a cause that helps people.
But all these things above, while delightful and add to the richness of life, are temporary; fulfilling a momentary desire in our life but not creating a foundation to build a life on.
What is most important about money, I think, is not its ability to satisfy our immediate desires. Instead, it can provide a stable foundation for us to make choices that will improve and enrich our lives for the duration of our whole life.
Eternal Use of Money
We know we cannot take our money beyond this life—what we earn, spend, and save here on Earth remains here. And almost all of our interactions with money during our life will be to support our material needs and immediate desires.
But what if we thought about money in a more foundational sense—used it as a tool to open up and expand our lives and by doing so pushing us onto the path of meaning and fulfillment. Once we hit a certain threshold with money and we can satisfy our base needs, it’s time to consider how to potentially derive a more fulfilling life in its use.
Ask yourself, what are all the choices in your life you wish you could make; the ones that if you had more money you would choose. Over the years, clients and friends have given some of the following as answers:
go to school
move to a new home or relocate
retire
start a business
start a family
All these goals are a manifestation of a bigger objective—they are not just the desire to spend money. For instance, the desire to go to school. The true desire is not to spend money on tuition, books, and other educational costs—no, the desire there is to broaden one’s mind, ability to think, and likely, find a career or life path within a field that brings one satisfaction in his or her work.
Starting a business, like pursuing an education, is a financial goal with a much larger purpose in mind. Most businesses are initially driven by the desire to make money—they can also be a labor of love and lead one towards a purpose you never knew you had. (Happened to me!)
What I challenge you to consider is that with a little thought and planning, you can direct your spending and saving efforts in ways that may achieve more than just a short-term benefit. Using money as the foundation of how to expand and build your life for fulfillment is the ultimate objective.
Take for instance, starting a family—certainly one does not take this on to satisfy a temporal need of material desire. No, we start families and care for our children because of something beyond the temporal life, something more meaningful and eternal.
The purpose of money and financial freedom.
Those of you familiar with my company and brand know it was inspired by the cowboys who traveled on the Chisholm Trail in search of financial rewards and a better life. Like the cowboys, we too are pioneers of our own financial destiny. We can decide if our destiny is simply providing for our immediate needs or desires. Or, we have the choice to accept that money can have a dual purpose. After satisfying our base needs we can consider more deeply how we employ our money can enrich our lives in a more enduring way.
Over the next few months, I challenge you to take some time and think about what you would do if you had more money. Write those goals down. Once you have an understanding of the things in life you want not for immediate gratification but for lifelong fulfillment and meaning, start thinking about how you can shift your financial plan to meet some of these goals.
At Chisholm, we urge our clients to look at financial planning through this lens, and to live in a way that reflects the cowboy spirit—understanding that life offers freedom, purpose, and prosperity to those of us who take it.