When does one have enough money? It's a personal decision. It's based on our perception.
Money has a value based on the experience it enables us to have. If it enables us to have a home, access to healthcare, healthy food and safe drinking water, sanitation or even heating and internet access, money is well used. If we can on top of it afford to spend some on treating ourselves - and maybe those around us- to some leisure, we're all set. Having a coffee with a friend, enjoying a concert together or taking a family train ride to go for a hike is great. And maybe it's enough. And many of us still have enough resources for all kinds of amenities. Our perception of basic standards evolve.
As written in a previous blog post, money is our 'sourdough starter', it's only truly valuable if we have a plan with it. Accumulating it without a plan is not so helpful. When money becomes 'stale', it's not generating any positive real world outcomes, it's underperforming. It's just a number in a bank account. If it sits there too long, it can trigger wasteful or even harmful spending. If we accumulate more wealth than we plan to use, we remove it from circulation. If millions of people have stale money, millions of others - especially impact focused startups - are falling short of investments they would really need. Money is abundant only if it's in circulation - if it's working, enabling some meaningful real world outcome.
Accumulating too much money that we have no proactive plan of using makes me think of hoarding perishable food that will eventually end up as waste, while it could have fed entire communities. A lose-lose approach. A total missed opportunity.
So, how do we turn it into win-win? By having a plan for our money: paying fair taxes and setting some aside for good causes is the baseline, the 'hygiene factor'. It needs to be. The exciting portion on money is the one we can allocate as private individuals to building communities, addressing environmental and societal challenges. What issues are closest to your heart? What real world outcomes would you like to contribute to? Imagine a world where you daily experience joy and abundance, a sense of possibility. Imagine a world where we all experience it like that? Where inefficiencies are no longer present and we build strong and caring communities of people and all life on land and below water? Yes, we totally can, if we want it enough. Yes, we all own a piece of the puzzle. Yes, our savings and investments are a big part of the toolbox to make it happen. Read more on malmanka.com.
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