Good morning & happy Monday!
“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.”
– Jim Carrey, actor
I didn’t think I would ever use a Jim Carrey quote, the actor in my favorite comedy “Dumb & Dumber,” but that one fits perfectly into my topic today.
I came across a fascinating, and disturbing, article about a week and a half ago. The link to it is here: Nearly half of young adults say they are ‘obsessed’ with being rich, survey says | Fox Business
This article points out that according to a recent study, 44% of Generation Z (those born between 1997 – 2012) and 46% of millennials (born between 1981-1996) are “obsessed with the idea of being rich.”
The thought process on what has led to this is the bombardment of social media and in particular influencers who normalize great wealth. I was born in 1980, so I technically missed the millennial category, but I think it is easy to see how our young people can be sucked into such thinking.
Do you know how much time teens spend on their phone? The average is a staggering 8 ½ hours per day on their cell phones on social media, gaming, and texting (this time does not count time doing schoolwork or homework on the cell phone).
What are we doing when we are on social media? Initially it started out as a way to check in on family and friends who live out of state, and it has turned into a way of us constantly comparing our lives to the lives of others. They are prettier. They are wealthier. They are stronger. They have a nicer house. They take better vacations. They have a better family. On and on it goes … hour after hour we voluntarily scroll through seeing how amazing, and sometimes disastrously, our friends and families’ lives are. Meanwhile, what are we subconsciously doing the entire time? Comparing ourselves to others … “I’m better than them,” “They are better than me.”
My friends, comparison is so dangerous and can easily rob of us such a great deal of joy.
I’m not anti-social media, although my personal consumption of it is very limited, but I think we all need to realize the damage it can cause in our own lives, and the damage it is causing to an entire generation of our precious young people.
The concerning thing about the obsession with wealth our young people have is that wealth or income do not bring happiness, fulfillment, or contentment.
Let me go ahead and throw out a truth bomb: money will never make you happy.
Money does a lot of things, but it does not provide happiness. In the studies I have researched there is virtually no correlation between income and happiness. There are plenty of poor happy people and plenty of rich miserable people.
I know this is not a message you would expect to receive from a financial advisor, but I think it’s really important for us to put money in its appropriate place within our lives.
Here’s another fact: if you are reading this message, you are rich.
I would have to imagine that you may object to that statement, so please allow me some additional context.
According to Zippia the median per-capita household income in the world is $2,920 per year. That’s $8 a day per household per day!
The poorest countries in the world, in regard to income, are Burundi (central Africa, neighboring Rwanda & Uganda) with an annual income of $220 … that’s 60 cents a day! Afghanistan, Somalia, South Sudan & Mozambique round out the bottom 5 lowest income countries with annual incomes of $390-$480 … hovering around a dollar a day.
Feeling a little richer now?
I know I just wrote about not comparing ourselves to others, but such stark comparisons are hard to overlook. We are all filthy rich in comparison to world standards!
Here’s the thing … there will always be someone richer than you and you will always be richer than someone else! This is just a truth that exists in the world. We are not better than the people of Burundi nor are we lesser class citizens than Bill Gates or Elon Musk.
Money is such a powerful force in our lives. This is not a new phenomenon. Throughout human history this has been the case. It seduces us into thinking that our problems can all be solved with a fatter bank account, but it just is quite simply not the case.
Roughly 3,000 years ago King Solomon wrote “Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness!” (Ecclesiastes 5: 10, NLT)
My son David, who my teammates joke will likely be their future boss, got his hands on a kids finance book when he was about 8 years old (I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree 😉). He flew through the book as it really captivated his attention. When I got home from work he showed me the book he read in a day and asked me my thoughts on the opening line in the book: “Money is a wonderful servant but a terrible master.”
I don’t know if I’ve ever heard a better description of money than that. None of us want to be controlled by money, but if we are not careful, money’s seductive power can sneak into any of our lives. Money should come with a warning sign!
So how can we have a healthy relationship with money? One where money is put in its proper place within our lives.
Rather than ending this memo with a statement (like “stay the course” 😉), please allow me to end with a few questions to ponder:
- Do I have a healthy relationship with money?
- What needs to change?
- What advice would I give to a younger version of myself when it comes to financial management?
- What do I think an older version of myself would say to me currently?
- How do I define success in my life?
- What is money’s role in that?
It is beyond a privilege to partner with you. If there is anything we can do to support you along your journey, please do not hesitate to reach out.
Make it a great week ahead!