Recently, I was watching one of those 30 for 30 ESPN documentaries. ESPN has been on for 30 years, so they asked 30 different filmmakers to make 30 different sports related documentaries, looking at events that ESPN covered in a 60-120 minute film. I’ve watched the majority of these at some point, since they’ve been out a year or two at this point. I’d recommend just about all of them, assuming you’re into sports. Plus there’s one where you get to see Wayne Gretzky cry, which never ceases to crack me up. The dude got traded from Edmonton to Los Angeles. Have you ever been to Edmonton? THOSE WERE TEARS OF JOY.
Anyhoo, the most recent one I watched was on Ben Johnson, and the 1988 Summer Olympics. Let me refresh the story, just in case you weren’t alive when it happened and/or you don’t care. Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson won the 100m dash, which might be the marquee event of all the Summer Olympics. Not only did he win, but he shattered the world record, coming in a 9.79 seconds. Canada rejoiced, and Carl Lewis was sad because he finished in second. Things were great.
And then he failed his drug test.
Johnson lost his gold medal, and was subsequently suspended from the sport for 3 years. It effectively ended his career.
The movie really went into details about the rampant use of performance enhancing drugs in the 1980s. Basically, everyone was juicing. They all witnessed the success the Soviets and the East Germans had during the 1970s, so they copied their methods. The IOC was starting to catch on, but drug testing was only in its infancy, even when they caught Johnson. At this point, basically Carl Lewis was the only guy who hasn’t ‘fessed up to using PEDs. (One of the main PEDs, human growth hormone, had an interesting side effect when taken in large doses. It made your teeth grow again. Seeing sprinters with braces in the 1980s was common.)
What’s the point of this story? As I watched this, I often found myself shaking my head in amazement, mostly at the great lengths these guys were willing to go to become the world’s best sprinter. They pumped their bodies full of all sorts of drugs. They pushed themselves to the edge of what humans athletically capable of. They trained for years and years, barely taking a day off, mostly to ultimately fail. From my perspective, it sucked to be a sprinter.
And then the epiphany hit me. Most people look at finances the same way.
I’ve been fairly vocal in the past about my plans to obtain all the money. Money has always been a motivator for me, along with food and boobs, not necessarily in that order. I’ve gone through many different hobbies in my life, but business has always been there, just like my old friend, crystal meth. Okay, not so much with the meth.
Some of you might even label me as a little obsessed about the money, or say I’m taking money too far. I’ve been accused of that both online and off, and I’ve always known there was a little truth behind the statement. For me, the equation was simple. Wealth = freedom. If I had wealth, I’d be able to quit a crappy job, or be able to jet off to see exotic places, or buy myself some new shiny thing to temporarily fill the void of not getting laid regularly. You can’t do those things if you’re poor, with the exception of the meth part.
But at what point would you consider that I’m taking the wealth stuff too far? I was always motivated with having the largest pile of money at the end of my life. Money was always an easy motivating factor. It’s easy to keep score when it comes to money. Whoever has the biggest pile wins. For the better part of a decade, I didn’t question that. Now I am.
Ultimately, money is only a tool of exchange. Most people exchange it for stuff, while a select few trade it for freedom. I’ve never really traded it for anything, I just focused on accumulating it. That’s all fine and good, and I don’t regret it for a second. It’s gotten me to the point where I’m in a very enviable financial position. But I think it’s time to change the plan. Rather than accumulating cash for the sake of having it, I’m going to start using it to buy freedom.
I’ve crapped on a lot of people’s bad financial decisions. People think that makes me some sort of jerk, or whatever. But hardly anyone gets the underlying message of if you don’t make bad financial decisions, you’ll have more cash to buy stuff you care about. And compound interest works really well when you responsibly pay down your debt when you’re young. It doesn’t work out so well when you’re going on a vacation while carrying student loan debt.
What’s the point? To borrow a phrase from Afford Anything, you can afford anything, just not everything. That’s why I was so obsessed with money while I was young, to enjoy freedom when I got older. It’s getting close to the time to move onto part b of that plan.
The amount of money you need is the amount that helps you sleep through the night and wake up with a smile on your face. Booze can do that too but booze and money both walk a fine line between the right amount and how much is too much.
If all you do is think about booze or money then your life is out of balance.
“If all you do is think about booze or money then your life is out of balance.”~~Jane Savers
Good quote & you could substitute just about any word in there for booze or money. Balance is a great goal!
Personally I think you are buying sacks of weed as you posted this at 4:20. Although it was AM so maybe it is Meth…
Regardless of you change of plans keep posting, I find this site quite amusing and informative.
Wait! Where’s the rest of the article? I was totally expecting you to explain what Part B of your plan is. Bound to be interesting …
Wow, awfully philosophical – what’s up? Just as with athletics, accumulating wealth will have a different end goal for everyone. Does Carlos Slim or Warren B. need more money – no, they probably just do it because it’s fun for them. They want to see how well they can do. Most athletes, be they armchair or professional also want to see how well they can do, (and the vast majority do so honestly and within the rules – ie no performance enhancing drugs). At the very highest level however, the potential payoff to be the best often leads to cheating – both in money and in athletics. The rest of us set a goal that we think is achievable and fulfilling, and that won’t lead to an unbalanced life. Have you taken things too far? Only you can answer that – if you regret things you’ve done to make money or things you haven’t spent money on, then to some point yes. I would say that you seem pretty content for the most part, you enjoy the stability of being financially secure and as far as I know don’t rip people off for profit, so I think you’re doing just fine. Worst case scenario, you decide you should have spent more in years past, so you have to spend a little more in years future to make up for lost time. Better problem to have than the opposite imho. take care
[...] Here’s Financial Uproar on taking money too far. [...]
My mom has been piling up money as her main goal for a long time. She’s 92 & has saved about $500,000 on a low salary. She claims she has done everything she has wanted to do, but now she has difficulty spending it for health care needs. We keep telling her that this is what her money is for, but she hates turning lose of it. All she can think of is her big pile of money (in the bank). We recently hired a home health care worker to come in once a week (with Mom’s money). She can do light housekeeping, take her to church and to Subway afterwards (Mom’s favorite restaurant). For three hours it is $55. Mom says, “I’m not paying $55 for someone to take me to church!” Yet, it is what is happening. We reminder that it is cheaper than going to assisted living and that we are creating a kind of assisted living in her home. She has the unenviable position of losing her money and her freedom at the same time. Yet, her choices are wider than if she had less money. More money = more options.
“On Taking Money Too Far” or “When the Chip Truck Guy had an Existential Crisis”