Your Money or Your Life

What did you want to be when you grew up? What have you always wanted to do that you haven’t yet done? What have you done in your life that you are really proud of? If you knew you were going to die within a year, how would you spend that year? What brings you the most fulfillment—and how is that related to money? If you didn’t have to work for a living, what would you do with your time?

For many of us, however, “growing up” has meant outgrowing our dreams. The aspiration to write a great book has shrunk to writing advertising copy. The dream of being an inspiring preacher has evolved into being an administrator and a mediator between the factions in the congregation. Instead of really knowing who their patients are, how their patients live or the challenges in their lives, doctors today are plagued with back-to-back fifteen-minute patient visits and malpractice suits. The dream of traveling around the world becomes two weeks a year of hitting the tourist traps. Living a fulfilling and meaningful life seems almost impossible, given the requirements of simply meeting day-to-day needs and problems. Yet, at one time or another practically every one of us has had a dream of what we wanted our lives to be. People with a diagnosis of cancer often get that divorce or take the trip they’ve been dreaming about or take up a new hobby that’s been patiently waiting for its time in the sun.

The perfect work life would offer enough challenge to be interesting. Enough ease to be enjoyable. Enough camaraderie to be nourishing. Enough solitude to be productive. Enough hours at work to get the job done. Enough leisure to feel refreshed. Enough service to feel needed. Enough silliness to have fun. And enough money to pay the bills … and then some.

Today, the average CEO in the United States makes more in a day than the average worker makes in year. This isn’t said to fuel envy of the wealthy and demand a piece of the pile for the poor. Rather, it’s to point out that while absolute poverty deprives our bodies of necessities, relative poverty—being so much poorer than people no smarter or more willing to work than we are—makes us dissatisfied with our lot in life no matter how much we have. It corrodes society and the psyche—saps our belief in justice and fairness and hope. It makes us poor amidst plenty. We feel left out, lonely10 and are more likely to give up on the dream that we can have a better life than our parents.