Unfortunately, almost daily something happens that reminds me how important money really are in this world. The car broke down? You need money to fix it. You have some guests? You need money to prepare/cook something nice for them. You need to go to a wedding? You need something to wear, you need some money for the ride and you need some money for the gift. It seems that everything implies having money.

However, this doesn’t mean money should be seen as a goal in life. I know that some people do that and it’s ok. It all comes down to the why, as always. I see money just as I see time: they’re both resources that help me live.

Since I approached this idea in the past, I’d like to share with you the thoughts I had back then.

   We’re living in a world where money rule everything. If you have enough, you can do almost whatever you want… you can have a better house, a better phone, a better car, a better healthcare, better education and so on. Even though we know that we can have a better life with money, do we know how to treat them? Do we see them as a goal or as a resource? Which view is better and why?

   Let’s start with the goal view. Seeing money as a goal means that we’re thinking about them as a must have and that’s it. The more the better. Seeing money as a goal makes us do whatever it takes to have more, no matter if those things are right or wrong or if we like it or not. It means that the salary is the only reason we wake up in the morning to go to work. It means that if a new job opportunity comes along and it’s better paid, we’re going to take it no matter if it’s worse than our actual job. This view can keep us from understanding why some rich people are depressed… they have everything, right? This can also create bad thoughts and feelings about the moments we’re spending too much on random stuff, but it’s not because those things are useless, it’s because we’ll have less money. Seeing money as a goal creates a fear based relationship between us and them.

   I think that a better view about money is seeing them as a resource… like fuel or wood. We’re not seeing fuel as a goal, right? We don’t wake up every morning thinking about how much fuel do we have left (there are some mornings like that, I know). We see it as a way to keep our car running with which we can go from a place to another. If we see money as a resource, we realize that we’re the ones controlling them, not the other way around (fuel is not controlling us).

   I see money as a key to freedom. Having enough of them can make us free to go anywhere we want whenever we want. If we get sick, we can have the best treatment thanks to them. We can bring into reality every crazy idea we have to make the world a better place (like Elon Musk). If we get better in the relationship with money, we can make them work for us and multiply.

   Money can get us to the next level, but our goal should be to get to that next level, not to have more money. We should try to find a way to do the things we like for work because if we’re loving our job, we’ll go there for pleasure, money being just a bonus. Since we have limited time, we shouldn’t spend it chasing money because the more we chase, the less we’ll get and we’ll miss so much more in this chase.

   Be the best doing whatever you like and the money will come to you!