The truth about the Warren Buffett class of wealth is that if somehow a Buffett were to be stripped of all his wealth, his life wouldn’t change much.
The Gates and the Zuckerbergs of the world fall in the same league. Some do indeed live larger than you and me, but you can just tell that they are not into it.
They don’t care.
They don’t care because they own a different kind of wealth, the kind of wealth that is difficult to strip away. So, let me let you in on the secret to that kind of wealth.
And it is this…
Designing your version of a happy life that allows you to live far below your means in a perfectly contented, Zen-like state is that wealth. No rigid adherence to societal norms, no worrying about what someone thinks about the kind of car you drive or the home you live in. It works for you is all that matters.
You practice that over time, systematically investing the difference and you are set. And you wouldn’t believe how fast you’ll be set.
And there is a certain level of inner peace you attain when you know you don’t have to worry about what other people think about how you choose to live. You can act poor with never a qualm. The Buffetts and the Gates of the world know this. You should to.
And those intermittent spurts you see in the plot above are spurts of discretionary spending that you indulge in every now and then to buy experiences.
We (my family) are not big spenders. We don’t spend much on stuff but spending on experiences is where we deliberately don’t hold back. We have an experience budget we have earmarked each year and we make sure we exhaust it and then some every year.
That was a hard thing for us to turnaround on but turnaround on we did. And we are happy for it. The bonds we build as a family, being in unfamiliar settings on these one-off trips is something that’s not possible in our daily grind of an existence.
And the more we do it, the more we want to do it.
Why spend more on experiences than stuff? Because it is a pain to own stuff – storing it, maintaining it, and eventually disposing of it. The more you own, the greater the pain. .
Experiences deliver fond memories. Possessions deliver repair bills.
Jonathan Clements
But back to us, we go out of our way to make these experiences of a pseudo-luxury kind in an otherwise relatively simple existence and there is a reason for that. Because if we had permanently designed our lives to be of the ‘good’ kind, we wouldn’t be able to relish these occasional hits. Because we as humans adapt and then we are back on to that proverbial treadmill.
But when you design your life way below what you can afford and then you take these hits, you’ll savor those experiences forever.
Start life in first class, and you’ll take it for granted. Occasionally get upgraded, and it’ll be a real treat.
Jonathan Clements
All of this of course assumes a certain level of baseline income but then we also know stories about people working menial jobs who are literal millionaires while many others making bank but do not own two nickels to rub together.
So it’s never about the quantity of wealth because even billionaires go broke. It’s how you never let that wealth take over your ego from the many important things that matter in life.
So, lift weights, do yoga, dote on your family but keep that burn rate in check. Because any money you spend that does not uplift your family’s overall well-being is money wasted. You can’t optimize everything to the tee but try you must.
Thank you for listening to the sermon.
Cover image credit – Sound On, Pexels