What does real wealth mean? What should you expect when you get to the end of the gold-paved road to financial freedom?
Will you be happy if you have a million dollars? How about 10,000,000? Is real wealth a game of numbers, or do other things come into play?
Ebenizer Scrooge of Dicken's I
The author of i>A Christmas Carol/i> was very rich for his time, but before he met the three ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future,
He was so poor that he couldn't even heat his own apartment.
On the other hand, his clerk was shown to be happy and loving toward his many children. He was a great father.
Even though this is a story, is there any truth to it?
Many people work all the time to get more and more money, but it's an old joke that their last words are never: "I'm rich!" "I wish I had stayed there longer.
work."
Some people think that the only answer to "What is true wealth?" is money, and the more money they have, the better.
Others would be happy to say that real wealth is the peace of mind that comes from not having any debt.
Someone else will say he is really rich if he can live any way he wants, no matter how much it costs.
Others might say that true wealth is being healthy and having a loving family and friends who care about you.
This question probably has as many answers as there are people who can answer it.
You could live in a big house on a hill with two Mercedes in the garage and a million dollars in the bank, but you wouldn't enjoy life as much as the guy who works at the gas station and lives in a two-room furnished apartment.
Wealth is what a person thinks it is. And if that weren't the case, we wouldn't have police officers, firefighters, and soldiers who risk their lives to protect us instead of trying to make a lot of money on Wall Street.
We wouldn't have doctors who go to third-world countries to try to make a difference when they could have a successful practise and a good life at home.
We wouldn't have all the volunteers in this country who are ready to help the sick, disabled, or poor, or who show up at disaster sites ready to do anything to help.
There wouldn't be millions of people in this country who give billions of dollars to their favourite charities every year.
Even though we focus on money, it's good to take a step back and remember that there's more to true wealth than just money.
I think that having enough money to live comfortably makes it possible to do a lot of other things.
I also think that owing money is just giving your money to your creditors. Even though it might make them or their investors rich, it doesn't add much to your real wealth.
So, I'll use Mr. Spock's famous Vulcan greeting as my answer: "Live debt-free and prosper."
