I checked I had thirty minutes left to think of a post or forever lose my say in today's writing game. Then, I swipe Netflix left right, and forth, hoping to find a preview that will set the inspiration ball rolling. And then I found one. I did not really know what to expect but I am grateful I did not need to dig deeper to find a few things to talk about.
Source
I don't know who the narrator is, it's something I'll find out when I dive into the movie though, but, he caught my attention with the preliminary part of this movie, Ozark.
He started by asking about our beliefs around money, what we think money is and what it's not, and how many of us barely have savings or retirement funds. You already know those are true words to the latter and whether you choose to be angry about it seems not to be any of the narrator's business.
He defined money the way the rest of us do, a single dollar we pay on the counter to buy this or that, a single dollar we get paid to do this or that. For some reason, he decided he wasn't going to go through that path with us today, instead, he was going to give the true answers that we ought to understand when someone asks us, what is money?
Money as a measuring device.
He explained that the hard reality is that
How much money we accumulate in life is not a function of who is president or the economy or bubbles bursting or bad breaks or bosses. Ozark (TV Series 2017–2022)
You already know how we tend to point fingers when it comes to who is to blame for how we ended up financially. Some of us blame the government, some of us blame the economy, and a lot of us blame our bosses. We always find a way to blame everyone else except ourselves.
Which is why the narrative had to bring it all down to a layman's understanding that money is;
about the American work ethic, the one that made them the greatest country on earth. And how it is about bucking the media's opinion as to what constitutes a good parent.
You know how much the media tries to paint the way a beautiful family should look or feel. You go to your kid's social events, make them dinner, make their beds, be their teacher after school, etc. This is something that would need to be sacrificed if their future needed to be catered to.
So deciding to miss the ball game, the play, or the concert, because you've resolved to work and invest in your family's future is something the narrator explained money can relate to.
And of course, taking responsibility for the consequences of those actions. After All, your children will hate you for it. They will compare you with their friend's parents. They will try to annoy the hell out of you as a result too.
So three things constituents how you should define money
Patience.
Frugality.
Sacrifice.
And then he asked,
When you boil it down what do those three things have in common?
And he answered;
Those are choices. Money is not peace of mind. Money is not happiness. Money is, at its essence, that measure of a man's choices.
When he said the last part, it hit me, Tarazkp has done a lot of posts explaining why taking an extra job doesn't mean you are slaving away. Instead, it means you get to make extra money on the side that you can save or invest or live upon without touching your investment. It's almost the same thing Morgan said when he mentioned his star actor, Ronald Reed, who worked several jobs, invested in blue chips stocks, and lived in a small house, he bought for $12000 at the age of 35 and lived there until his demise.
As the narrative said, you can either choose to miss your children's celebration or miss your friend's outing for an excuse to make extra money. This is your choice. You could choose to live as frugal as possible. Make sacrifices. Stay patient and try to work with the time until your financial breakthrough comes to pass. Again, everything boils down to choices.
You could also choose to see an extra side hustle as too much labor and you could also see saving for tomorrow as missing out on gratification. You could equally try to make your children happy by attending their events while jeopardizing their chances at a good future. Either way, one thing had to give way for the other to exist. Your best shot at making the right financial decisions is choosing which order of things to pursue and which ones to let go of. These things may not come easily to you because of the way society is built to make us think we know how to deal with our money. Especially in a society that favors consumerism and doesn't support saving or investing hard enough unless it's to jump into a Ponzi scheme and make money real quick.
Regardless, you will be the one to blame at the end of the day because you were supposed to learn which voice to listen to and the ones to ignore if you most certainly wanted a better future for yourself and your family. In the end, no one's to blame, but you, and as you wake up every day and take up different roles and characters, you have to be mindful of the place of money in that regard. It won't come easily but with conscious practice, you'll be able to filter them all and win.
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