is a means to an end, not a measure of personal success or value. When others measure by net worth or car driven, they’re on their own bent meaningless ride. Neither was money ever “the root of all evil.” Money is a tool just like electricity. It’s a tool that exists within a cultural context of confusion.
Like electricity, proper respect is required if you hope to benefit. Time matters and doing nothing abut your money will leave you and those you love in serious trouble. Money is precisely about being able to take care of those you love. That’s love in action. Is there anything more important?
Money’s not “evil.” It’s what it take to live now, and later. That’s not greed either. It’s wise. All else is cultural noise. Let’s make that fun, because, it is.
Talking
money is like talking politics or religion. Don’t ever do it–we don’t. Both money and the monastic life can be used to create well-being. Monastics move away from daily hubbub and the monied move up from street rabble. Street noise is hard to hear from the monastery or the eightieth floor.
Deprivation is not inherently holy, and any holiness there may prove difficult to negotiate. The monastic life is one of contemplation and work and so is the well lived life. Each seek something, using much the same means. Focused work.
Much like aeronautics, no shortcuts exist to financial well-being or air worthiness–not for long anyway.
A sense of well being may satisfy the soul, but it will never satisfy your mortgage. Yet, a focused financial life can provide some of each. You deserve it–if you want it. Many forces are arrayed against you and us. Think fees, charges, hidden pitfalls, market orders, commissions, intentional confusion and misdirection, predatory pricing. Savvy investing is why STOCKJAW is here.
Money is not transcendent but the demand for yours is. Want some well being in a relationship? Have some money. No? Log on to a dating website and list “Occupation,” as “Holy Man.”
Many engage in magical thinking when it comes to their money. “It’ll all work out.” Well, not magically. You can’t believe that your toilet will do your banking, but you can believe that bank fees will flush your money.
A better path exists. Contemplating life’s overarching realities in the bank lobby will buy you about five seconds of well being before more immediate realities take over, like security personnel converging on your contemplation.
People chose the monastic life for different reasons. Yet monasteries do not exist in a vacuum. In the west most exist beneath the Roman Catholic Church. Here’s the “crass” part. All earth-bound religious activity exists within a far larger system. The monetary system. Why else would the church have lobbied for tax-exempt status? Like it or not, the Vatican employs top-notch money experts, worldwide.
Money’s a tool like electricity, a means to an end. A car is a means to an end, until you begin to view it as something else–Greedy Creep. Do people warn you about your relationship with cars? Not if it’s electric.
Slideshow. The Vatican.
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Martin Luther toiled in monastic poverty in search of holiness and God’s salvific covenant. Luther’s vision transformed forever upon personally witnessing the utter splendor of the Holy See. The poverty he endured was not being led from the Vatican. If mammon is the “root of all evil” why does the Vatican have so much?
Paying proper attention to your money is not greed. It’s wise. Investing shows respect for the labors you’ve endured to earn. Being paid solely for hours worked cannot pay for the future when you cannot.
Only two categories of people will tell you that “money isn’t important;” those who believe they have more than they need, and those who have none. Look around. Watch closely when someone begins talking about their taxes.
Many warnings about money have been voiced. Money in fact is not “the root of all evil.” Money is precisely what you make it. Look behind those warnings, and more at the messenger. Taking care of your needs and those of your loved ones requires thoughtful money, and that is not greed. It’s reality.
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Be careful. Do the work. Have patience, with yourself. Never put your dreams away.
Happiness is a function of income minus expenses,
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