Money

Money is ubiquitous and plays a central role in our daily lives. It is an important tool in our lives and gives us a better life with great comfort in life. Some people consider its necessity only to meet the daily needs, where on the other side, some consider it secondary. It plays a critical role to make our life easy, comfortable and also makes us optimistic. One must make money to the extent that it gives happiness, contentment and peace without getting avaricious or lustful. Money is required to purchase food, the basic needs of survival and good education for a better future etc.

Money provides security, establishes our independence that equips one to exercise power and wields influence? Today, these goals are often identified as appropriate purposes for earning money, but this can be very dangerous too, as it does nothing but enhances our expectations from our own self. In truth there are four basic fundamental purposes for money: to provide for basic needs, to confirm direction, to give to those in need, and care.

We should be well aware of what our basic needs are actually? For most middle or upper middle class, basic needs are not very basic anymore. A comfortable and healthy living with adequate shelter, new clothing, plenty of food, health care and education, while also saving for old age is sufficient for any individual’s survival. “Meeting basic needs” requires effort and dedication, but once those basic needs are met, take a good look at your life and at career choices. Work-life balance is important, so once our basic needs have been met and happiness is achieved, then engage in activities that are interesting and spend time with friends and family to stay prosperous, active and charming.

Money provides access to everything one wishes for because that´s how society is structured. Children can have the best education and health care and it makes you feel more secured as you tend to have more control over your life. Where a rich can pay for the treatment in the best hospital, best doctor with the best technology there a poor mainly depends on social subsidies with cheapest medicines in government hospitals or road side physician etc. Without money, it´s hard to even fulfill your basic needs and even more difficult do the things you really need to do.

Money is just something that can be exchanged for goods and services but not for feelings. It doesn't mean that people with money are happy because, in reality, they might be facing with other materialistic problems like debts, over expenditures, spoilt children, illness, sleepless nights etc. whereas a poor person does not have money but still after a day of hard work comes home, sits and gossips with his family and neighbours and after dinner has a sound sleep under a starry night because he has no debts, overhead expenditures etc. The requirement of his family are indeed very limited.

On top of that a little extra money can make life more pleasant. While constantly chasing after money results only in unhappiness but having a little extra disposable income adds to one’s enjoyment of life. One doesn't need a great deal of it to be happy, especially when there is no replacement for the time spent with loved ones. Beware of the temptation of wanting more, and more and more because when you can’t afford an item that is beyond the “basic need” category, so accept the fact that you can’t afford it.  

Life is depressing, uncomfortable and stressful when the basic needs of food, shelter, clothing and transportation are not met or are difficult to meet. If you are frugal and resourceful, you might not need a great deal of money to meet these needs. While money may not be everything, but it is certainly something, and happiness and security cannot be gained if we do not have it enough to cover at least the basic needs. Today, the lust for more and more is the most socially paralyzing structure that humanity can ever endured and this has given money an evil look... The endless greed of competing with others financial status, hunger for the best luxuries in life has made everything in the environment corrupt and unhealthy.

Some people believe that money can buy everything when the others assert that it cannot. Money can´t buy everything, for example, something like happiness and love can´t be bought, it doesn´t replace important things like family, friends and its bonding etc. Money can buy books but not knowledge; Money can buy medicine but not health; Money can buy a house but not a home; money can buy relationship but not love and so on which means that money too has limited applications. The lust for more and more entwines the person into a whirlpool  from a point of no return, thus making life miserably haunted, distressed and wounded without any cure trapped into a deep ditch of wealth.

  

“Money can’t buy happiness but it can make life more pleasant”:  Money is necessary to provide for our basic needs. And only a certain amount of money is needed for building blocks of happiness or security. It’s quite difficult to be happy when you don’t have access to the basic necessities of life. Food, clothing, and shelter are necessary to maintain life. Focusing on these basic needs allows an individual to live simply and contentedly within his means and feel wealthy because he knows that he already possesses more than he needs for daily living. When an individual is contented with the basics then money confirm the direction in which he is moving during his lifetime. And this is where money and happiness come together.

As money is that crossing which leads towards only two directions Good or Bad: Happiness, contentment security, power, freedom, success and recognition etc come under good directions. Attitude, selfishness, greed, attraction towards evil temptations and arrogance come under bad directions.

Once these basic needs are fulfilled, you start focusing for future requirements and then it is necessary to evaluate the priorities considering ways to use money to one’s own satisfaction. While there is nothing wrong with wanting an increase of income, and looking for ways to earn more money, it is important not to let the desire for having excessive amounts of money, overcome you. At one point of time, money stops being a mode to make life enjoyable, and it becomes a source of unhappiness.

Nothing is perfect and there will always be something or the other that one doesn't possess; trying to have all that others have for contentment and happiness results in futility and nothing else. Your attitude towards money determines whether it contributes to your comfort and quality of living, or whether your desire for it that results in discontent and unhappiness.

Today, money represents power and status, and we are compulsively driven to accumulate wealth in the hope that it will bring the security and validation that we yearn for.  Yet, at some point, we may lose it all. Money matters but money isn’t everything in life because if the basic needs for shelter, clothing and food are not met, it makes life tough and difficult to live. With the saying that money does not buy happiness, it generally means the voracity for “extra money”.

Though, to develop feelings of self-worth and contentment is a good quality, one should not forget to build strong relationships with family and friends to enjoy life fully in frugal ways which makes the world a wonderful place to live in.

Everything in our lives reflects our consciousness.  Learn the art of patience as it is of utmost importance and is worth going through tribulations in order to obtain it. Our beliefs, attitudes, expectations, feelings, and emotional patterns are all mirrored in the circumstances and events of our lives.  The more we love and support ourselves emotionally, we shall attract love as well as supportive behavior from others. Life offers few opportunities to be true in reality, so if we have confidence in our abilities, we will probably be able to decipher the best ones to use them for our own benefit. Because “Fools work for money - wise men make money work for them.”

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