Once a wise man said, if you are a human, either you should be wealthy or attain peace with spirituality.
Recently I had a question from my friend, who asked me,
Imagine you can start your life back again with all the knowledge you have now, vs having a million dollars. It let me think, my answer was well, I would choose million dollars.
Then I thought about it over days and came to conclusion that I would do otherwise.
Here I will discuss a life if I would get a million dollars now, vs, If I restart life with knowledge. And my conclusion.
What will happen If I get a million dollars.
Currently I do not have anything to invest a million dollars. So, I will have to discuss with some investors how I am going to invest that money. I am not stupid to think spending a million dollars in rest of my life would do any good to me or anyone around. It is clear I can quit my job and even without investing I would be able to live reasonably well. There will be a lot of work to be done to keep the million dollars safely or maintain as it is over time. This will be an additional work to my current job.
Buying car, a house, or a boat would not be a great way to spend it either.
Essentially, I would not quit anything I am currently doing now. Think about it, it will be an additional work to keep it safe, and it will give me more responsibility and more chances for me to lose it as well. There will be a lot of unnecessary attractions in the form of, taxes, friends, salesmen, more troubles.
More importantly a million dollars cannot buy me happiness, love, caring friends, peace. No what it can do is just buy materialistic things. It is clear, I know why it cannot. When I think about the life backwards, it is clear I was happier when I was a child. When I didn't have desires for money, houses cars or even wealth. It was a small world with a rubber ball and pieces of wood and imagination. Happiness is there by itself. Matters are complicated now, and a Million dollars is going to complicate it too.
On the other hand, If I could restart my life, I could have made better choices. When I chose at school. When I chose in the university, when I chose in life. Or I could have not chosen at all. I could have, chosen so I have better chance ending in happiness. These choices could have made me a millionaire by itself. With the momentum, that million dollars is going to create more happiness than the Million I am going to receive today. It is more likely to remain, and I would have more idea what to do with it. Even If I didn't, I would have ended with more peaceful solidarity.
In conclusion, it is evident for me I would choose my knowledge and opportunity over a million dollars today.
But what is the advantage of thinking about the million dollars which I do not have now!
If you regret, not having a million dollars, like me earlier, you do not have to. Knowledge, time and happiness are more important than a million dollars. It is true, although at the first glance it doesn't seem so. After all what we are going to buy with a million is happiness.
Second important thing I noticed is I am already having knowledge attitudes and happiness which is worth more than a million dollars, even if I cannot go back to the past and make it a start, what about future. I can choose more wise choices for the future; it doesn't matter I would or not become wealthy. I can choose to be happier! Would you?
This is the poll I ran in my twitter profile.
It was almost a tie. Although it was biased towards the latter choice.
Thank you for reading: What is it like to become a millionaire?
You may also like to read: Worst kind of mental pain and how to overcome it.
Comments