Should you settle financially?

Should you be content with your current financial situation or should you strive for more?

We’ve all heard throughout our lives that “money is power”. To some, that very statement might have felt liberating, to others it might have been oppressive or some would even be indifferent to the true meaning of those words. What’s certain is that, even if someone doesn’t see the appeal in having enough money to be able to change the reality around them, money is the powerful tool that’s responsible for the fact that some of us are even alive today.

Ever since antiquity, and even before that, human beings were able to get ahead in life by the power of owning objects, property and money in the specific currency of that time. Life was very hard for everyone who didn’t have an advantage in life and especially hard for those who had actual disadvantages (such as physical, psychological or were simply considered ‘different’). But those who had the power of money, no matter what difficulties they were burdened with by destiny, were able to continue living a comfortable life and to create offspring. Those people are now our ancestors.

This might sound tragic, of course, that wealth had the last word in who would survive and who would perish, but that was the truth of those times and it is still the truth today in many situations and especially in some parts of the world.

Now, of course, life has become very comfortable for most of us, even if we are not wealthy by today’s standards. But when you put things into perspective, almost everyone in the first world, who has a normal job, an average salary, a place to live, the ability to travel once a year and their basic needs met has the life only a noble could afford in the Middle Ages, for example.

This begs the question: if you already have those things, why spend your time investing and creating more income? Isn’t that unnecessary? Shouldn’t we instead enjoy every single day and be thankful for what we DO have?

Well, in today’s world, the power of money might not be as drastic as it was in the past, but it is still very present and influential. It gives us the ability to do more than just be “a cog in the machine”, working for a boss and being at their every whim. Money gives us freedom to pursue journeys of self-discovery, to change the world around us so it matches our vision better and to even help others around us.

We see every day how many of the world’s rich and famous become philanthropists and we hear about the innovations they invest in to make everyone’s lives better or to improve the state of the planet and save habitat. Bill Gates, James Cameron, Ellen DeGeneres and Leonardo DiCaprio come to mind.

And even if some of the rich elite does not care about charity or the average human’s quality of life, they still invest to advance technology in other ways, which are more in tune with their vision, such as military weapons, AI or the technology to make themselves immortal. Wealth gives them the ability to pursue such interests.

Now, is it fair that only some possess that power and not others? Maybe not, we all live in this world and should have a say in things. Right? Our voices are amplified by the wealth and influence we collect throughout our lives. Money is the tool to make our visions reality and to make a real difference, so why not try to harvest that power as well?

The good news is that even if in the past your condition was almost entirely dependent on who you were born as, today such a thing is a lot less consequential. The playing field is more equal and almost everyone has access to the necessary tools to grow financially. It’s all a matter of wits, opportunity and dedication. So, things such as your race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexuality or physical ability are not going to determine if you can advance in life and build wealth as much as they would determine even if you would survive or not as recently as a few hundred years ago. This is indeed a good thing that we all should be more aware of as well as take advantage of.

So maybe the real question is: why are we NOT making the best of it? Why do we let ourselves be content with the status quo, in which others who do hold the power of money in their hands can have a say in how the world looks and how we run our society while we enjoy the little things while we can, living salary to salary, having an occasional day off and finding a cheap hotel to stay at during a vacation? Maybe we are not always aware that we can DO more and BE more, and that is a real shame.

We now have the ability to invest our savings in order to make profit, to open businesses that people need and that can have an influence while also making us profit, to attain the goals we set for ourselves unhindered by superficial disadvantages. This is the perfect time to let go of the conditioning that’s been set into our minds: that we have enough and we should be thankful for that. There is never a good reason not to improve your situation and people who are successful financially all know that. It’s the danger of complacency. In order to be successful, you need a success-oriented mindset and most of all you need the courage to want more. There is nothing wrong with wanting, there is something wrong with ignoring or postponing your desires due to the fear of failure. The truth of the matter is that the biggest failure is not trying in the first place.

So, our advice to you, dear reader, is to be bolder and to start taking steps towards a future that is abundant not only materialistically, but also influentially. Nothing is holding you back, so get out there, learn how to manage and invest your finances, make the right choices to accomplish your goals and most of all, do all of this while being aware of the power that the era you were born in already offered you: the power to shape your own destiny.