Why You Don’t Want To Be Rich — The Real Definition of Wealth

Who do you think is richer, ‘John’ who earns £50k a year or ‘Bob’ who earns £150k a year?

Mathematically, the answer is obvious, however, what if I told you John, works 10 hours a week and Bob who earns 150k, works 80+ hours a week. Now, we can deduce that John earns £96/hour and Bob earns £36/hour.

So who’s richer now?

The answer still hasn’t changed?

Alright, let's say even with all that money, Bob can only live in London due to work where living costs are high, tax is through the roof, his disposable income would deplete very quickly.

Whereas John can live anywhere in the world and still earn the same amount, he would potentially be earning more due to exchange rates, and live in a country with low living costs.

In short, how you use your money is now more important than how wealthy you are.

Don’t get me wrong. Most people still want to become rich in monetary terms.

However, most people don’t want to be millionaires because they want to look at the numbers on their bank statements. Most people crave a millionaire lifestyle.

“Being financially rich and having the ability to live like a multimillionaire are fundamentally two very different things.“ — Tim Ferriss

Life design is the new millionaire lifestyle

In Tim Ferriss’ ‘The 4-Hour Workweek’, Tim explains that living your ideal lifestyle doesn’t solely rely on your monetary wealth. It relies on how, when, and where you utilize your resources.

With today’s economy, you can still live that ‘millionaire lifestyle’ without being a millionaire on paper. A perfectly designed life should be the goal instead of 7 figures in your bank account, that will follow.

It’s not the actual money we want. It’s the things we can buy with our money.

In my previous example, Bob, who never gets to see the light of day, but has the satisfaction of seeing 7 figures in his bank account, will only see his children on the weekend, never leaves his phone out of sight, and hasn’t gone abroad in years.

John travels 5 times a year and has visited over 50 countries. His apartment is quite simple but he owns a house in the Philippines which he can visit whenever he wants, and not lose any money.

Once you’re at the point where your bills are paid, your closet is full of shoes, and you can afford to eat out every day, you start to value other aspects of life.

You’ll miss your family, exploring the world and gaining new hobbies. But you’d be trapped with your millions and it seems like that’s okay with most people nowadays.

“Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people that they don’t like.” ― Will Rogers

We will all end up where we began

On a podcast, CEO John O’Nolan talked about his recent success and how after spending millions on shoes, clothes, houses, cars, he ran out of things that excite him and asked himself — what now?

One day, sitting in his back garden with a laptop typing away on open source code he realized, this — this is exactly what excites him and what he wants to be doing. Something he can be doing with a regular income.

Of course, it’s nice to earn 150k/year in comparison to 50k, but how restricted is your life, and is that extra monetary value worth missing out on experience and excitement?

More money will not buy time. Only a better lifestyle will.

Have a great week!

~Abdullah

My Blog: abdullahnadeem.co.uk