For the Money

I struggled with this idea of doing stuff just for the money. I didn’t think it was admirable. So I fought back when my views were opposed. Someone would say, “no David, you are wrong, it’s all about the money.” I would respond with something like, “nu-uh you don’t know what you are talking about.” And on and on this went.

I didn’t want to think it was all about the money because I wanted there to be a higher meaning behind what I did. I felt that just for the money made it cheap and fleeting. Like I was in a pyramid scheme. 

I feel pyramid schemes are the pinnacle of doing something just for the money. Because people are thrust into a system. The product in the scheme attempts to make it more than just a system. It attempts to make it about vitamins or cookware. But it doesn’t work. That makes pyramid schemes unsustainable. When something is done just for the money there is no passion that will lead the person to sustainable growth.

Why We Do Stuff

First and foremost, we do stuff because we want stuff. We want things from people in the form of love and adoration. And we want physical things. Maslow covered these concepts in great depth with his research. He created Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to explain it in layman terms. He created a pyramid scheme. But a good one. Thank you Maslow.

I don’t want to get off track here. This writing is to investigate the idea of doing stuff for money. To explore the question of why we do something that comes with a check attached. I wonder if the question, do you do it just for the money, is the wrong question. Because the answer will always be yes. Money is kind of important. So maybe a better question is, what will you spend the money on?

You might now be asking, “well David, how do you feel about money?”  

What I finally decided is—I do it for the money. I absolutely do it for the money. Now the better question is, what do I do with the money? Or what part of Maslow’s pyramid do I spend money on? This is a good question. 

What do you spend the money on? Looking at Maslow’s pyramid, I spend most of my money on basic needs. The bottom two levels of the pyramid. Physiological needs and safety needs. I also spend money on the third level, Belongingness and love needs. I host gatherings and have family and friends over to visit. These gatherings would also fulfill level four, esteem needs. I spend money on Level 5 as well. Level 5 is self-actualization. Here I spend money on the help and guidance of experts to help me realize my goals, dreams, and desires. 

One strategy is to break up the pyramid into what percentage you spend money on. I think that if you are spending a big chunk of money on esteem needs that is bad. An example would be buying clothes, cars, jewelry, art, etc. Buying symbols of accomplishment. To me this is a bad use of money. Also using money to buy intimate relationships and friends is a bad use of money. It’s commonly understood that you can’t buy true friendships. Both of those levels fall into the psychological needs section of the pyramid. I wonder if that is a coincidence. I would spend most of my money on basic needs and the rest on self-fulfillment needs. It’s pretty much what I do now. And spending money in these categories is cheap.  

That leads me to the final chapter on this writing: making the least amount of money possible. Do you know the least amount of money required to have the life you want? That is a tough number to come up with. I have contemplated and attempted to figure this one out for a while and I am still working on it. Most of us say the answer is, more money. And that is the answer because we don’t know what we want. So we simply say, I need more money. But more is not the answer, because we will forever be unfulfilled. We need to know how much money we need to have the life we want so we know what enough is. Without the knowledge of enough, we are doomed. 

I will stop here for now but I will write in the future about this concept of making the least amount of money necessary for a good life. Maybe by then I will have my number figured out.