I’ve said for a while that winning a substantial amount of money would be one of the worst things that could happen to your in your late teens and early twenties. I’m going to talk about this in terms of my experience, where I haven’t ‘come into money’ but I have managed to save enough money with not too much to spend it on (thanks covid) (trust me it’s not that much). I’d also like to preface this that this doesn’t apply to people in debt, because most would just use their new found money to pay down that, which will always be helpful
I’ve begun to notice a paradox in work and money. Somewhat intuitively, the more money I earn, the less drive I have to work, the less ‘hustle’ I have. As I mentioned yesterday I used to figure out every way under the sun to make money, tie dying t-shirts, photography and buying and selling skateboards, camera’s, bikes, anything I was remotely interested. I also went through a period where I was able to say I had 5 different jobs, during year 12 I was washing dishes, umpiring, taking photos at events, tie dying shirts and I was also a gardener for a few people.
I think of myself now, after having two consistent casual jobs which has allowed me to mass a comfortable amount of savings. Now I have that safety buffer, I don’t feel myself having the same fire in my belly to earn money by whatever means possible. This makes me nervous. I used to love how much drive I had to earn money, even in atypical ways, but now I don’t have that.
This is a paradox because I was working in different ways in to precisely put me in the situation where I have money… Maybe this is just another idiosyncratic aspect of me but I’m sure this happens with others as well.
So what am I going to do about it? I think my issue is that I’m still thinking of money like a teenager, thinking that having over 10k is having a lot of money, whereas in real adult terms, that’s not even much of a safety buffer, nor does it allow you to move forward in life. Other than shifting my financial goals, I feel I also need to begin investing this money more. There’s no better time than your 20’s to invest and as I don’t have much to spend this on, I might as well invest it.
My dilemma is different to the one I posed in my opening remarks, but I believe that that issue is a supercharged version of mine. Being given more money, I feel, would quash your drive to continue to earn. Take the endless stories of NBA stars, rappers or lotto winners who have not only lost the drive to earn money, but have ended up bankrupt or in debt.
I suppose my conclusion of this is that when you increase your wealth, you need to shift your goalposts and not by spending more. You need to increase your investments, ensuring you avoid lifestyle creep, otherwise, in the long term you’ll end up earning less money overall.
This has been a bit of a ramble but I hope that this isn’t just another of my oddities and someone can take something away from it
Harrison Hansford 