What money isn’t
Money has no intrinsic value. It is worth precisely what the world at large determines it is worth, and its value can change – at times, precipitously – even though the ink on the paper looks the same as it always did.
For intrinsic value, we must look to more tangible assets than money:
Intelligence, ability, life experience, a good name, the love of family. These are things that money can help us to acquire, by allowing us the luxuries of time, of education, of freedom.
But, in and of itself, money is a less than totally satisfying life object.
Leaving your mark on the world
You’re a person who wants more, or you wouldn’t be reading this.
What you want your life to be and mean should, as much as anything else, determine your financial path.
How important is security to you? Transferability of assets? Limiting tax liability? Growing tangible assets such as businesses, investment properties, or farmland?
And don’t be afraid to ask bigger questions. Like, how important is it that your contribution be remembered in the world after you’re gone?
(Don’t be shy; we’d all like to leave our mark.)
The point is, the answers to these questions – and so many, many more – about your life and your future must inform your financial strategies right now.
Or you will find that your dreams remain unrealized, attenuated by the financial limitations imposed by bad assumptions, muddled thinking or inadequate planning.
