50 Things Money Can’t Buy
This image is doing its rounds on Facebook and to be frank, I think we can buy many of these things with money. Not in a bad way by the way. You just need to know where to shop.
IMO why most of us think money can’t buy happiness and many other things in this list, is partly because most of us don’t realize what we really need. For example what does respect, class, a good hair day, luck, good epitaph means? I may be wrong, but in my opinion these are things one can live without.
And for the some of the things in the list got nothing to do with money. For example saying money can’t buy you Appreciation of simple things is like saying you can’t make apple juice with oranges. This post might sound really harsh or it might even look like I am trying to sell insurance or some get-rich-quick thing, but that is not the intention. I am just writing down some stuff that was running through my mind for a while about whole money cant buy you this and that thing.
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Most of us simply get too obsessed with the money and spend all day making money and have no time in life to spend it. In the process of making money, we sacrifice a lot of things in this list. It does not have to be that way.
To buy happiness or anything, money is not enough, you need to have time to go shopping and have to have good common sense (Another thing that got nothing to do with money) on what you need to buy.
Having more money will help most of us to break out of daily struggle of making ends meet. If handled properly we will not have to spend all our life to make money, but we can manage in a way so that we have time to live your life. Trick is to know how much we need. Most of us don’t know the answer to that question. We think we need an infinite amount of it, so we spend an infinite amount of time to make money. This is why things like Time to relax, Peace of mind, “everything you want” make it to above list. What is “every thing we want” means any way? IMO It’s what we think we want when we don’t know jack about what we really want.
Lets us take a look at this with an open mind and see how you can go shopping for some of the things in this list.
Natural Beauty, Clean Arteries, A Long Life…
Natural beauty is what you get from your parents DNA plus good health and good shape. If you do a comfortable job and have a good income, you will most probably retain the part of natural beauty that you got from your parents. If we don’t have time to spend all day struggling to make ends meet, we will have time to workout and be in good shape.
Money do not block our Arteries, junk food and unhealthy habits does. Having more money make you able to afford more options. Which you can use to choose healthy options. And that will lead to long life. For example in Sri Lanka, you can either buy low-cost mass-produced food that are contaminated with who knows what. Or you can spend some extra money and buy non-mass produced organic stuff that are more expensive. These choices will help us live longer.
Making/having more money means you can afford better living and working conditions. You will live/work in a more hygienic and safe environments and less exposed to certain risks. You will not inhale all the dust and vehicle smoke so that your lungs will last longer.
We don’t have to go for such lengthy explanations. In the world we live in, when you are seriously ill, money can be the difference between life and death. Even if your condition is incurable you can probably extend your life by few years or make your last few days more comfortable. And imagine us being sick and out of work for a while and how that would affect our lives.
Work Life Balance, A Worry Free Day, Peace of Mind, Time to Relax, Youth, 25 Hour Day…
Aren’t these the things that we lose when we don’t get our priorities right in the first place? Or when we have no choice but work all day to make ends meet. We spend all day making money with no time live, and by the time we realize this we are already too old.
This is also what we lose if we become mindless materialistic consumers. Because all the stuff we buy hoping that they will make us happy, actually end up consuming us.
There are other reasons too, but you can actually use money to get some of these back. Trick here is quite simple. Know what you want. Know what will make you really happy.
And remember that you need time too, so don’t trade all your time for money. Keep some for your self. And use the extra money to buy time. But still remember that time is just time. Making it a good/relaxing/worry-free/peaceful is still up to you.
Happy Memories, Quality Time With Your Kids, Well Adjusted Kids, Close Knit Family, Relationship With Your Kids…
If we are lousy at parenting, no amount of money will help our kids other than buying them some good education, provided that they can handle it. But what if you buy time and use that time to be with your kids and family, you will have an opportunity to create all of the above.
About happy memories. There is a saying, “Don’t buy stuff, buy experiences”. I don’t know about other places, but the part of the world we live in, we can buy a quality vacation for entire family at a price lot less than the price of a high end smartphone or a tablet. But if we think stuff are more important, this wont help. You will have a relationship with stuff instead of your family.
A New Beginning, Wisdom, Open Mind, A Proper Perspective…
This is what we need to realize. Money is just money. It opens up opportunities. If you use those well you can have all above. Imagine creating time to meet new people, experience life/world beyond your daily routine, be more involved with your family, learn new things, develop new skills…
If those can’t open your mind and widen your perspective I don’t know what will.
Also there is a saying “If Money was not a constraint, would you be doing what you do right now? would you be making same career choices? would you become the same person?”
Happiness…
Happiness is a word loaded with so many meanings, Its different from person to person. It’s usually a few thing from above list. If you figure out what it means to you, and prioritize those in your life you will be happy.
Money can help you do stuff, but if you get your priorities messed up, money can’t help you. I am not trying to say money is all we need. That’s where we got it wrong in the first place. Money is a tool. Just like every other tool, how to use it is up to the user.
Have a Happy and Prosperous New Year
/Rakhitha
Tags: 25 Hour Day, A Long Life, A New Beginning, A Proper Perspective, A Worry Free Day, Clean Arteries, Close Knit Family, Family, Good Health, Happiness, Happy Memories, Long Life, Money, Natural Beauty, Open Mind, Peace of Mind, Quality Time With Your Kids, Relationship With Your Kids, Time, Time to Relax, Well Adjusted Kids, Wisdom, Work Life Balance, Youth
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