Much like gravity, money is an inescapable force in our lives. It has the power to weigh us down, leaving us feeling burdened and broken. However, with conscious effort and practice, we can develop the financial muscles needed to navigate this monetary gravity with agility and maybe, even challenge its rules.
Money-free Utopia?
But do we really have to accept that we are never going to escape money? Over the years, various attempts and experiments have been made by communities aiming to live without the concept of currency. While our ancient ancestors may have lived without it, the widespread success of money-free utopias remains elusive.
Auroville in India and Christiania in Copenhagen are a couple of notable examples, each having existed for around 50 years. But even these long-lived intentional communities have somewhat mixed results and must coexist with the broader monetary world.
I have always been interested in “alternative” ways of living. I actually once strolled through the streets of Christiania, fascinated by the lifestyle. Were the residents happier, a bit cooler or more enlightened? Or were they just high? Hard to tell as one notorious feature of the community is its lenient stance towards drug use.
While there, I learned that there was often problems in the community, law enforcement involvement, and frequent turn-over in residents. Not to discount the many beautiful parts about it and people who had great experiences! It was just not a utopia!
Henry Thoreau’s Walden also captivated my imagination, as it was supposed to be a beautiful tale of minimalist living in harmony with nature. While he did nobly portray the benefits of simple living and appreciating the environment, I also sometimes saw it as the story of a rich guy who mooched off his neighbors. His experiment of living in a shack for two years was only possible because of his existing wealth and community support.
While I love experimentation, innovators and boundary-pushers, the reality is that such extreme attempts at non-monetary living are generally not viable long-term solutions for most. Even seemingly money-free endeavors appear to eventually intertwine with the monetary world.
Join the Matrix?
So, must we toil ceaselessly to serve the money gods, never pausing to appreciate life’s beauty? As someone who left a well-paying job to embrace full-time travel in their forties, I think it’s clear where I land on the subject. However, the reality is that completely detaching from the monetary world isn’t practical.
I hate the unfair ways monetary value is assigned to people, professions, labor. It’s painful to see people struggle with hunger, homelessness, poverty in general. Watching wasteful consumption by people trapped on the “hedonic treadmill” is also distressing.
While I detest a lot of the world’s current monetary system, turning a blind eye to the current rules of money isn’t a viable option.
So what am I doing? I became financially literate and I used what I learned to give myself the financial freedom to leave a job in an industry that I found contributed to keeping the financial status quo – although, it took me over a decade.
I used the existing financial rules to maneuver into a position where I can vote with my money, rather than be a slave to it. I use money to buy time instead of things. With that time, I try to spread financial literacy to others and help them find the way they can best contribute to the world, rather than worry about surviving.
Don’t get me wrong, I also set my own schedule, do it from anywhere in the world I want, and do lots of other fun stuff, as well! While I’m nowhere near what most people would consider rich, I feel rich, having the luxury to do these things!
Embrace Reality
Ruminating about the unfairness of the current monetary system is NOT going to change it. NOT learning the rules and using them to your advantage, is not only hurting you, but hurts society at large, as well. You can attempt to ignore money, but rest assured, it will not ignore you.
So, embrace it! If you remain crushed under the force of money, you will remain powerless. Only by understanding the intricacies of finances can you hope to manipulate it in ways that are personally and socially beneficial. To witness a positive change in the use of money, we must engage with it, learn its rules, and participate actively in shaping a more equitable financial landscape.
Let’s dive into the world of money, armed with knowledge and a determination to create a better financial reality for the whole world – one person at a time!
Seeking More Freedom in Your Life?
What do you think? Are you in a love/hate relationship with money? Do you avoid finances in your life, feel like you don’t understand the rules to the game? Maybe I can help?
Comment, follow me, clap!