Why would you want to make loads of money?

2026 Day 180. #PersonalDays.

You’ll meet hundreds of people obsessed with the simple idea of making more money. They do not know of a limit, they simply want to have more. There are infinite justifications for wanting to do so, only rarely will someone be honest enough to you. The answers can be hidden in their past, their personalities, and even from themselves.

When I was younger my dad would always talk about how making money should not be the main objective of your life. We are all going to die, and when we do we are going to leave everything behind, so why bother collecting too much?

I have always been a little argumentative so I tried to come up with a lot of answers. I would say that is always nice to have more than you need, so you do not worry and have funds for a rainy day. Money provides a sense of security that other things cannot always match. Spending money provides a sense of happiness that is almost universal.

These arguments were good enough but never supremely justified. There was always a caveat or a loophole around these that my dad would try and exploit. Over the years I have realised that he loves being right, so I let it be.

I too became a little less concerned about money. My main focus has been on gather new experiences, which need money. So I tried justifying my need for money to “live more” and I would spend as much as I earned. I had a lot of fun doing this for a little while.

Then I started feeling a little hollow. Spending money was great but I when I had less I could not justify spending it. I started hoarding more for “better days” and I started to feel the need of making more money again. This time I could not justify the need by spending it on my travels, I simply just wanted more money.

Eventually the same ideas propped up again in conversations.

“Why do you need to make so much money when you are going to leave everything behind?”

I finally found an answer.

A lot of the people you meet have several interests. Some people have the interest of making money, while others like painting, fitness, cooking, etc. No matter what one wants to do, besides make more money, it makes them a good person to have a conversation with.

In your 20s you will often meet people who talk about how they have been “forced” into a certain life. They would have loved to be someone else, do something else entirely, but because their interest is not one that helps them support a livelihood, they had to get over it.

They spend their adult life trying to make more & more money so that they can have some time off in their older days to pursue this hobby. Some never get to, and they are very vocal about it when they talk to younglings like me about it.

Why would you want to make a lot of money?

The simplest answer probably is that so my children do not have worry about choosing the path of their passion and not having enough money doing it. They should be able to do whatever they want with their lives (a bartender, a barista, a glass-blower) and be happy doing it. Money should not be an object in them pursuing their career, or surviving in their career.

Looking at my life currently, there are so many things that I would love to pursue forever. But these activities are things that interest me, and could possibly never make any money, unless I commercialise my life and become a content creator.

So I do have to sacrifice some of my interests at the moment so I can get in the business of making money. You will hear about it if it works out, not just from this blog but from the larger internet.

Looking forward, I know that I would not like my children to have to choose. I would like them to do whatever they want in their lives to their fullest extent.

This of course would require some restrictions, but I would like to look at this very optimistically. I am imagining a future that I barely have the first few pieces off and even they might not fit all together.

I do not think I am justifying my idea of making more money. I have simply never agreed with my dad’s lack of ambition regarding certain things. There are a lot of risks I had to take in life simply because I could not afford the safety.

I have poured all my energy into plan A, simply because plan B was not monetarily possible. Has this influenced my performance? Possibly. But it has also given me a lot of anxiousness that I never needed. And even if you pursue one plan whole heartedly, success is not guaranteed, and when you are down on your luck, it starts feeling a little worse.

Still, trying to look optimistically at the future.

See you tomorrow.