The Nothingness of Money - More to That

For example, if a friend told you that he wanted “I outperformed the S&P 500” on his tombstone, your immediate reaction would be to laugh. There is no way you’d take it as anything other than a joke.

Money is a required pursuit for life, but a pointless pursuit upon death.

Others aren’t as fortunate.

Equipped with this knowledge, people decided that they didn’t want to spend their entire lives thinking about money. They wanted the Nothingness of Money to start earlier than the last few moments of their lives, so they could spend at least a few decades living without the attentional drain of their finances.

The Nothingness of Money is truly understood.

Retirement is our clever way of extending the Nothingness of Money out while we are healthy enough to appreciate it. We work hard in our youth so that we don’t have to when we’re older. We no longer have to be on a deathbed to fade money out of our thoughts, as we can do that with decades left to spare.

While this sounds nice, it’s no longer enough. Many people believe that the Nothingness of Money should be pushed back even further. After all, why have 3 decades of freedom when you could have 6?

The problem is that we often fail to see the illusory nature of this story, and treat it as gospel until it’s too late. But by punctuating our days with an awareness of the Nothingness of Money, we can make choices that don’t place finances at the helm.

Wisdom is the co-existence of contradictory truths, and money is the clearest example of this. We must internalize its importance while also recognizing its pointlessness. We must operate within the story of money while also understanding that it’s a fairy tale.