Relationships.
This has been on my mind for the past year.
Call it aging, or call it gaining maturity, I have elevated the value of relationships up a few notches in my life over the last few years.
Because people matter to us, and us to them.
Relationship problems are the cause of many past traumas I’ve had, but it’s also their fingerprints in our life that have led us to become who we are today.
Good relationships build and nurture us, while bad relationships hurt us and leave some parts of us damaged. The impact can last a long, long time.
So it’s clear that relationships are pivotal in our life.
However, instead of building good relationships, we are regularly reminded instead of the importance of monetary investments to secure a life of financial security and wealth.
Especially now that there is more exposure from social media about the emphasis on wealth and how to get more wealth for ourselves.
We are frequently thinking of new methods to earn more money, be it investing in stocks, properties, or cryptocurrency, and ways to take on additional sources of income by doing multiple jobs.
Together with the trend of capitalism with its displays of flashy advertisements and television programs showing what wealth can get you, it is pretty hard to avoid the feeling that monetary gain is the one key measure of success.
Don’t get me wrong, financial literacy is important, and financial independence is something we should aim for in the long term. Money after all can secure a good life for yourself and your family, so it has to be considered as a need for one to be financially sound.
But the pursuit of wealth should not be at the cost of our relationships.
We are driven to work harder, and longer hours, hustling to get ahead of the others and chase down promotions and work opportunities.
Some may even put off having children in adulthood or sacrifice time with family members due to having demanding jobs with the promise of high gains.
This may fit some people, and career ambition is probably something that we can push ourselves towards in our younger years, but eventually, we got to ask ourselves what is the end goal of having money
Let’s say you have gained sufficient income to take care of yourself and your family for years to come, and have managed to put yourself out of the ‘survival mode’ mentality where you were constantly pushing yourself to earn more money.
In other words, you have gained financial security and are now capable to continue to keep this status.
Would you still push out the relationships in your life in order to pursue even more wealth?
Instead, maybe we can work towards some semblance of work-life balance, as elusive as it sounds.
Maybe we can try to work smarter and set aside the needed time to see our aging parents, kids, and close friends.
Even if you are passionate about your work, which is a great thing to have, we still need to manage the relationships in our lives so that those do not fall apart.
In my opinion, good relationships are also investments, although their gain is not in monetary form.
The key message here is this.
In your pursuit of wealth, do not neglect the relationships with your loved ones your life.
Instead, money should be a tool.
A tool that is used not only to secure better health, better education, and opportunities, but also to nurture or grow the good relationships in your life.
Because life is a journey, and one of the end goals of having money is to be able to take care of our loved ones and friends, be it to have the ability to have more time with them or to meet their needs.
Without good relationships in our lives, it will feel pretty lonely to have all the cash but no one you love to spend it with.
So if you play your cards right while you are in your prime, then years from now, you would still be able to cherish the bond you have with your children, your spouse or partner, your parents, and your friends.
It would be a great loss to lose the important people in our lives along the way while we are pursuing wealth.
And let us take some time to think about this.
On our deathbed, who and what would be on your mind?
Money, will not be in mine, but I would think my love for my family will be one of my final thoughts.