Money is great. Money provides freedom. But you will always regret sacrificing love for money. When you get older, you will realize how true this statement really is if you haven't found someone.
Life is simply not as fun if you don't have someone to share it with. Further, finding “the one” might also want you to start a family. Not that everybody should have kids. Just know finding love is a huge catalyst for wanting to bring life on Earth.
Here's a story from my friend about her regrets sacrificing love for money and career. Then I’ll share another conversation I had with an entrepreneur who wished he didn’t focus so much on his business.
Before you make any decision, go through a regret minimization exercise to help you make better choices.
You Will Always Regret Sacrificing Love For Money
My old VP, let's call her Lana, who is now my friend, invited me to her house party. It wasn't her house, but her new boyfriend's house. I was thrilled for her because, at 54, she had gone most of her post-college life without a steady boyfriend.
She graduated with honors from Columbia University and then received her MBA from Dartmouth. For the next 30 years, she worked 60+ hours a week to climb the ranks at Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, and then Morgan Stanley.
In 2002, at age 37, she made Managing Director and continues to be a big wig on Wall Street today. I wouldn't be surprised if she regularly clears at least $1.25 million dollars a year.
When I first met Lana, she was the most focused and intense woman I had ever met.
Even after going through 50+ interviews with various people on the floor and interviewing with her twice, she still wanted to interview me one last time over coffee. She was meticulous and baffled some public university guy could actually join the international equities team at Goldman Sachs. She also correctly suspected I was a misfit who might not fit the firm's culture.
Although she grilled me like a wagyu burger, we became friends. I think our common heritage helped us connect.
Never Could Quite Find Love Early
She would tell me about her ski trips to Whistler or to the Swiss Alps where she randomly met guyS. She always beamed with joy when she talked about her encounters.
Every time she told me of her adventures, she'd shed her image of the hard-charging Vice President and become like a school girl falling in love for the first time.
After one trip, I remember her telling me she'd met a Tunisian gentleman, whom I immediately started referring to him as “The Tasmanian,” an ode to the Tasmanian Devil who had swept her off her feet. She was thrilled.
Unfortunately, that relationship lasted for only six months because it was too hard to maintain a long-distance relationship.
Finally Found Someone To Love
When I caught up with Lana at her new boyfriend's house party, she told me she was finally happy. I asked her if she could rewind time back to when we first met in 1999 what would she do differently.
She responded, “I would have absolutely focused as hard on my love life as I did on my career. I was so focused on making Managing Director as a female person of color that I overly sacrificed my personal life. Once I made Managing Director, I felt like I had to work even harder to prove my worth. As you know, the higher you go in finance, the more at risk you are of being cut.“
Lana went on, “I have all the money I will ever need. But for about 20 years, I didn't have anybody close to share it with. It felt pointless working so much. Yes, I was able to spoil my mother by taking her out to the nicest restaurants and bring her on amazing vacations, but it's different you know?
I would be willing to give up all of my wealth just to have found someone like my current boyfriend 20 years ago.”
Spent Too Much Time Working Too
I told Lana that I empathized with her situation. I, too, was overly focused on my career in my 20s and early 30s. To get promoted and paid I sacrificed my happiness and health. At least with Lana, she made Managing Director. I did not.
Because of my career focus, I didn't propose to my girlfriend until 10 years after I met her. I couldn't propose without feeling like I was on the right career path or had enough money to provide for a family. It was and still is expensive living in San Francisco or Honolulu.
Given I proposed so late, we only had our first child in 2017, nine years after marriage and 19 years after our first meeting! Talk about taking the scenic route to starting a family. Having children late is one of my biggest regrets given I love them more than anything. If I had them earlier, I would be able to spend a greater percentage of my remaining life with them.
If I had more balance, I wouldn't have felt such a great need to retire ASAP. However, life was a little different back then. Instead of being able to play pickleball for three hours during the middle of a workweek, I had to be in the office and grind.
In retrospect, I regret focusing so much on money and career. If I hadn't, I would have had the courage to start a family by my early 30s instead of at 39.
As an older parent, I’m now doing my best to spend as much time with my kids to make up for starting late. This explains why I’ve been willing to be a stay-at-home dad for the past seven years.
The Entrepreneur Who Married Late And Can't Have Children
I was recently conversing with someone who openly admitted to regretting prioritizing money and prestige over finding a life partner.
Coming from a culture that highly emphasized wealth and status, he attended a fancy private university. In pursuit of financial success, he chose a path of talking about making money soon after college. He authored books, launched a website, sold courses, and appeared on TV, achieving all his goals.
However, despite reaching these milestones, he finds himself unsatisfied, because his wife is unsatisfied. She wanted to have kids two years after they married in 2018, but he didn't want to because he was focused on accumulating even more wealth.
Now, at 39 years old, his wife faces biological challenges in fulfilling her wish for children. Meanwhile, he contemplates whether his business-centric decisions will lead to lasting regret. He's 42 years old and thinking more about his legacy.
The Different Types Of Love
Love is complicated because there are so many different types of love. I think there are six types of love we feel.
The first type of love is the love you feel for your parents and siblings. This is a default love because y'all are forced together. Some of us develop incredibly tight relationships with our parents and siblings.
The second type of love is the love that you feel for your friends. You love hanging out with them. Sometimes you tease them because you care. You wish them all the success in the world because their wins feel like your wins.
The third type of love is the love you feel for your first boyfriend or girlfriend. Some might call it lust or passion. This type of love is thrilling and sometimes addicting. We all know people who have fallen in love with falling in love.
The fourth type of love is an extremely deep love once you've found your soulmate. This is the person you share all your secrets with at pillow time. You not only trust this person with your life, but you're also willing to sacrifice yourself for him or her.
The fifth type of love is the joyous love you have for your children. Your children give you more pride than anything else in the world. Your children motivate you to become a better person. As a parent, you constantly think about teachable moments and their future well-being. Children bring about a love you never knew existed.
The final type of love is spiritual love. It is an undefined love in something more powerful that provides hope, purpose, and comfort.
So Many Types Of Love To Feel!
With at least six different types of love, it makes absolute sense to focus at least an equal amount of time on love as we do on our careers and our pursuit of wealth. Sacrificing love for money is suboptimal as you get older.
Yes, there is also a love for prestige, money and status. But if we focus too much on career and money, we become unbalanced. We start feeling empty because we start wondering what is the damn point of working so much? Such feelings revolving around how society views us is temporary.
Although I realize this, I've also found it extremely hard to quit the money. Once you have a family to provide for, there is an inherent desire to earn and accumulate more to protect them.
If hard work is no longer enough to get ahead, having a lot of money can sure help cushion the frustrations.
Sometimes You'll Waste Your Time Too
Everlasting love is not guaranteed. Divorces happen all the time. It takes constant work because we tend to take the people we love for granted. We'll also sometimes make a mistake and end up in a terrible relationship. But the search is worth it.
Just because you are alone now does not mean you will be alone forever. Like anything worth doing, you've got to put in the effort to combat loneliness. You can't just expect love to serendipitously find you. It's worth guarding against a lonely existence.
Relationships Take Time To Nurture
Establishing meaningful relationships doesn't happen by chance. Often, it requires intentional effort, involving potential rejections and breakups along the way. Once a connection is found, building a lasting relationship may demand years of dedication and work.
Regrettably, as we age, the quest for love becomes more challenging. Our physical appearance changes, and many of those we might be interested in have already found a partner. Initiating the search early, akin to investing, can often enhance the likelihood of finding a compatible partner.
As I come to the end of this post, I realize I need to spend more time improving my relationships with my mother, my sister, a couple of friends, and with myself. Working on my relationship with my wife and two children is a given.
Over the past 10 years, I've spent way too much time focusing on building wealth for my family and my readers. I need to redirect some of my energy to my loved ones while they are still around.
It's never too late to find someone special. So, if you're still looking for love, I believe you'll find it by redoubling your efforts in the search.
Related post about sacrificing love for money:
The Curse Of Making Too Much Money And Not Pursuing Your Dreams
If You Love Your Spouse, You'd Make them Financially Independent
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My greatest recommendation for someone in early adulthood is to find your person BEFORE you graduate, especially if you are on the awkward or introverted side. There will never be another time in your life where you’re forced to get to know other people, or vice versa, and it’s not weird to date them. It’s weird to date coworkers and I don’t recommend it. Once you graduate, you can do all manner of organized activities but it’s no substitute for that day-in-day-out exposure and opportunity in school.
Dear Sam, I’ve made occasional comments before and here is another. What the two friends of yours almost certainly have in common is an inability to feel most of their unpleasant emotions. Emotions like guilt, fear, anger, jealousy, maybe hopelessness or weakness. Also what may happen is that one develops fear of the emotion of fear. Things like workaholism are distractions. This is something learned in early childhood, that emotions are dangerous or that one is bad for having certain of the “negative” ones. Lana taking her mother out for fancy vacations and meals is a great example of these dynamics at play in families: she’s trying to get approval from her mother that will never come. probably her entire adult life, her perfectionism, her accomplishments, all of it has been an attempt to gain that approval that the mother was never capable of giving. Unless these friends can become aware of their unwanted feelings, I don’t think it would have mattered what relationships they had in the past or presently. The same issues would come up.
As someone who benefited from Dr Sarno’s books, I know you must have some awareness of this. But unpacking what he wrote in his books and putting it into practice in life is a greater matter than it seems. As a physician, now retired from clinical practice at least, I’m quite certain that what I’m talking about here is the fundamental cause of all disease. Lastly in the types of love, what about the love for oneself? Can you have love for anyone else or be loved by anyone else, without love for yourself?
I’m dealing with this now. I’m 34 and put my life on hold in my late 20s/early 30s to focus on financial freedom.
Now I’m financially independent but I’m dealing with major loneliness and despite essentially having my entire life together, I’m struggling to find a girlfriend/someone I can see marrying one day.
Many times I feel like I’m too late and missed out on finding a great girl. Everywhere I go, the women I like are all taken by their late 20s which makes me think all the good ones are taken by then. I’ve had really bad experiences with women past a certain age.
34 is still very young! Don’t give up hope. Finding love is a numbers game. I think you have to talk to 100 women define maybe five to go on a date with and one to find a good match. Don’t give up.
Hi Sam, thanks for the words of encouragement!
I haven’t given up hope/given up and I know 34 is still technically young (and I take impeccable care of my health), but I don’t like to think I’ve got all the time in the world either.
I do approach/ask out women as often as I can and I know it is a numbers game but I never anticipated it would be so hard finding someone I’m attracted to and who shares my values. And I had no problem getting women in my 20s when I was broke, in far less better shape, less educated, didn’t dress well, etc. so it definitely weighs on you after a while.
Sam, yes, 34 is really young and if you are intentional in finding someone with the same diligence as you are with your finances, your chances of finding a match will be really high.
I never thought about it much, but someone pointed out to me that I started dating my husband in college and therefore I was only “on the market” for about 18mo! Yikes. To me getting married was the easy part – you can combine incomes and have shared goals,etc (and then there is love too!). It’s when to start having kids that was a much harder decision.
I made dating a full time job last year and I had a really bad experience. Admittedly, these are all women off dating apps so maybe that’s where I went wrong but many people aren’t serious, many are dishonest, many will use you from your time/attention/resources. I think you’re fortunate you met someone early on!
Try dating women in the 22-26 age range. You should have no problem as a 34 year old if you are doing well and reasonably in shape.
I’m in the best shape of my life (5’9″, 170lbs, 10% body fat) and have a great income and dating is still miserable and nothing like it was in my 20s. I get rejected a lot and many women are very unapproachable (people in general have gotten very closed off post-covid). As much as I’d love to date someone in the 22-26 age range, from what I understand, most women don’t want to date someone that much younger than them.
But money can buy love. Love on the other hand can’t buy money.
Love is temporary. You fall in and out of it. And it’s the money that pays for the divorce when the love is done and dusted.
I’ll take the money and buy the love.
Concerning marriage I can’t judge because our countries are totally different in terms of taxation, however my wife and I never wanted to have children and we’re sincerely happy to never have any, moreover the family or our friends always want to associate us with their offspring financially or other…
We prefer to live the life we dream, rather our children live our own dreams, that is our first principle. This may seem selfish to you, but not to us.
Sorry to being against the current with the others personn concerning the children.
Thank you for your article Sam !
Hi Stephane,
Thanks for your comment. It’s totally awesome. Not have children and to enjoy the freedom that not having children provides.
The main point is finding love, and I’m glad you found love!
Thank you Sam,
Because often the persons are shocked by our decision.
I’m happy too for you, you have find your happiness in creating your own family.
We are came to make a little trip of your country of Hawaii to New York, during some months d’oct to dec 2023, it was very enriching for us, San Francisco is a city very interesting.
I prioritized getting a job and working after being scarred by childhood poverty.
Met my husband early, but was too busy spending money and travelling to take it seriously. Had problems conceiving and ended up having 3 kids in 3 years at a late age. I’m grateful, but I would do anything to have started this journey long ago and been able to have had one more child.
I’m still trying to work a bit, but it feels pointless when my main focus is my kids. Kudos to the women who can do it all.
Western feminist propoganda says that being a mother, wife, and a homemaker are a form of oppression. Slaving away your life for heartless coporations is a much better life for the modern woman. Research shows that women are much more miserable today vs before the advant of latest feminist movment of 60s/ 70s. Having children and being a mother is just about the most instinctive biological aspiration we have as humans. Telling young women that settling down and having husband and children is a part of the male patriarchy is disatrous and unnatural. As if slaving away to a boss is a much deeper aspiration.
Can’t tell you how many working professional women I meet in my business who have climbed the corporate ladder and are miserable because they bought into the feminist mantra that “you don’t need a man to be happy”. Now they’re at an age beyond having kids and feel unfulfilled as well as lonely.
Men and women were designed to compliment one another, not compete against one another. Men are providers and protectors. Women are nurturers and caretakers. It’s hard-wired in our DNA. 50 years of feminism isn’t going to change thousands of years of biology.
So true Steven. Somehow, modern woman have been convinced that slaving away to a corporation is somehow better than having a family and a husband. They are told that to be equal to men, they must also act like men. Live lived similiar to those.of men. They put on this act of being crude, rough, and even obnoxious. Traits that are a complete turn off for men when looking for a mate. So they supress their fundamental biological instincts of settling down with man and motherhood, and pretend they are happier obeying their corporate bosses. That illusion/ supression of insticit is broken when they realize their biological clocks are ticking and indeed have a much much shorter timespan than males they are trying so hard to be ” independent” of. Eveeything would be so much easier of woman and men simply followed their natural dispositions and not fake pretend they are happy being alone, childless, and eating chinese take out in a 1 bedroom apt in the trendy part of town wondering where it all went wrong. Studies have shown western women are more miserable than they have ever been. Its simply.because women have been the most masculine/ least feminine they have ever been. How long can they pretend ?
Definitely missed this memo and I have no female friends that think this way either! I will say I love my career, but my western feminist friends and I are all married with kids.
I’ve always been the type to have just a few really close friends and hence was longing to find a life partner since an early age. I got lucky in college and held on. I wish everyone could find love in their life at some point. Alas some have a less clear relationship destiny. One of my friends from my 20s is still single in her 40s which makes me sad because she’s an incredible person. But I think it’s partially due to her focus on work and frequent relocations, and unwillingness to compromise and devote long enough to a relationship to get past the honeymoon phase. I do hope though that someday I’ll get a surprise email out of the blue inviting my family to her wedding.
I was focused on finding a husband, starting a family, raising children to the point that O left the work force to spend more time with young children. I never for a second thought if my career even though I was a national honor student, won prizes, scholarships, and got a master degree. 6 years into staying at home, I wasn’t happy, I had a wake call and deeply regretted that I didn’t develop a profession of my own. So now I’m back to the office starting over and extremely happy that I finally saw the light. Everyone needs an occupation. Family, love can’t replace that.
Different strokes for different folks. I decided to stay at home and 15 years later I have no regret but I respect your decision and those who have the opportunity to make a choice.
Varies by person. My wife started out like the lady in the attached but quickly hated corporate America and decided to be a homemaker instead and has loved it a lot more, with far less stress – she bowed out at 30. Personally, I just think a balanced life is better for most people but if you are happy, who cares what others think?
I was always a huge fan of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as an explainer of what it means for a person to be happy and fulfilled. People might disagree with the priority of Esteem & Self-Actualization versus Family & Belonging, but these are separate needs. Balance is key – you can’t starve one at the expense of another.
https://www.thoughtco.com/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-4582571
Everyone ” needs” an occuaption? Really? I doubt that statment will hold truth for many of us with spouses, children, and aging parents.
All you need is love.
Rich or poor, it’s nice to have money.
I feel so lucky to have a balance of love and wealth. Mrs. RB40 and I have our ups and downs, but we’re a team. That’s the secret, IMO. You have to be on the be the same team. Us against the world!
Sam I think being and falling in love is more difficult like everything on the coasts…life in California or NYC is so complicated, competitive and expensive that it drains away so much. I think love is easier to find in an area where you don’t have to spend half your life to afford to buy a house and park your car!
Yes, so many types of love! And each one is so important to a fulfilling life over the years in so many different ways. I didn’t understand this much at all when I was young. But the way you describe it is spot on.
Taking a chance on love also definitely takes courage. A good friend of mine had a lot of short relationships during her 20s and 30s and is still single in her 40s. She’s not a big fan of online dating, but I encouraged her to at least give it a try while also still trying to meet someone the more traditional way (through friends or meetups). She wasn’t going to even bother trying before I talked to her. But hopefully now she’ll keep more options open and make a connection with someone this year.
I hope this year brings stronger relationships for everyone in friendships, spouses, SOs, parents, kids, relatives, colleagues, neighbors etc. Connecting with people really brings light and happiness into our lives.
Circumstances of upbringing are so critical.Those children raised in a stable functional family have such a head start over the rest of us
They have successful example to emulate so that if a different or unusual path is chosen the consequences will be clear and obvious
I was lucky (now 76) to find a like minded partner at 18-married at 23 and still together
Luck does play a large part -accidents,illness can throw things in a serious loop
As I age with now with 3 married children and eight grandchildren I often quote to 10 commandments to the grand kids as good rules to live by
My wife and I am not religious though all her family are Church Ministers,Bishops etc but my reasoning is that a set of rules for life honed over many hundreds of years are more likely to be right than one person’s particular current “take” and if things go wrong no complaints to grandpa if problems have been caused by breaking one of these rules!
I particularly enjoy pointing out how hard it is to make the relationship of a man and women to work-in fact so much so that 2 of the commandments specifically refer to this particular conundrum
Probably those lucky enough to have this stable upbringing also learn as a consequence to get money and it’s ramifications in proportion
Money is like oil in the engine-you certainly need enough of it but if the engine is broken no amount of oil will save it
xxd09
Love your descriptions of different phases and types of love. Love is a wonderful and powerful emotion but it is also a controlling emotion. I tend to relate to it in the animal kingdom, for example some birds enter a monogamous relationship for life! I think seahorses and some fish do the same. Love can make you do some crazy things in the name of reproduction! For example just think of Penguins traveling miles and miles in the arctic to get food and then bring it back for their offspring. It can be crazy. Love can also make people blind to issues and overlook problems. These are some of the drawbacks, but the amazing positives are the good feelings, especially that high school crush or sweetheart, that initial surge is amazing. To each their own how you mix it in with life and love. We are complex creatures!
Awesome post, Sam! In my case, as a middle-aged FIREd woman who grew up in an abusive, traditional household (dad worked and controlled the money, mom was a SAHM with no power) I never wanted to be in my mom’s situation and ever depend on anyone. So I prioritized work big time. Now I’m financially comfortable but still single, and I do get lonely at times. But I plan to start dating again, so not all is lost (your former boss’ example is inspiring!), and even if it’s been hard I definitely do not regret my decision. Women who depend 100% on their husband’s income really take a risk – even if the guy is the best ever, nobody can be certain he won’t be hit by the proverbial bus tomorrow.
Thank you for sharing your story!
“ I never wanted to be in my mom’s situation and ever depend on anyone.”
I commend you for your strength and your discipline to become financially independent, and not have to depend on anyone.
“ Women who depend 100% on their husband’s income really take a risk – even if the guy is the best ever, nobody can be certain he won’t be hit by the proverbial bus tomorrow.”
Yes ma’am. I think you’ll enjoy a couple of these posts. Maybe I will republish them as well:
https://www.financialsamurai.com/if-you-love-your-spouse-youd-make-them-financially-independent/
https://www.financialsamurai.com/financial-dependence-is-the-worst-why-each-spouse-needs-their-own-bank-account/
I work hard, because as a blind individual, I never know when I’ll need a good financial reserve. I don’t want to run the risk of losing my job and finding myself dependent on anyone. My partner thinks I work hard at the expense of the relationship, but the rent won’t pay itself. Nannies don’t come free, and someone’s got to put food on the table in one of the country’s most expensive metropolitans. I think it’s a little easier to become reflective on love being more important when you’ve got a comfortable cushion to fall on. Until then, you have to keep grinding.
That’s a good point. And it’s hard to step back from the grind and look at the bigger picture when you’re in it.
The good thing about your partner, too hard at the expense of your relationship is they can work harder to let you work less hard. What do you think about that compromise?
I have had tax clients that remained single their whole life, and don’t regret it. They have said they could not support someone else, kids are too expensive these days, etc. These are the exceptions. However, the exceptions are growing because of the rate of increases of health insurance. Best to be healthy, wealthy, and wise. Ben Franklin. If you look at Franklin’s history, he did not have a good marriage and actually disinherited a son. Excellent newsletters.
The one thing unmarried couples need to be aware of is not being able to get their partners Social Security benefits, if something were to happen. So strategically, it may be wise to get married in retirement.
Lol
Marrying someone for social security benefits. Must be some broke loser
Why would you say that? Let’s say a couple loves each other and doesn’t marry to save $20,000 a year in marriage penalty tax. After 30 years, that’s $600,000. And then if they strategically marry before one dies, the survivor gets SS benefits for life. That’s smart to me.
Are you single?
What would you say to an early 30s female who hasn’t found love yet?
Keep living with parents in suburbs to save up money for a down payment for SF Bay Area, or move to the city for better social life (but more expenses)?
After years of roommates (before moving back with parents), I don’t think I can do the roommate route anymore. Career is fine (think banking, consulting, tech, etc), but could be better if I hustled + networked more. Financial independence is something I dream of, but I am worried about loneliness.
I feel for you Phoebe, and you are right to be thinking about how you evolve. I am in the Bay area as well and thank my stars I met my wife back down in Socal in my early 20s – meeting people up here these days is a way differnt ballgame. Our friend’s son, late 20s, just got married to a girl he met online – I guess that’s what people do these days. Another guy at my golf club met his wife and prior 2 girlfriends at the gym/tennis club. I would advise you keep that close relationship with your parents and save the money if the situation is cool for you and them, while continuing to expand your social and activity engagements until you meet the right person. More interactions = more opportunities. It will happen.
I would say to you there are a lot of good men out there who are overlooked by the majority if women because they don’t make six-figures, not 6ft tall, etc, . Don’t spend your time chasing after the top 1% of men. Unless you’re willing to share him with multiple women all vying for a shot at the title.
I made this mistake, and I may regret it for life. My soulmate appeared at 31 years old, and my entrepreneurial aspirations along with my technical career were really taking off, and I thought that I needed to put all my focus on that. I realized soon after that I had made a mistake and she was quickly engaged to someone else.
I’m the opposite. I have focused on my love life and let finding a career fall to the wayside. I’m 28 and I’m still in college all because I have always believed love is more important than money. I’m still living at home too, and I’m still single. So I don’t know if you want to be like me, the woman who put love before everything else, or like your Asian friend who put everything else before love. Either way, it looks like neither of us is happy
Great post Sam. Totally gives someone a lot of important things to think about.
I’m currently a 35 yr old stay at home mom of 2 and surprisently pregnant with #3. I don’t regret giving up my job for love/family at all. Unfortunately you can’t have it all, when trying to catch 2 rabbits you will end up with neither. My husband and I have very traditional gender roles and it works. My life is very fulfilling being able to raise my kids everyday instead of paying a nanny or daycare to do it for me. It has worked put financially also. We are ” regular people” my husband is a union firefighter and I’m a hobby Ebay reseller. We have a paid off mortgage, each child had a 529 plan, fully funded retirements, 1.5 years of emergency funds, pension plan, the best free health and dental insurance…..what more do we need to be content?
“I would absolutely trade all my wealth to have my family” is so, so true, Sam. I still remember quite vividly a night about 4 years ago when I was putting my son to bed (soon after my daughter was born), and as I was looking ahead to 5-7 years of intense work that would almost certainly produce a hefty payout — but would *quite* certainly require very long hours and much travel. I clearly saw my future self, wishing he could trade that hefty payout to get those years back with his kids. I can always make more money, but I can never make more time with my family. Thanks for sharing your own story, Sam.
I am in my mid 20’s and I literally cannot stop thinking about making more money or building more wealth. It is unhealthy, but I can’t help it. I need to find the right balance between ambition and complacency, or “enough” as you put it. Stray too far one way and you’ll be rich, alone and miserable, stray the other way and you’ll feel unfulfilled, likely “poor”, and miserable. Have to find the middle ground.
Totally believe in that its worth the search with the caveat that not everyone has the character to be in a good relationship. If you can’t give up being selfish, your partner will suffer. In that case, both parties are better off living the single life.