I am writing a new piece (in Russian), dedicated to my son. The idea is to share key lessons that life has taught me, in case I am not there to show/ tell him. Presumptuous, I know. Bear with me.

There is a chapter on Money, and one of the main points there is about what money is and what it does for us. Because money is such a big cause of happiness, or lack of it, I thought I’d quote here an extract from a blog post which for me answered these important questions.

It also changed my perspective on money. Money is not root of all evil. It’s an enabler. But it’s enabling YOU. So if you have enough money or not, depends on your attitudes, goals and how you define happiness. Read a complete post, and see if it can change your perspective from ‘I don’t have enough money’ to ‘What can I do with what I’ve got’ and ‘What are the goals that I want to achieve to make me happy, and how much money do I need to meet them’.

Subtle change in definition, massive difference.

Some people say that money is power. I disagree. There are plenty examples of rich people who are powerless. Some are drug addicts, some can’t control themselves, some are antisocial, some are lonely, some try to use money to influence others and fail miserably. If you associate money with power, you will end up destroyed by your own weakness. You can use cash to buy a sword, but you can’t use paper and coins to cut someone in half. Money is not power, it just buys stuff.

Money is the tool we use to procure other tools, making it the “ultimate tool”. Money represents speed. If your goal is to travel, the more cash you have, the faster and further you can travel. If your goal is family, the more cash you have, the more comfortable your home will be, the more time you will afford to spend with your family instead of working. If your goal is to be a professional football player, cash will buy you the best trainer accelerating your growth.

Money makes reaching your goals easier, faster and more efficient. That is why we need it. The more goals you have, the more paper you need. The bigger your goals, the bigger your coin purse must be.

PS: if like me you need a soundtrack to motivate you to read a long post, I can recommend this cool remix that I am listening to at the moment