Here’s a challenging question to ask yourself – If you didn’t need money, what would you fill your days with?
I’m not saying that you imagine you are super wealthy, at least not from a financial standpoint – but you are from a time freedom standpoint.
You can do anything you want with your days and you don’t need to worry about making money.
Some people would say they would go on a never ending stream of holidays. Others might claim a desire to “do nothing”, which I always find silly – how can you do nothing?
I’ve often asked myself, would I do what I do without there being a monetary incentive? Would I keep blogging, teaching and writing?
It’s actually quite hard to answer this question because the financial reward is so tightly tied into the motivation. It’s not the only reason, but it’s a strong factor. You enjoy the process, the intrinsic rewards, the people you connect with, but given how our society is structured, money is ALWAYS a factor, it’s part of our culture and our value system.
It’s scary to think that. Money is a part of us.
What Would You Do If All You Cared About Was Money?
Here’s the opposite question. If all you cared about was earning as much money as you can, what would you do?
Blogging is definitely not the best choice if you only care about the money. Compared to other means of building wealth, blogging is slow, the points of leverage aren’t nearly as strong as other methods and let’s face it – it’s hard work to be a blogger.
If I only cared about the money, perhaps Pay Per Click marketing affiliate products is a better choice? Or as I’ve said before, I’d probably spend my time just buying and selling websites, since the return is much higher given the effort required.
I’m pretty sure I’d be doing Internet business of some kind if I was going to focus on financial wealth only, but blogging would not be the first choice.
It’s Not Black and White
Ultimately this question is challenging because at the root of it is the fundamental question about your purpose in life.
Many people have different beliefs about why they exist but I don’t know many people who would say their purpose is to accumulate as much money as they can, yet that seems to be the driving factor for most of us in Western cultures.
So…what would you do if money did not matter?
If money did not matter. I would love to go on surfing trips, riding dirtbikes in exotic places, traveling the world, and compete in desert truck racing in the US Southwest.
If all I cared about was money then I would be a skinny, long haired, money hog who worked for euros.
I love Photography and Video, and I love to make people look their best on their special day ( Wedding, Birthdays, Bar Mitzvah, etc). But if money was out of the equation…
I probably would be more selective about what event to cover and who I would help to look their best. But I keep working!!! Even if just few hours/week.
Paulo
I’d be racing cars and hanging out with my friends every day.
Make music!
I’d definitely travel and cook Italian food!
I would take a couple of years and attend woodworking schools around the world. Then come back home and build furniture all day!
Well, I would teach skydiving lessons and travel the world. I would also stay with blogging and making websites. I truly enjoy working with computers and interacting with people. To bad I can’t blog for a living like some people.
I’d read more, and feel less guilty about time I could/should be working. I’d travel more.
And I’d focus on the aspects of my current work that I really enjoy; outsource more of those aspects that I enjoy less; and apply my marketing skills on behalf of organizations that I support.
Nice post. Some big thoughts for the weekend!
I’d have to agree with Alfa, I have always wanted to travel like crazy. I actually used to want to work for National Geographic as a photojournalist and wrote Bill Allen and asked him what it would take. Needless to say, it would take a lot, but all I wanted to do was travel, meet people, experience new cultures, and photograph everything. Actually Yaro, I badly want to come out to Australia and tour the southern cost, I heard there is a lot of surfing there. Hope you dig my thoughts!
I would sleep in, fill my days with daytime TV, eats lots of junk and party all night until I passed out and then repeat the process…
Just kidding…I would probably spend my days traveling, increase my workouts to two a day and build a lifetime of great memories on my travels. Yeah…that sounds good.
I would move to Beijing to blog about the Olympics.
If money didn’t matter to me I would endeavor to make money not matter to everyone else.
If money is not matter, I will travel the world and to be a helper in some poor countries !
If I was free of the shackles that money enslaves us with, I would enjoy more time with my children, before they grow up and realise they don’t need me so much.
Survival, love, and self-expression will always matter. You have to work in order to have food, clothing, and shelter. No money doesn’t mean no work. We all need to love and be loved, and that involves tremendous amounts of work at relationships. The need for self-expression is a part of us, so what we do for that matters. Many of us are responsible for our families.
In a sense, I think money already doesn’t matter. It’s just a medium of exchange. What’s on either side of the exchange is what matters.
Money didn’t matter? I’d stay at home and enjoy my children and go on trips around the world with my family.
If money was all that mattered? I’d probably become a lawyer or a doctor where money was my only concern and family was last.
I would spend most of my time working with kids to get them involved in outdoor activities like hiking, camping, kayaking. And chess. It makes me happy.
Oh, and science.
I will stop reading Yaro’s blog.
I would relax and enjoy life
I’d pay Yaro to finish the sentence – “I’m pretty sure I’d be doing Internet business of some kind if I was going to focus on financial wealth only, but blogging would not be the first choice.”
I believe that having money gives me choice. That ultimate freedom is much more important than the material benefits or fancy holidays. I feel like that especially because right now I do not have that choice. That is not meant to sound defeatist because I am still working at the problem and will continue to do so until I attract the kind of choice I am looking for.
Funny, I was having a talk with a friend the other day on this exact subject of having all the money in the world.
It is fun to think about.
But, other than giving money to my kids and grandchildren, I don’t think I would change anything much in my life.
I would give money to worthy charities. Especially those who help children
As I was a travel agent for over 20 years, I have already traveled the world. And I did it when it wasn’t such a hassle to transit airports!
I live in a sweet little old townhouse which is in Chicago only 40 feet from Lake Michigan. Which I bought before the prices skyrocketed. What else could I want?
I would pay my Visa card bill before it was due.
I would still blog. I like it. I have made so many new wonderful friends.
I am happy just bopping around in my life.
If money did not matter, as in I had enough for whatever I wanted, I would buy a lot of real estate and rental properties to increase my earnings.
Haha, my friend posed this exact same question to me not long ago. I would probably go and study full-time, I love studying and reading! Oh yeah, I’d love to travel too!
lol i hope that was a joke problogreviews
I’d apportion my time between creating awesome things and doing bugger all. I’d live by the beach and never see a day of winter. I’m not particularly fond of Autumn, either.
if money did not matter. I would stay focus with experimenting life.i devote my life with helping people, do volunteering work.
there are people living in a very simple way without care about money. they live at my place here. they eat what they catch from the sea and eat anything from the jungle. in the evening they go to the mosque, pray..
life is so simple.
If I had a ton of money then I probably would be doing pretty much the same as I’m doing now which is attempting to build a business that has the ability to profoundly affect the lives of people at a certain stage (the baby stage) in their lives. I would probably scour the globe to find the right person who could help me with this because with money I could afford to pay them.
I’m not one who can sit on a beach for years or even weeks.
Hiring someone would help free up some of my time to help/advise other entrepreneurs…which is what I like to do.
Now if all I cared about was earning as much money as I could then to me that would be sad and would probably mean I would miss out on some powerfully meaningful connections in this world.
I’d do the whole travel thing and maybe even live in an ashram for a while but I think I’d get really bored after not too long.
I think it’s important to create something, so I’d have to think up projects for myself. But at least money would give me enough freedom to have the confidence to create projects that help people, a lot.
I would travel. I would have sex. I would do everything I have ever dreamed of since I was a little boy. I would play games, I would still blog and raise my business.
If money did not matter, something else would, and that would be (in my opinion) reputation. But I would take a vacation first. Swim in the ocean, climb a mountain, catch some Hawaii tan.
Your question makes me dream.
If money was absolutely all that mattered: deal drugs, weapons or (ideally) both. More legal (whether less ethical I’m not so sure) become a real estate agent.
If money didn’t have to matter I’d read and write about what was important to me. (Pretty similar to what I do now). I’d spend time doing psychotherapy for free.
If money did not matter, I would travel a lot through the 5 continents and even through the Antarctica and North pole.
Second, I would be an investor on Real estate (mainly), small companies and maybe a little bit on the stock market.
Last but not least, I would have two foundations in my country: one for very intelligent teenagers with no money (paying their college) and another for animals (taking care of abandoned domestic animals).
What would I do if money didn’t matter? Those holidays sound pretty good. I would most likely buy myself a huge house and a few rest houses in other countries. I would write all day (because I aspire to be a fiction author) and travel to different parts of the globe with my boyfriend.
Actually, wouldn’t it be funny if everybody else chose to travel? Each country would be brimming with different nationalities. Every city would be called a global city.
>>If you didn’t need money, what would you fill your days with?
I still would work, as I’m doing right now. From my own home.
I did a lot of traveling in the past and although that’s very interesting and highly inquisitive, in the end I still want to accomplish something.
Working from home also means, I also can spend a lot of time with my family.
I was lucky to turn my hobby into my work, so I’m fine as it is right now.
I don’t know what I would do. I would probably start a business that would simply help people to achieve something. As a matter of fact, I wrote an article about Ways to improve your business that is pretty useful in the real world (where money is part of us)
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money-lessons.com
I would travel around the world, enjoy this wonderful life, learn as much as I can. teach and help the needy.
I would clear my debts, payoff my house, buy a nice car, fix myself up with nice things, and travel. I would donate to animal charity because I think some humans are so cruel to animals. I would buy a nice fishing boat and fish and soak up the sun. I would have a small business in a small town and make it a social light to the community and have fun with it and try to not let the government tax it too much. I would live each day to it fullest that I can make of it and go to sleep thanking God for the day and friends as always.
If money did not matter? I like Onerepublic’s ‘ Good Life ‘ song. Realizing a ‘Good life’ is having ones health… SO I would get in shape. Once fit for travel I would meet new people on friendly and helpfull basis. Greed is dispicable. I am sure most sane people would agree that meeting someone who is upbeat and friendly and helpfull is much more desirable than having to serve or be around those who think they are the “chosen ones”. Disney trains their employees to make every encounter in the Parks a unique experience to their guests. Much is the way of a “good life”.
This so does not matter, coz money does matter, unless you are a fortunate son or daughter, there are a 1000 things I would do, but would u pay my bills?
I have to say, I have been traveling the world working from my laptop for the last 2 years…And well, most of the dreams you all talked about, can be had with VERY LITTLE money. It still amazes me when people think they need millions to go sit in the sun on the beach and get a tan… Or go live in an Ashram etc… I don’t blame you for thinking this way, I was there myself. But when i read things like this now, it just makes me laugh. My advice…Drop the mental blocks of the money you think it takes to live most of those dreams (Aside from the Antartica one) and just go live your dreams…Everyday that passes your dying, getting closer to death. One day it will come and you will never get another chance. That’s how I thought when i dropped everything and decided to start my new life, living my dreams. It has made all the difference, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.