One of my goals is never to think about money. This might sound odd coming from someone who constantly writes about money and runs an investment firm, so let me clarify.
I’m happy to think about money in general. I’m even happy to think about my clients’ money. I just don’t want to think about my own constantly. My commitment to attaining financial independence is so I never have to worry about money. Or at the very least, worry about it less often.
I think about my finances all the time. It drives me mad, but it is normal. I’m not there yet. I’m still on the journey. What expenses are coming up? How could I cut costs? How do I find more money to invest?
It never ends. This is not a great way to live, and therein lies the key lesson.
The real reason to amass money is so we don’t have to worry about money. We should all strive to live beneath our means and settle on an investment strategy we’re comfortable to commit to over decades. Yes, it will take that long.
The analogy most frequently used is that of health: it’s only when we’re ill that we realise how great it is to feel healthy. Similarly, it’s only when we’re financially stressed that we realise how great it is to be in good financial shape.
One way or another we need to make peace with the world of money, including fretting less about market turmoil, the financial setbacks we encounter, and how our income and net worth compares with others.
They may appear to be the most wretched people on earth, but in reality they are far happier than we Europeans
— James Cook, British explorer
That peace of mind, I suspect, only comes with learning contentment, learning to answer the question| how much is enough. It was answered for me in a book. Bill Bryson writes In a Sunburned Country about the priceless reaction of the Aborigines to James Cook’s “discovery” of their country.
“The creaking Endeavor [his vessel] was clearly the largest and most extraordinary structure that could ever come before them, yet most of the natives merely glanced up and looked at it as if at a passing cloud and returned to their tasks.” They were clearly not impressed. But why did the Aborigines act in this way?
“They seemed not to perceive the world in the way of other people. No Aboriginal language, for instance, had any words for yesterday or tomorrow — extraordinary omissions in any culture. They had no chiefs or governing councils, wore no clothes, built no houses or other permanent structures, sowed no crops, herded no animals, made no pottery, possessed almost no sense of property…,” Bryson wrote.
Cook’s observations led him to this conclusion: “They may appear to be the most wretched people on earth, but in reality they are far happier than we Europeans. They live in a tranquility which is not disturbed by the inequality of condition: the earth and the sea of their own accord furnish them with all the things necessary for life … they seem to set no value on anything we gave them.”
Junk food
What we can all learn from the Aborigines is contentment. Define how much is enough. Never forget that human beings are a part of nature: we are not above it. We evolved over millions of years to live in a simple natural environment with few possessions. As hunter-gatherers we were often nomadic, and we travelled light.
Then we “hacked” the world: we invented the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution and the information technology (IT) revolution, and those three things are now making us sick.
We weren’t designed to graze constantly on processed carbohydrates and junk food. We weren’t designed to work more than 40 hours a week doing the same thing over and over like a photocopier. We weren’t designed to stare at a screen, hunched over, waiting for the next notification (dopamine hit) on social media.
Seeking contentment helps reconnect us with a more natural way of living. The hardest part of creating wealth is knowing when enough is enough. The sooner you learn this lesson, the sooner you will attain wealth (enough) and think less about money.
• Luthuli is investment manager at Luthuli Capital.
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