It's not all that.

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Some random thoughts on wealth and money and why it ain't all that.  

Being "rich" can be broadly defined.  Your brand new and expensive stuff needs to be protected, doted over, maintained. Having cheap stuff is less stressful. Time is more precious than money anyhow, you may have enough money to travel for 2 months every summer but if you can't get the time off, what use is it?  A college professor said that, in his opinion, being rich is being able to walk to work!  Maybe it's being able to go into work when you want to, not when you have to.  Maybe it's living modestly and only working on what you want to work on.  Finding wealth may have less to do with what's in your bank account and more to do with the freedoms you have earned.

On materialism:

  • The best things in life aren't things.

  • The "retail therapy" purchase high has been proven to only last about 2 hours.

  • Consumer desires are unhealthy, and to attain enlightenment you need to develop a life of non-attachment. Steve Jobs

  • There are studies showing a correlation between depression and material possessions.

  • Buddhism in a tweet - Life is suffering and the path to enlightenment (happiness) is to detach from 2 things - ego and desire. Restated nicely in a recent netflix show - the wanting is the suffering.