How To Become Rich Quickly, And No, It Is Not What You Think

While in the early days, we merely compared our riches to our neighbors, nowadays we have social media, which expands our social network significantly. This has advantages and, of course, disadvantages. Earlier we only had to see what car the neighbor bought and where they went on holidays, now we have a large group of peers, showing their pictures of their posh car (which, by the way, could be just rented for the photoshoot) or their fantastic holidays. This can easily lead to a trap in which we don´t feel satisfaction, and we wish for more. Or even worse, we think more will make us happier. There is a problem with that; if you are not content with your life now, the chances are high that you will also not be satisfied with your life when you are more prosperous.

I will tell you the Stoics’ point of view, especially Seneca, it helped me a lot, and I hope it will help you too.

If you can be content with a simple life, you have a prosperous life. It is not someone who has little who is poor, but the one who craves for more. It doesn´t matter how much money you have, how many riches, if you still wish for someone else´s wealth, and reckon, not your gains in the past, but your hope of profits in the future, you still don´t live a content life. To become rich, don´t expand your riches but lower your desires.

He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.

Epictetus

The less you need riches, the more you will enjoy riches. If you crave riches, you will feel fear on their account. However, no one wants a blessing that brings anxiety; people will always try to add a little more. While they puzzle over increasing their wealth, they forget how to use it. They will cease to be master and become a slave.

How much wealth is needed to be content? Of course, the first thing is to have what is necessary, the first things required to live; food, water, energy, and a roof over one´s head. And second, to have what is enough. These limits are shown by nature; we have to avert hunger, thirst, and cold. That which is enough is ready to our hands. If you make a reasonable agreement with a simple life, you are rich. It is the unnecessary things for which we sweat and have to work hard.

If you live according to nature, you will never be poor; if you live according to opinion, you will never be rich.

Epicurus

Natural desires are limited, but those which spring from false opinion have no stopping point. The false has no limits. If you are traveling, you need to have a goal; if you go astray, your wanderings are limitless. Forgo idle things, and when would you know whether that which you seek is based upon a natural or upon a misleading desire, consider whether it can stop at any definite point. If you have traveled far and see that there is always a more distant goal in view, you may be sure that this condition is contrary to nature.

If you do not regard what you have as most sufficient wealth, you will be unhappy, even if you are master of the whole world; what does your condition matter if it is bad in your own eyes? If our own blind desires drive us, we will certainly never be satisfied; for if we could be satisfied with anything, we should have been fulfilled long ago. We should reflect on how satisfying it is to demand nothing, how noble it is to be fulfilled, and not dependent upon wealth.

We are not rich by what we possess but by what we can do without.

Kant

Behind every striving is a painful lack of something, yet obtaining this thing rarely makes us happy. Even if we manage to satisfy one desire, there are always several more unsatisfied ones ready to take its place. If we are lucky enough to meet our basic needs, such as hunger and thirst, then in order to escape boredom, we develop new needs for luxury items. At no point do we arrive at final and lasting satisfaction.

Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become.

Schopenhauer

According to Schopenhauer, happiness is no more than the absence of pain and suffering; the moment of relief is occasionally felt between the fulfillment of one desire and the pursuit of the next. For example, imagine the satisfaction of buying your first home. What makes us happy here, is not the positive state of being a homeowner, but the negative state of relief from the worries that come with not owning your own home. This happiness is likely to be short-lived, as a host of new concerns and stresses emerge, such as paying down the mortgage or doing maintenance and repairs.

For beyond the satisfaction of some real and natural necessities, all that the possession of wealth can achieve has a very small influence upon our happiness, in the proper sense of the word; indeed, wealth rather disturbs it, because the preservation of property entails a great many unavoidable anxieties. And still men are a thousand times more intent on becoming rich than on acquiring culture, though it is quite certain that what a man is contributes much more to his happiness than what he has.

Schopenhauer

All good and fair, you will say, but this is easier said than done. How can you learn this? How can you make this something not only you know but also can bring into practice?

Realize that it is not being not rich, or thinking that you are not rich, which makes you suffer. It is the desire to become rich, which brings suffering. The good thing about this is that you can change your desire; even better, you can start working on that right away!

At regular intervals, set three or four days during which you will be content with the simplest things. No fancy clothing, plane food, use your mobile only for the strict essentials. If possible, don´t use your car, but public transport or other means of transportation. During these days, ask yourself, is this really so bad? Is this truly something I should be afraid of? It is precisely when things are going well that you can train yourself and toughen yourself beforehand for occasions of more significant stress. If you are successful with this, you may extend it to a more extended period so that it may be a test of yourself instead of a simple hobby. You will understand that someone´s peace of mind does not depend upon wealth. You will be rich with all the more comfort, if you learn that a simple life is not a burden. Or as Seneca put it: `He is a great man who uses earthenware dishes as if they were silver; but he is equally great who uses silver as if it were earthenware. It is the sign of an unstable mind not to be able to endure riches.`

Another sensible rule of life; only indulge the body so far as is necessary for good health. Eat to relieve your hunger; drink to quench your thirst; dress to keep out the cold; house yourself to protect against personal discomfort. Fix a limit to your wealth that you will not even desire to pass. Or even better, get rid of the possessions you don´t need.

Count your blessings, name them one by one

J. Oatman, Jr.

There is some evidence that the idiom `count your blessings´ is Jewish in origin. There was an ancient Jewish tradition where people would try to get 100 blessings by the end of the day. Counting your blessings helps you to stay on track throughout the day.

We tend not to notice all the things that are going well for us, but instead, we focus on the bad things, or as Schopenhauer puts it: ‘we do not feel the health of our entire body but only the small place where the shoe pinches.’ By paying more attention to the blessings we have and the things we own, it is easier to live a simple and fulfilled life.

Wisdom offers wealth in ready money, and pays it over to those in whose eyes she has made wealth superfluous.

Seneca

Interesting links:

What Can a Pessimist Teach You About Happiness?

Pleasure Principle (Or Lusztprincip) Versus Reality

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