Saving Money and Accumulating Wealth:
Understanding Abundance and Needs
Abundance is a state of mind and it is very relative to our needs. Everybody has different levels of needs and desires that they require to be comfortable. Much of this is a result of childhood conditioning and the environment we were in during our developmental years. Some require very little to feel abundant and others require a great deal. One fact that does not change though and that is the emotional and mental benefits that the feeling of abundance brings.
It is a fact of human nature that our needs are never entirely fulfilled.
Once we have something we want something else immediately arises to take its
place. Life is a never-ending quest to fulfill desires that are never
quite satiated. This is all a product of the nature of the mind. To
become truly happy we must learn to put a hold on this pattern and cease the
never-ending cycle of desire. If we are unable to do this then we will go
through life without ever feeling satisfied no matter how much we have.
This pursuit of peace of mind has often been equated with religious thought but
it is not religious in nature. It is simply a matter of good mental
health.
Meditation is one of the greatest tools in learning to tame
the mind. The more we become at peace with silence and stillness the more
we are able to feel acceptance to life as it is in the here and now.
Taming thoughts is very similar to taming desires. They both arise on
their own through no effort on our part. The more we are able to just
observe them and just let them be the more we will be able to let them go.
Obviously this subject greatly impacts our financial lives.
What good is it to continue accumulating money if it is a never-ending cycle of
unmet needs? We have to reach a point in our lives where the money we have
fulfills our own needs. “Own needs” in this context, means our family or
immediate household. The next step beyond this is using money to provide
for others. This is where philanthropy comes into the picture.
However, we can never truly give until we meet the needs we have ourselves.
And the point of all of this is to say there is no monetary amount, which must
be met as much as it is a mental level of abundance, which allows us to cease
having needs.
This should not be confused with a minimalist lifestyle or
asceticism. Those are two extremes to the same viewpoint but just as in
anything in life, the extremes are usually not a healthy approach. The
objective is to be able to get to a point where you no longer need to “keep up
with the Jones’s” or buy a new car every time a new model year rolls around.
Nor do you feel the need to have a vacation home just because your coworker just
purchased one. In these cases as in most cases of desire, it is the ego
that creates the need more than anything else. The only thing that can
halt this cycle of behavior is to learn to be abundant and feel satiated with
things as they are. It is a practice and mindset that can impact far more
than your financial life if you can master it.
More Investing Information and Resources
To teach and learn money skills, personal finance, money management, business,
careers, and life skills please go to the Money
Instructor home page.
