Financial independence vs. financial wealth

"When I was young I believed that the most important thing in life was money, now that I am old I know it's true."

Oscar Wilde

After all this fussing and fighting around money? Beyond the necessary amount needed for survival, (and not wanting to bring the famous Maslow's hierarchy up), it is evident that many, for their whole life, live chasing wealth. And among these, many expects as a natural corollary of wealth that much-needed sense of peace and fulfillment that only brings to happiness.
The paradox of this situation is that strenuously pursuing a "feeling of wealth", through the simple pursuit of ever-increasing purchasing power, will never get you anywhere for the simple fact that this kind of feeling is related to the level of recognition that we receive from our environment. So it doesn't come from within, but from the outside.


Despite all efforts,
we may not "feel" never "rich". I could "feel rich" with a new chicken whilst a  millionaire could "feel poor" until he decides to suffer by comparing his standard of life with that of others.
If you do not translate your personal concept of wealth in terms of "financial independence" there will always be someone richer to emulate (envy?), And when you'll become "rich" like him, there will always be someone richer to compare with that will be able to make you feel "poor." Then life will not be very different from that of a hamster who struggles to run inside his wheel.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to become "theoretically rich," you will perhaps also harbored a grudge against someone and contempt towards themselves, overwhelmed by your work. And the lower your self-esteem, the more you'll spend in self-gratification (and unuseful) purchases, increasing your need for money and time to produce it, with the result that you will live with the feeling of never having time for private life. You'll waste your best energies toward goals that your subconscious "feel" far from those you really care and maybe actually considered "minor" only because they do not generate money, and stealing your time, not infinite and never really enough, that you'd better spend with your loved ones.

In short, you shouldn't look for "wealth", an ambiguous and elusive concept, but for "financial independence", ie to achieve an availability of money such that it no longer poses a central question in your life.
And this condition is reached not when you are "rich" in the abstract, but when your income is at least equal to your real needs, including your financial need for future purposes.

You just need to clarify your ideas and your own personal goals. Try to always be alert and aware of what your real needs are, because not all the expenses and desires are really necessary, or even" yours" as marketing experts know well.