Money is an illusion
For context, I assist business owners sell their businesses (a.k.a. M&A advisor) and I want to start this off by sharing a short story.
Recently, I’ve had the opportunity to onboard a husband & wife team who managed to build a pretty sizeable business in less than 10 years. They are very passionate about their business and see a lot of potential of it growing. They have even considered listing the business in the near future. The founders are both in their 40s – 50s, and they draw a salary + dividend payout from their business of about RM1 million a year… each.
So, the obvious question would be… “Why sell?”
This was their response:
“Our daughters are now in New Zealand and they are building a life there. What we want is to migrate over to New Zealand to spend more quality time with them and also more quality time for the both of us as husband and wife. Building this business has taken almost all of our time and going for IPO (Initial Public Offering) will take away more of it. It’s enough for us already.”
Let that sink in
Money is a veil behind what really matters
That very common conversation with the couple, which we do with every other client, held so much revelation from a personal finance angle.
In the past I’ve met various people who always answered the question “What do you want in life” with something materialistic.
Become a billionaire, buy a big house, get my dream car, and the lots.
Time and time again it was proven that materialistic things are not the end of it. Just like the couple who wanted to sell their business, they can earn a truck-load more money if they stayed in business. But they chose not to.
They decided they have “Enough” and want to focus on what mattered for them – i.e. Family time.
“Enough”
The concept of knowing when is “enough” AND taking action on it takes a lot of willpower.
Yes… You may argue that they are already rich, so it is easy to say that it’s enough.
But is it really?
I have gotten in a few meetings with them where they brought up that they feel that it’s a pity to sell the business at this juncture, but often they snapped out of it and focused back to the reason for the sale. It’s like the angel and devil monologue each of us will have whenever we come across some tough crossroads.
And if you think that it’s easy, then let me ask you this simple question, “When is it enough for you?”
Million? Tens of millions? Hundreds of millions? Or billions?
For the most of us, we can’t put a finger on a number because it is a moving goalpost. There’s always the next thousand, the next million, the next milestone to chase. Whenever we hit a milestone, we upgrade our lifestyle and pursue the next milestone.
It takes the strongest of wills of us to say, “That’s enough. We’re happy where we’re at.”
Is getting rich enough?
Everyone wants to get into that “Rich” category with all the fancy material things. But there is no end to that because there is always the next fancy thing. Let me share a story of 2 high income earners.
Story 1: Tim
Tim held a very prominent and high level position in a company. He earns over $1 million a year, drives a Aston Martin in Singapore, stays in a landed house with land (aka Bangalow) and enjoys the finest things in life anyone can “see”.
However, what people didn’t know was that he was choking and living paycheck to paycheck. To exchange for all these fancy items, which branded him “rich”, he held on to a dream bubble that was one step away from bursting.
So one day when the company was hit with a crisis and had to suspend his pay for the survival of the company, everything cascaded into a nightmare.
Did he do anything illegal? No. But shit happens and he didn’t have an umbrella when a thunderstorm hit.
Story 2: Mick
On the other hand, Tim has a colleague – we shall call him Mick. Mick earned close to what Tim earns. However, he drives a beat up second hand Toyota because it gets him from A to B. It still cost some money because it is Singapore, after all. He stays in a condominium that is well furnished but just enough for him, his wife and his son.
So when the storm hits, he gladly accepted the fact and moved on to his next venture. Living on his reserves in the intermission, which has quietly accumulated in various bank accounts and investments.
The attitude towards money
A very important lesson I took from this is that 2 people given the same “rich” status can result in very different ending. It’s important to make good money, but it’s most important to be able to keep that wealth.
Mick knew what is enough for him, but Tim didn’t. Also personal finance 101 – have an umbrella ready for the storm (i.e. emergency funds).
Final Thoughts: The illusion
In our modern society, we are always seduced from all angles:
– Everywhere we are bombarded by advertisements whose sole existence is to take money from you.
– Within our social circle, we suffer from peer pressure from others who have a better something than us.
– At work, there is always that dream job that everyone wants to land because it has a high remuneration and prestige.
But they are all just noises and illusion to take us away from what really matters. We feel we need to chase after money because it is what allows us to attain that status, respect, stuff, etc.
Money is important. Without money, we’d be scrambling for survival.
But at the end of the day, strip that all away and ask yourself, “When you do have enough money, what is it that really matters to you?”
What would your answer be?
Be aware and seek happiness in life. For life is truly short, but worth living if we’ve lived it right.
