If Only I Had More Money, All of My Problems Would Go Away

Morgan Housel talks about realizing what actually matters after making more money — his marriage, his kids, his health, his sleep — and how none of it changed. A grounded reminder that the most important parts of life don’t move with your bank balance.

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What’s been interesting to me from a just a personal point of view and dealing with my own psychology of money is what making a little bit of money has done for us and has not done for us. And I would say the latter is actually the most interesting because when I look at it, does my daughter love me more now that we’ve make a little bit more money?

No. Do I have a better marriage with my wife? No. Does my son wanna play football with me more or less? No. Like the things that actually matter in my life. Have not changed one iota since, all since all of this happened. I think that’s been a very interesting, and I, I think, positive takeaway for me. It’s too tempting when you are at one point of your career to say, if only I had more money, all my problems would go away.

If only I had more money, I would be a perfect, happy person. Very easy and convincing to tell yourself that, and it’s not until you experience it firsthand that you’re like, oh, there are some things around the edges that became a little bit better. But the things that actually give me meaning in life, like how many hours I sleep at night, whether I’m healthy, whether my parents and my siblings and my wife and kids are healthy and happy, those things don’t really change whatsoever.

Now, uh, just to to correct you, your daughter told us off air that she does love you more since she made the big money. In fact, she said much more to be honest. So there, I just want to correct you.