Too many people are rich but poor. They may have money but don’t have real freedom.

Money is the means to an end, not an end to itself.

But many of us focus on just collecting it, without even stopping to think what that money was supposed to buy.

There are many ways of defining rich. How much money should you have before you can be considered rich?

For me, you are rich if you have “fuck you” amount of money.

What do I mean by that?

The real power of money is freedom.

Freedom to say “fuck you” to your boss, employment, etc and quit from the societal shackles whenever you want or need.

That’s real richness.

But I have seen many people with millions and millions of dollars in their bank account but still severely chained to their job/business/etc. They need more and more, and can’t think of getting out of the shackles of job.

That’s not richness.

I am not saying you have to quit your job to be considered rich. But you should be in that position to quit if and when needed. Once you have that amount of money, whether or not you keep working is completely up to you. If you genuinely love your job, you can keep doing it. If it makes you happy, keep doing it.

You must have heard different versions of this story where a fisherman is resting under a tree in a sunny day and an investment banker comes by, sees the sleeping fisherman and gets surprised. He wakes the fisherman up and asks why he is not fishing/working. The fisherman says he is done for the day, he already caught some fish to feed his family for the day. The investment banker is surprised, “But it’s only 11AM. There is so much time in the day. Why don’t you fish more?”. The fisherman says “What would I do with those extra fish?”. The banker says “Well, you could sell them and earn money”.

Fisherman : ” What would I do with that money?”

Banker : “Buy a better fishing boat, fishing rods, etc.”

Fisherman : “Why would I do that?”

Banker : “So that you can catch more fish, sell them, make even more money, hire other people, fish more, sell more, make even more money”

Fisherman: “And then what would I do with all that money?”

Banker: “Well, then you could retire early! You don’t have to work forever”

Fisherman: “What would the retirement look like?”

Banker: “You could just rest, no work, be happy, enjoy the sunshine, get a drink”

Fisherman: “Well, what do you think I am doing right now?”

The fisherman in this story is real rich, even though he may not have any bank balance. The banker is not rich, although he may have a fat bank balance. Many rich people we see in the society are like this banker. They may have filthy amount of money but have zero power or confidence to say fuck you to the job or societal shackles.

They are like this Self-Help or Motivational Guru who has so anxious during a traffic jam, and rushing and swearing, and all sweaty and pissed off because the traffic jam was delaying him to get to a seminar where he was supposed to teach the attendees on “How to Stay Calm during Adversity?”

Or the people who have 300 followers on social media, but give lectures around the world on “How to Use Social Media Effectively”

Or those people who claim that they are billionaires but beg you to buy their course or subscribe to their substack for $5 or hit “like, subscribe, and share” button.

We equate richness with stuff. Who has exciting house? Who has better and more luxurious cars, who wears what brand stuff, who eats where, whose toilet looks more posh, etc. etc.

Truly rich people are so rich that they don’t need to own anything. By not owning anything, everything is theirs.