Money and Wealth are tricky customers

 Hi little one,

I know I stopped writing for quite sometime, but that was partly due to work and partly due to your old man being lazy. I hope you grow up to be industrious unlike your Slacker No1 dad here. 

Today, I wanted to write about a very interesting and nuanced part of our lives - wealth. It has been on my mind for quite sometime and I am gathering my thoughts here. Wealth and the pursuit of it seems to be quite a fundamental goal in our lives once we turn adults. Often, this goal takes precedence over a lot of other things in life - peace, happiness and comfort to name a few. Whether, wealth accumulation or any of these other goals come first is a very personal question. We can think about it in the following angles.

1. A minimum amount of wealth is necessary, always. A safety net is a must and this take precedence over comfort, I would say. 

2. What can wealth get us that would make us happy ?  Many people love wealth for wealth's sake, I do not know how. But what are the things that wealth can get us that would make us truly happy - A home ? A new piece of furniture ? A perfume ? Think about these things before pursuing wealth blindly. 

3. Follow up question - What if those things require an extraordinary amount of wealth ? Well, then let's think about our happiness-it-brings vs wealth curve. On the x axis, plot the amount of money required, which is an objective amount. Now, we need to measure the amount of happiness, that particular thing would give us. To help us in measuring, think about the happiness that known things give us and place it on the y axis, then think about what half and then double the amount of wealth can fetch you and how happy that would make you. This can make our heads clearer about the happiness vs wealth equation.

4. Wealth is an opportunity cost for doing something else.

4. Wealth and time - Wealth is security for the future. A rough estimate of how much you would need is absolutely essential.  

5. Think about how our life would be measure beyond what we own, did we talk well ? Did we dance well ? Did we do something good for people ? These measures are important, because pursuing activities which wealth cannot buy is priceless. Nobody can help you become a better tennis player or a violin player by gifting you a million dollars. 

Yours always,

Dad

P.S - Think of everything which money cannot buy, many of them are priceless and you should have them in your life. 

Middle Class Stability and its effects

 Hey darling,

It has been quite sometime since I wrote to you. I have been mostly busy with work and other things. I was wondering about this present stage in my life for the past couple of days. It's quite interesting to reflect on your life from time to time, especially looking at it from a neutral 3rd person point of view. I hope you pick up this habit.

I, like most middle class kids have grown up grinding and studying away for the past couple of years. It has been quite a rough ride, but it has been a  journey of self-discovery. Maybe, I will tell you all about it sometime in the future. Right now, my life has attained stability, with a nice job and a cozy place to stay. I think I have been fighting for this for the past 8 years. I haven't figured everything out still. I still need to take better care of my health and finances. But, I think I will learn as I go along. 

Attaining this stability has had effects of all kinds on me. 

1. Picking up one/or maybe two (:P) musical instruments
2. Playing Tennis which I really enjoy ( I wish I could play more though)
3. Watching all the movies that I love on a gazillion platforms
4. Not thinking about money when going to the restaurant or supermarket (Love this one)

Apart from all of this, I can plan on trying something exorbitant ( Playing golf, going scuba diving, taking a private jet or a cruise). CRAZZYYY MEEE !!!!!!

Doing all of these activities has come from a creative burst of energy, which earlier would be devoted to studying for exams/interviews or doing projects. I think I am mentally in a much better place with lots of things to look forward to in the future. . I think I have found my passion as well (;D), but more on that later.

P.S - I will make you hear my atrocious musical instrument for sure.

Yours lovingly,
Dad