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Li uma propaganda de um livro sobre finanças, parece ter a filosofia do site, compartilho o link e um trecho que achei muito interessante. Não sei sobre o livro, mas achei legal o texto.
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SunLit excerpt: Financial advice that homes in the fear that one day you’ll need money and not have it – The Colorado Sun----------------
Years ago I began advising a lovely couple. They were very kind, and the most frugal people I had ever met in my life (this is saying a lot; I come from a Scottish family). They lived in a trailer home located in a less-than-desirable part of town. They rarely splurged on eating out or traveling. They shopped at thrift stores when they occasionally updated their clothing. And … their net worth was well over a million dollars. They were—literally—trailer park millionaires.
When I first met with them, their needs were a mix of issues ranging from optimizing their investments, legal planning, and using insurance to prevent their heirs from being excessively taxed. After we had established our mutual game plan, I asked them rather bluntly, “What’s the point?” They looked at me funny and I clarified, “Let’s say we get everything optimized, let’s say your portfolio doubles or triples … so what? What would it do for your lives, what would change?”
This question visibly made them uncomfortable. As they squirmed I said, “Let me tell you a story.”
Early in my career I worked at an old fashioned savings and loan bank. We offered the best rates in town, and this attracted a certain kind of customer. One emblematic individual was Mr. Tonlin. He was meticulous in his management of his $4,000,000, which was divided among fifty or so accounts with different maturity dates. He would come in every week with his list on a clipboard held proudly to his chest and carefully make decisions about which ones to get, haggling with management for better rates. He carried the air of a business magnate from the Industrial Revolution. This was his pride and joy. Then, after years of this routine, his wife passed away.
Mr. Tonlin came in the afternoon after the funeral—perhaps to get some grounding in his routines. He seemed like he had lost six inches of height. He came into the bank lobby expressionless, posture limp, disoriented. Various staff came up to him, expressing their condolences. He ambled to the counter holding his clipboard, which now seemed to be very heavy to him. We waited for him to say something as he looked at the list. Then quietly, looking down at his clipboard, his chin quivered and his eyes welled up, “I should have spent this money with her. What am I going to do with it?”
It’s been over a decade since this happened. I would bet that a week hasn’t gone by that I haven’t thought of that man and this single phrase.
After telling my clients this story, I repeated the question to these trailer park millionaires, “What’s the point?”
I believe that those who have saved up deserve the reward of minimizing their fears about money while maximizing their energy for the real things of life. Ask yourself: what is the point? This is not a rhetorical question. If you and I optimize your financial life, leaving no stone unturned, what’s the point? What would change? What should change?
To me, the point is this: you should have the luxury of diverting your emotional energy away from worrying about money. Spend that same energy on more important things like family and friends, pursuing goals and experiences, enjoying life, or giving back to the world. The emotional cost of financial chaos is profoundly impoverishing. Bringing order to chaos will enable you to divert your energy to the things that enrich your life.
Financial strength is not about having a lot of money. The ancient Romans had a saying, “Money is like seawater. The more you drink, the thirstier you become.” As you grow in wealth, you must also grow in wisdom.
“Wealth” is not a certain amount of accumulation, or the territory beyond a numerical line in the sand. Wealth is the absence of financial worry. Wealth is an internal sense of freedom. When you retire, your financial life collapses down to one core binary question: Will your money outlive you, or will you outlive your money?
