DO YOU REALLY NEED (FILL IN THE BLANK)?

"I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive."

Henry Miller, 20th century American writer.

This stretches things a bit but there is truth nonetheless.

Beyond the basics necessary for reasonable survival our wants are optional.

Pursue wealth and all that buys as much as you like, but not to where it impacts your happiness.

The Rolling Stones were right.

YOU COULD BE DOING TOO WELL

"A full cup must be carried steadily."

English proverb

Prosperity is a funny thing.

Becoming complacent regarding what you have can cause you to lose it.

NOT WHAT YOU HAVE BUT WHAT YOU DO WITH IT

"Riches do not consist in the possession of treasures, but in the use made of them."

Napoleon I (1769-1821) Napoleon Bonaparte, French general

You can have intelligence, education, experience, personality, wealth, etc., but if you don't do something with it there is no value.

EASY COME, EASIER TO GO

"It is no less a feat to keep what you have, than to increase it. In one there is chance, the other will be a work of art."

Ovid (BC 43-AD 18) Roman poet

Salespeople know it costs more to find a new customer than it does to keep an old one.

It's that way with money too.

You worked hard to earn what you have.

Work just as hard, maybe more so, to keep it.

Wealth: A Zero Sum Game?

"Of the wealth of the world, each has as much as they take."

Italian proverb

Notice "take" not "make".

Do you agree?

Sometimes, Too Much, Is

"We are stripped bare by the curse of plenty."

Winston Churchill

Looking back, I think I accomplished more in those situations where I had less than in those where I had more.

What about you?