Carragee Consulting

There’s a scene in The Gambler which sums up what I think many (most?) people feel is the most important function of wealth – as the basis for decision freedom and autonomy.

Many people want to take risks, pursue their interests and add value to society. Many people don’t feel they can live the lives they want because they don’t have enough financial security to bet on themselves and weather the down cycles.

We wind up in unfulfilling jobs with managers, clients, coworkers or tasks that drain our intrinsic motivation because they are steady or seemingly low risk and we want to ensure we have our housing, food, transportation and other basic needs meet.

We debate if you need to achieve some financial milestone like paying off your house before we allocate our time and skills in a way that honors our values or if you can design a life which upholds your values and calibrate your material needs and desires down the the level that results naturally from your moralistic life decisions.

Seemingly, this has big implications for who founds their own companies, who speaks up at work when they encounter bad policies or wrong-headed ideas and who has to play it safe in hourly salary roles and the limited linear returns to their efforts.

It seems clear that financial stability is a necessary but not sufficient condition for most people to feel contentment. Its easy to get on the hedonic treadmill and keep ratcheting up the definition of “enough” so its interesting that Goodman’s character sets a dollar threshold at which you have achieved “f-you” money.

My half-baked thought I’ll leave you with for the weekend is what will you do differently when you’ve made it? Can you bring any of those thoughts and actions forward to now, even though you might not have fully arrived?

Hedging your bets – Take the moonlighter approach and pursue an outside passion on the side?

Sell an idea to VC and get paid now, but loss out on potential long-term equity?

Pursue the highest short term income generating options and then cash out to the Bahamas asap?

Reframe your current circumstance within human history? — you may be living better than a 1500s king already