How to Enjoy Yourself, Spend Money, and Still Build Wealth

It’s hard to satisfy all your desires. Even if you do, you won’t necessarily be happier

Stoicism has become a part of mainstream culture during the past decade. People realized that living on hedonism — always chasing after a life of pleasure and avoiding pain — doesn’t bring genuine happiness.

Hedonism can also be expensive. An overly luxurious lifestyle will destroy your wealth.

But even the ancient stoics didn’t believe in living like a monk. Seneca said it well in On The Happy Life:

“The wise man does not consider himself unworthy of any gifts from Fortune’s hands: he does not love wealth but he would rather have it; he does not admit into his heart but into his home; and what wealth is his he does not reject but keeps, wishing it to supply greater scope for him to practice his virtue.”

Building wealth is an honorable goal. What’s important is that we pursue things that morally make sense. That means we shouldn’t pursue wealth to acquire status, fame, or notoriety. Nor should we use money as a source of pleasure.

Other philosophies have an interesting take on wealth-building and living a life of pleasure that isn’t solely focused on avoiding pain. Among…