What Would You Do if You Were Rich?

Let’s do a thought experiment

Let’s do a thought experiment. I did this several years ago and it changed my idea of being rich and the overall pursuit of wealth.

I got it from an old post by the blogger, Mr. Money Mustache. In the article, he says he would do “absolutely nothing differently,” if he had more money. When I read that for the first time, I thought, “yeah right.”

Back then, I was out of grad school for a year, was in debt, had recently started a business, paid myself about $15,000 in salary, and did not have any savings like Mustache. I was desperately trying to earn more money so I could have more freedom… But to do what with that money and freedom?

That was something I didn’t figure out for years. But I’m glad I kept thinking about this concept of “what would you do if you had more money?” It helped me to avoid chasing money too much.

As I started to build my career and began to earn more, I realized that you don’t have to make a mistake to learn a lesson. You don’t always need to learn things “the hard way.” You can think things through.

Take a concept like this one. How many of us assume we need to have more money to be happy? And the one important habit I learned over time is to question everything.