Money or Peace of Mind ?
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rakesh_ic
Herald
I must say I excatly fit into the description you have given except from the fact that I am just 30 nowThankfully, right from day 1 of my career, I have opted for the 2nd option - peace of mind, over money. Sometimes it does feel bad, when you see your peers doing well financially, but at the end of the day, I feel it is right to compromise on certain things, in return for happiness. In my mid 30s now, I do not own a house or a car and have never travelled abroad; less than 2 lacs as savings.. Still, I am happy. I will continue to be so.
I have never travelled abroad (because I never pushed for one) and i somehow find myself to be content with what I have. I never felt the urge to earn loads and all I want to do is live today happily. And so I ask my wife to do the same instead of worrying about the next day
I casually ask my friends/co-workers, what would they do if they get/win say Rs 10 crore (or 20 or 50). From the responses, it seems like everybody wants to stop working. Most of them just want to sit idle and spend the whole life on investments/interests/rents generated from that money.
Is/will that be peace of mind? Constant cash flow, no work to do?
I partially fell into the Option A - partially because I do not get 2lac pm, rather a fraction of it. Works for 40-45 hours a week. Till I do not compare with others (others folks working in bigger MNCs or working onsite - drawing salaries in dollars/euros), I am very much at peace. I like what I do (mostly, sometimes of course it becomes frustrating - because of the people I have to work with).
I have accepted few things in life - there is no free lunch, I will never win KBC/lottery.
So, I will have to work. The bigger car or house I want, the harder I will have to work - and I am fine with that. But that doesn't mean I am unhappy.
I would be more happier if I could work for something of my own. But I am a victim of procastination. !!
Is/will that be peace of mind? Constant cash flow, no work to do?
I partially fell into the Option A - partially because I do not get 2lac pm, rather a fraction of it. Works for 40-45 hours a week. Till I do not compare with others (others folks working in bigger MNCs or working onsite - drawing salaries in dollars/euros), I am very much at peace. I like what I do (mostly, sometimes of course it becomes frustrating - because of the people I have to work with).
I have accepted few things in life - there is no free lunch, I will never win KBC/lottery.
So, I will have to work. The bigger car or house I want, the harder I will have to work - and I am fine with that. But that doesn't mean I am unhappy.I would be more happier if I could work for something of my own. But I am a victim of procastination.
!!
ithehappy
Galvanizer
Peace of life man, peace of life all the way. I wish I could be a baby again and stop my brain to work for at least one day.
I self earn 125-130k per month ( depending on how much I want actually , no fixed amount ) but the workload is just killing me. I mean sometimes it's just six hours a day, sometimes twelve. However there is no one to point me out what to do other than my parents, I have the freedom, still it's really tiring, and after doing this for almost there and a half years now I wish I had a job which paid half, even less, and I could come back home at a fixed time, take rest and then play my games
I self earn 125-130k per month ( depending on how much I want actually
, no fixed amount ) but the workload is just killing me. I mean sometimes it's just six hours a day, sometimes twelve. However there is no one to point me out what to do other than my parents, I have the freedom, still it's really tiring, and after doing this for almost there and a half years now I wish I had a job which paid half, even less, and I could come back home at a fixed time, take rest and then play my games
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I self earn 125-130k per month ( depending on how much I want actually
Woaah..what type of work are you into...?
ithehappy
Galvanizer
Family business. Iron pipe manufacturing.
phunguus
Contributor
For me, neither of the options will do.
I don't want to retire early only to do nothing for the second half of my life. Neither do i want to keep doing the same thing till i retire. I believe that the mantra "change should be the only constant" is the secret to a life which, upon looking back, will not make you flinch with a lingering 'what-if'.
As much as i know about how my life should be, I still have no clue as to what interests me or which field(s) to pick and make a career out of. One thing that definitely adds to my confusion is the abundance of options to choose from. Besides, even if i am attracted/interested towards some line of work, i dont think it will last for the rest of my working life. Infact, I wonder how do people find something and confidently claim that this is what they want to do the rest of their lives. I mean, even if I was a top rated movie star loved by everyone and earning crores everyday, i'm pretty sure I would get bored of all that in 4-5 years and will yearn for a change. The perfect situation for me would be if i can somehow manage to change my line of work every half a decade.
Ofcourse if i choose to do that then that means i will have to start afresh every time i make a switch, provided people keep hiring me for whatever reasons. This will no doubt throw any kind of stability(financial, emotional, professional) right out of the window. I will either have to die a bachelor or miraculously find someone(something?) who thinks my way of life strangely makes sense. Starting a family would not be the wisest thing to do. All in all, the entire situation would be inherently dicey and quite naive when viewed from a pragmatic perspective.
So for me, right now the answer lies in striking the balance between decent pay and getting a life.
Can't live a relaxed life earning just enough to survive especially when I'm not doing something that I really want to (never mind the fact that i don't know WHAT i want to do). Definitely can't work the shit out of myself to earn truckloads by turning into a workaholic either. It has to be a workable marriage of pay & work, always making sure that the answer to the clichéd Q of "Are they paying me enough to do what I'm doing?" is at least a satisfactory - if not a resounding - yes.
I don't want to retire early only to do nothing for the second half of my life. Neither do i want to keep doing the same thing till i retire. I believe that the mantra "change should be the only constant" is the secret to a life which, upon looking back, will not make you flinch with a lingering 'what-if'.
As much as i know about how my life should be, I still have no clue as to what interests me or which field(s) to pick and make a career out of. One thing that definitely adds to my confusion is the abundance of options to choose from. Besides, even if i am attracted/interested towards some line of work, i dont think it will last for the rest of my working life. Infact, I wonder how do people find something and confidently claim that this is what they want to do the rest of their lives. I mean, even if I was a top rated movie star loved by everyone and earning crores everyday, i'm pretty sure I would get bored of all that in 4-5 years and will yearn for a change. The perfect situation for me would be if i can somehow manage to change my line of work every half a decade.
Ofcourse if i choose to do that then that means i will have to start afresh every time i make a switch, provided people keep hiring me for whatever reasons. This will no doubt throw any kind of stability(financial, emotional, professional) right out of the window. I will either have to die a bachelor or miraculously find someone(something?) who thinks my way of life strangely makes sense. Starting a family would not be the wisest thing to do. All in all, the entire situation would be inherently dicey and quite naive when viewed from a pragmatic perspective.
So for me, right now the answer lies in striking the balance between decent pay and getting a life.
Can't live a relaxed life earning just enough to survive especially when I'm not doing something that I really want to (never mind the fact that i don't know WHAT i want to do). Definitely can't work the shit out of myself to earn truckloads by turning into a workaholic either. It has to be a workable marriage of pay & work, always making sure that the answer to the clichéd Q of "Are they paying me enough to do what I'm doing?" is at least a satisfactory - if not a resounding - yes.
I want money. And use money to buy peace of mind. What is my peace of mind? No ****ing clue.
I had many relations, spend money over em more than i should, Never committed to anyone even when they wanted, When I wanted commitment they didnt. I buy things whenever i like even if it doesnt serve any purpose. Now that I am single, I am in a very serious relationship with myself. To this day i never said no to a thing.
. Even if its bad. I want to taste everything. 
. Its not awesome. Its retarded. So many bruises. Emotional and Physical. I have many people in my life that considers me as friend, which is a miracle considering that I am an asshole. . Even all my ex keep in touch with me. . I have a niece to buy stuff for. I have 8 dogs as pets. 1 of em is my sweet heart. I have an awesome family who never ever said no to anything I wanted to do. I consider myself a very lazy person. Love to just sit around. But I go to gym for work out, jogging. Plan long trips. going for sky diving soon. EEEEKKK.. Would never fall for another girl. Yet, I dont know what peace is. . I really dont know. I am huge into money. . My father went to middle east when he was 23 or so. Made a bundle. Even imported our first E230 in '81. Even he tells me, stop valuing money and things. They mean nothing. . My immediate and extended family also do well. They also tell me the same. . People use the word balance and all a lot. I dont know what that is. I tried every combination. by choice. 
I had many relations, spend money over em more than i should, Never committed to anyone even when they wanted, When I wanted commitment they didnt. I buy things whenever i like even if it doesnt serve any purpose. Now that I am single, I am in a very serious relationship with myself. To this day i never said no to a thing.
. Even if its bad. I want to taste everything. . Its not awesome. Its retarded. So many bruises. Emotional and Physical. I have many people in my life that considers me as friend, which is a miracle considering that I am an asshole. . Even all my ex keep in touch with me. . I have a niece to buy stuff for. I have 8 dogs as pets. 1 of em is my sweet heart. I have an awesome family who never ever said no to anything I wanted to do. I consider myself a very lazy person. Love to just sit around. But I go to gym for work out, jogging. Plan long trips. going for sky diving soon. EEEEKKK.. Would never fall for another girl. Yet, I dont know what peace is. . I really dont know. I am huge into money. . My father went to middle east when he was 23 or so. Made a bundle. Even imported our first E230 in '81. Even he tells me, stop valuing money and things. They mean nothing. . My immediate and extended family also do well. They also tell me the same. . People use the word balance and all a lot. I dont know what that is. I tried every combination. by choice. 
viva1986
Explorer
according to me if you want PEACE then Your given Option B is also not so much Peaceful because it contains an urge to make money.
In my opinion Option B should be like this-:
Leave all your stressful activities and collect what you have in your Pocket and just leave for the search of Peace.
I know that definition of Peace is different for everyone, but these are my findings only.
But one thing you all should note down, that if your spouse is also a StressFul activity for you than you have no option for PEACE.
In my opinion Option B should be like this-:
Leave all your stressful activities and collect what you have in your Pocket and just leave for the search of Peace.
I know that definition of Peace is different for everyone, but these are my findings only.
But one thing you all should note down, that if your spouse is also a StressFul activity for you than you have no option for PEACE.
agree with viva1986 on all points esp the last one . Peace of mind is a relative term and varies for everyone.
I have been on both sides of the fence. My 1st job paid 7L and i had to work only 6 hrs effectively, could even work from home , where i used to just login and goto sleep. Now i work 11 hrs , 5 days a week and earn more than 3 times as much. Cant say that i can go back to what i had earlier and probably most Indians would do the same. Though i get much less time for myself and family, i realised i value time much more than i used to and have now enjoy life as much as i used to earlier. ex i sleep for 6hrs instead to 10 hrs earlier and just because i could earlier. I also feel that more money doesn't always come with less peace of mind. One needs to find the place he gets the right balance per his needs.
. Peace of mind is a relative term and varies for everyone.I have been on both sides of the fence. My 1st job paid 7L and i had to work only 6 hrs effectively, could even work from home , where i used to just login and goto sleep. Now i work 11 hrs , 5 days a week and earn more than 3 times as much. Cant say that i can go back to what i had earlier and probably most Indians would do the same. Though i get much less time for myself and family, i realised i value time much more than i used to and have now enjoy life as much as i used to earlier. ex i sleep for 6hrs instead to 10 hrs earlier and just because i could earlier. I also feel that more money doesn't always come with less peace of mind. One needs to find the place he gets the right balance per his needs.
eternoMind
Herald
It's all about priorities people!
Put family, personal time, and benevolence in that pecking order and see peace of mind flow from all corners.
Put family, personal time, and benevolence in that pecking order and see peace of mind flow from all corners.
I am in the same dilemma. Although the money spoken here is way too much than what my situation is.
I hated the industry through which i started my career and worked in it for 2 years. Had a good growth but almost no personal time. Eventually shifted from there to a more relaxed job (different industry altogether), but it doesn't pay as good as the earlier industry did. Even today, i keep getting offers from that industry, where in i am offered twice or sometimes even more pay as compared to my job profile as on date. I am absolutely confused and don't know what to choose!
I hated the industry through which i started my career and worked in it for 2 years. Had a good growth but almost no personal time. Eventually shifted from there to a more relaxed job (different industry altogether), but it doesn't pay as good as the earlier industry did. Even today, i keep getting offers from that industry, where in i am offered twice or sometimes even more pay as compared to my job profile as on date. I am absolutely confused and don't know what to choose!
avi
Keymaster
Obviously the correct answer is Peace of mind, just once you get filthy rich
avi
Keymaster
Thats how rich people brainwash you so that you never become rich
ashishsahu
Explorer
^ or you can say the "poor" have a sour grape complex.
If still anyone thinks excess money leads to loss of peace of mind. There's a simple solution for this:
Continue with the existing poor lifestyle and keep all the excess "rich" money locked away in a bank fd.
If still anyone thinks excess money leads to loss of peace of mind. There's a simple solution for this:
Continue with the existing poor lifestyle and keep all the excess "rich" money locked away in a bank fd.
You can find peace even in War, so it depends on the person. If you are happy doing what you do, then you are doing it right.
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