Rule #3: Money Is Not Meant to Be Spent!

If I look at Laura and Luca and at their age, I start to feel a little jealous. They have their entire future ahead of them. They can make any mistakes and will most likely still have time to recover financially. But I wonder why they have to make mistakes? Why couldn't they receive from us all the information and lessons they need to take the right path from the very beginning? After all, you make mistakes when the path is uncertain or when unexpected situations arise. And then what is the most predictable situation for all of us, regardless of our profession? What do we all do almost identically that somehow pushes us onto the wrong path? We spend money.

Regardless of the level at which we do it, we all like to spend money. And the more we have, the more we like to spend. It is another form of dopamine release. Often there is no benefit on the other side, just the idea of spending some money. A one-hour boat trip through Strasbourg is a way of seeing the same sidewalks and the same buildings, the same water and the same people, just by spending some money. Yet most of those who get off the little boats that travel through Strasbourg are delighted with the trip they have taken.

But what is so bad about spending money? After all, we worked so hard for it. Well, money spent is lost forever. Once we have transferred ownership, we will never have it again. And that money is tied to a unit of time from our past. The more money we spend in a single transaction, the more time we throw away that we have worked for. Depending on each person's job, when we buy a 10-euro hamburger, we throw away perhaps 10 minutes of work, when we visit Europa Park for 100 euros, we throw away perhaps an hour and a half, and when we buy a car, we throw away several years of our lives. And because transactions follow one another seamlessly, all we do is throw away this time from our lives. Time that we can never recover.

Once you worked yesterday as a mechanic and today you spend the money you earned yesterday, you cannot go back in time to change your profession so that you could produce even more money in the past for a future that is today, where you realize that you want to spend even more money. Can you follow the thread or is it, as usual, too complicated? In my mind everything is so clear and logical, but I am not sure that on paper or on a monitor my thoughts come out the way they should. So first of all, we come up against the finiteness of time, and the idea that once time and money are spent, they are forever gone. A second problem that arises is that all of us have the ability to spend more money than we have or produce. Don't believe me? Just think about how many professional athletes end up earning enormous amounts of money at the age of 20 and become broke when they turn 30. They, just like us, can spend more money than they produce.

Just yesterday I was talking with my wife about the sustainability of a lifestyle in Italy, and about the fact that doctors' salaries there are lower than in France or Germany. And the logic would be that the cost of living is also lower anyway, but we don't focus on that. We focus only on the notion of earning more, why? To have more to spend, right? How many professional athletes who start making money quickly in their careers end up homeless or working poorly paid jobs just to afford a roof over their heads? And another question is why do they end up in this situation? Probably because they too think about money only in terms of what they can buy with it. And that is truly our enemy here.

The mistake we all make, including me, is that we think about what I can buy with the money I have. If we thought about what my money can produce for me, the problem would be solved instantly. Your money is not a tool that you want to spend, but a tool that should produce more money for you. Whether you invest it in the stock market, in real estate, or lend it to different governments for annual interest, money must produce more money for you. Once you understand that money is not meant to be spent but to produce more money, you have won. Laura has a little over 300 euros today. They are hidden in a savings account where they receive a ridiculous interest rate, but they do receive interest. Every day she earns 2 cents in interest. It is equal to zero at the moment because you cannot do anything with 2 cents, but the problem must be seen from another angle. Every day she has 2 cents more than she had the previous day. After enough days, months or years, she can buy something just from the interest.

The wasteful cycle in which we spend all the money we have only to run back to work a 9-to-5 job so that we can spend the money we produce again can only be broken if we refuse to spend our money. Don't know what to do with it? Analyze what your monthly budget is and calculate what you can afford to invest monthly. At the beginning of the month, when you receive your salary, buy stocks or government bonds with that part. In this way, that money is already spent, you no longer have it, but at the same time it is not lost. Over time, it will work to cover your retirement. Not only has the money spent this way not been lost, but, as in Laura's case, the interest generated will generate new interest for you. She therefore has 10 cents earned in the last week that will work to produce interest for her in the future.

The moment you find a balance in which the interest generated by your investments covers your current expenses, then you are rich. Then you are financially independent. That is what it truly means, in the end, to be rich. Your money working passively to finance your lifestyle. And the most beautiful part is that each of us can individually calculate what this lifestyle means for ourselves. Want a modest life, you need little, want yachts and luxury cars, then you have to save more. You just have to identify the line of interest earned, of returns. This income must be constant, permanent, but that is logical to deduce.

You see, being an investor or working towards becoming rich is not something high-tech or overcomplicated. Nor is the idea that you need money to make money true. These are just excuses to explain why we do nothing about it, excuses that help us look at ourselves in the mirror every time we spend our hard-earned money. Luca has 95 euros in his account. He earns only 1 cent in interest every 2 days, but it is an income that he earns while moving from the left breast to the right breast. Considering that rent and food are included in the starter package, he too, just like Laura, is on the right path.

Try to break away from the idea that the role of money is to buy things, to be spent. The role of money is to produce, in one way or another, more money without being spent. After you have understood this and after you have practiced it for a while, you will see that you can even invest money by spending it to produce more money. Someone who has saved every euro they had for 2 years will be truly careful about what they spend it on. Suddenly, the desire not to lose it will turn them into much better investors than all those who want to open a food truck or the next McDonald's with borrowed money.

So I leave you with this thought to reflect on in peace: Money is not meant to be spent!