Can Money Make You Happy?

It depends.

We tend to think of this question in absolutes. But the answer is: it can, but you have to be thoughtful about how you do it.

More Work, More Money

Most often, we work more to make more money.

When I was in University, money was so tight. I had to take on several part-time jobs to pay the rent and buy food. I worked all the time. At one point, I worked at a cafe that also sells some hot food. They needed people all the time because the job wasn’t well paid, and you are on your feet the whole day. But I took the job because I would have no shortage of hours, and I could eat for free as long as I was on a shift there.

But I was miserable. I was tired all the time. I was so tired, in fact, I didn’t have the energy to attend my classes. The job gave me the ability to pay my rent, and also gave me access to food, but it also chained me to poverty.

My then go-to solution of putting in longer hours would later translate to having multiple projects at the same time.

I had been in the tech sector as a location-independent professional even before the Pandemic. When the masses moved to remove work during the Pandemic, I was poised to take advantage of the burgeoning remote scene. The multiple projects with multiple clients mean that my income actually increased.

I can tell you from my experience that my increased income was only possible through trading with my time — higher income, in this case, meant greater purchasing power. But I have ZERO personal time. I spent every waking moment working. And if I am not actively working, I am thinking about working, planning on work, and projecting my entire life onto work.

I can also tell you that I was quite miserable. It was misery because I know the higher income was only “purchased” through my time. When the day comes when I am sick, the income will stop.

if you are only trading your time for money, money won’t make you happy.

Smarter Work, More Money

Avoid trading time for money. I want to avoid the sidewalk math, I want to avoid the slow lane math. The prerequisite of that is to stop trading time for money.

My first step was to taper down my hours with mentoring — reason: that is the purest form of trading in-person time for money.

My second step was to taper down my emotional commitment to my private courses — reason: when I put myself out there in the marketplace, I was competing with the many other suns in the world.

My third step was to continue my resolve for teaching – reasons: when students sighed up with the school, they have to attend the class. They no longer have a choice. I can then teach and be a good teacher.

My most current step was realizing that why make an app and sell it? Why bother at all? This whole effort is still a process of competing with the suns in the universe, even though the coding aspect would be interesting. My most recent reflection is that: is you are good enough to be a profitable, consistent trader to make professional income, what else is better?

Being a trader is great. You have no bosses, you have no clients. You have nobody to impress, and you have no need to attract anybody. You are who you are, and you just have to keep being who you are.

There is nothing better in this world — no other job, no other capacity, no other industry, is better than this.

So if you are good enough to be a profitable trader, there is no more reason, no more motivation, to try to make an app and sell it. There is no more reason, no more motivation, to try to make a course and sell it. You don’t need to compete — you are who you are. And you make money for being who you are. And lots of it at that too.

Process-focused Trading Operating Procedure

This is why I started focusing on my trading. I made my Trading SOP (standard operating procedure). I instituted a process-focused workflow for my everyday routine, as far as trading is concerned.

I still want to leave — I still want to leave my full-time job.

That is still on the docket. Yes, I scaled back my hours in mentoring, effectively letting mentoring go. But THIS doesn’t mean that I am committed to my job.

Not at all.

I am leaving the moment when I am able to have a stream of income that is comparable to what I draw from my 9-5 — be that from teaching, from freelance writing, from trading, or a combination of all of these sources.

This is my short-term goal.

My long-term goal is to make it big in trading. I want to make in a month what new graduates would have made in a year. I want to make 30k-40k in a month what a new graduate would make in a year.

I don’t do it because I need money. I do it because I love making money. I enjoy the hunt. I enjoy the fight. I enjoy the market puzzle. More specifically, I enjoy making it really rich by solving the market puzzle.

Questions You Have to Ask Yourself

• What do you really want?
• How do you want to get there?
• Are the other ways you see offering you an expedient way to get there, is that purely a noise from the servitude poor?