In life, the conspicuous consumer way of life indirectly incentivises all of us to make as much money as possible in order to spend it. 90% of people you ask on the street will agree that money is not the end-all be-all of life - people logically believe that. But I'm not sure they emotionally do. ![[Return on time#^key-point]] Money is only valuable when combined with time, so that the human can spend the time and money to attain something useful for either a ***physiological*** or ***emotional*** need. Again, we buy things to improve our physiology, emotions or both at once. Only up to a certain point. After that point, the physiological and emotional gain get saturated, and we experience massive diminishing returns. > Going from a bike to an old car is a big deal. Going from a beat-up car to a modest sports car is a nice upgrade. Going from a modest sports car to a Ferrari doesn't change your life. ![[diminishing_returns_of_money.png]] But the same applies on a macro level. > There's only so much sex you can have, only so much food you can eat, only so much car you can drive, only so much world you can travel, only so much alcohol you can drink, only so much drugs you can take, etc. The brain gets saturated - your dopamine gets fried and what you're doing becomes boring. And it's not worth it to push any one of these to the end. You're better off optimizing one aspect to the point where it stops being as rewarding, and then spending your limited time and [[Beaming with Energy|energy]] on the next thing that's not optimized. ## Money is Only Important When You Don't Have It > A life without any money is 100% miserable. A life with money is 50% miserable. Money is only important when you don't have enough to meet your baseline needs. As shown in the chart above, we get most enjoyment when we meet the basic needs we have. If you don't have them - you WILL be miserable. This isn't negotiable. Earn as much as necessary to get your needs. After that - start thinking. ## Excuses The common excuse the brain comes up with is "if I had money, I would do this" or "if I had money, this would be easier". But it's a synonym for saying "I'm simply too lazy to do it". As [[website/Philosophy/Real Wealth|mentioned previously]], the valuable things in life take little money to do. ### Related [[Time Billionaire]]