To Grub Or Not To Grub

Most of us would probably prefer to do something besides what we spend most of our time doing; maybe playing in the surf, traveling, or meditating. Philosophers tell us we should live in the moment for supposedly no one ever lay on their deathbed wishing they had spent more time in the office. We should live for some purpose, great or not, that makes our lives worth living to us.

I pretty much agree with that. However, agreeing means that I have to admit all the efforts I spend counting money, strategizing about retirement, or calculating deals is totally wasted. Since money (numbers or little green papers) doesn’t mean anything then I shouldn’t be wasting my time trying to accumulate it. This is true. I feel a little sacrilegious when I get my paycheque or count my investments. Yet I continue to do it anyway.

It’s ok for me because I enjoy some of it. What about all those other people who don’t like the puzzle of figuring out where to invest or how to make the best deal? Unfortunately, they don’t have the alternative to opt-out. The game of the world is money, and it’s a game you have to play because you exist in the world. Failing to learn at least the basic rules can easily mean poverty. Ignoring the game means hardship.

The good news is that we don’t have to spend all that much time grubbing money. Myself, I find parts of the game boring: Shuffling cash around, setting up savings strategies, deciding how many lattes I can’t drink to bankroll my retirement, searching for low interest rates, etc. Other parts are insulting like watching my credit score or reconciling my statements to make sure some person or business didn't steal from me. The parts I do like are the math and logic puzzles: Analysing opportunities, finding efficient ways of doing things, and inventing new ideas to make money. That’s what I do in my job and that’s what I like to do in my personal life too. I spend as little time as possible on that other stuff but I am sure to give it the attention it requires.

Here are my recommendations so that you live your life and don’t face regrets later that you spent too much time grubbing for money:

1. Learn all the basic rules or money: Spend a little time with the books and blogs to acquire the fundamental skills so you can at least know what your decisions mean. When I say learn them, I mean learn them well. Understand them so that you don’t get fooled. Know in your heart that a 19% interest rate is deadly, that you can eat hamburgers into homelessness, that saving money in a bank account means you’re getting poorer.
2. Decide what you want to do with your life: This is one place where I don’t think many advisors writers get it right. They all assume you need money to do everything and the advice is always to “figure out how much it costs, then figure out how much to save per month, then in x years you can have it”. Figure out what you want to accomplish in life, not what you want to buy.
3. Stay true while you execute: You don’t want to trade years of grubbing out a savings plan in exchange for a few uncertain years of retirement freedom. Live your life every day. If you don’t like the grubbing then don’t grub more than you have to. Be responsible. Since you learned the rules in step #1 don’t throw your entire future away, but don’t compromise your life’s purpose just to grub.

I hope you mostly avoid the grubbing. There are a lot of advisors out there who will have you forever diversifying, balancing, abstaining, budgeting, saving. I hate that. Those activities are not the point of life or even of money. They are mostly cheap tricks or, at best, beginners lessons.

The true point of money is that you get it for value. Spend a lot of time making your life more valuable, building, inventing, helping. Spend a little time to learn and apply the money rules. The result is that you will prosper well enough while living a great life.