Resist Greed, Not Money

[JJ Odelle]

“Greed subsumes love and compassion; living simply makes room for them. Living simply is the primary way everyone can resist greed every day.”

bell hooks, All About Love – New Visions

Can one live simply and be wealthy? Are these contradictory concepts? Is it possible to have a rich life, filled with compassion and love and be wealthy?

I recently read Overcoming Underearning, A Five-Step Plan to a Richer Life by Barbara Stanny. Stanny defines an underearner as someone who feels trapped, underestimates their worth, lives in financial chaos, is vague about money and success, is controlled by fear and is anti-wealth.

There is an exercise in Overcoming Underearning where you are asked to look at your feelings and thoughts towards rich people. Do you think all rich people became rich through privilege or ruthlessness and greed? Do you think all rich people are out-of-touch with the struggles of the working class? I realized after doing the exercise that I did hold some of these prejudices towards wealthy people. I equated wealth with excess. I also realized that this line of thinking was holding me back from becoming financially independent. I had a deep fear that if I had a lot of money, I would loose my passion for poverty issues. I would fall into the consumerism trap, where buying and owning things would become more important than anything else. I felt having money would ruin my plans for living a simple life, so I remained an underearner.

Underearning is not solely about money; in fact, it’s primarily about self-esteem. Underearning eats way at your self-esteem so you end up taking jobs where you are under paid and your talents aren’t used because you don’t think you can find anything better. Underearning is about settling for less. It’s about not being assertive enough to negotiate work on your own terms.

After reading Overcoming Underearning, I developed some personal affirmations. Here are a few of them:

• My happiness is important; it makes me a better person. Financial independence is key to my happiness.

• I can earn more money and live simply. I don’t have to fall into the consumerism trap. Having more money means I can give more back.

• I deserve a high salary because I have unique skills and abilities.

• I need to love myself enough to insist on getting what I’m worth!

In All About Love, bell hooks states, “We can all resist the temptation of greed. We can work to change public policy, electing leaders who are honest and progressive…We can show respect for love…When we value the delaying of gratification and take responsibility for our actions we simplify our emotional universe. Living simply makes loving simple. The choice to live simply necessarily enhances our capacity to love. It is the way we learn to practice compassion, daily affirming our connection to a world community.” And I add, living simply and being financially independent need not be contradictory concepts. I think the richest among us are those that find a good balance between them.

[JJ Odelle]

Right, I agree. My problem was that I used to think the desire to be really successful and being financial independent was the same thing as loving money and being greedy. But, there has been a shift in my thinking. Now I understand that valuing myself is a component of loving myself. All of this makes me a better person. And if I'm a happier, more confident person, I'll be more effective at every thing I do.

[Tressie]

Hello! As usual, people misconstrue a perfectly good euphamism. The LOVE of money is evil. Money is just money. It has no inherent value. It only reflects the value of he who possesses it. I, too, have recently decided I am deserving of a higher salary. There is something gauche about valuing oneself highly, but if you come to understand it as your way of fulfilling your obligation to humanity it feels better. For me, anyway. :)