Not caring enough about money?

3 bsuki 4 9/8/2025, 4:45:44 PM
Hey all, In high school, I was into making money (day trading, startups). By senior year, I realized I could instead chase impact -- so I didn’t think about money for 1.5 years.

I feel anger when I hear people saying their reason to do things was because of money. Yet, I feel fear knowing that one day it will make all the difference. My parents are immigrants who run liquor stores. My dad unfortunately is addicted to his own product; despite what it looks like to others, money is still an issue. Looking back (19m), I realize I have an unhealthy relationship with money.

What am I not understanding?

Thanks!

Comments (4)

3np · 4h ago
Food: In order to survive and thrive, we need to balance our nutritional intake (lest we die of malnutrition). We all do this. Yet for most of us, calories is not what life is about. For many of the privileged of us, it's barely what eating is about. Over-obsession with calorie-counting can become a sickness as much as neglect and overeating.

Same with your money as participant in the economy. Maintaining a healthy flow and preparing for the future is a good idea. But remember that fundamentally money is supposed to be a measure of value, not value itself (the tragedy of our society is confusing the map with the territory).

Continue focusing on impact and the money will follow. At the same time you still want to have a healthy balance and stable trajectory on the day-to-day and month-to-month without that turning into minmaxing or letting it direct your life-choices to an unhealthy degree. You'll probably want some form of income - not necessarily in the 1%.

toast0 · 4h ago
If you have enough money, the specific amount doesn't make a huge difference. Yes, maybe at some point in your life having more would make a major difference, and things you could have done may have resulted with you having enough more to make the difference. That's unavoidable.

If you have enough money and you can stop worrying about it, that seems like a healthy relationship with money. When you don't have much, it's a good thing to focus on, but prioritizing other things is great, if you can.

al_borland · 6h ago
Money and impact don’t need to be mutually exclusive. Many people use their business as a vehicle for positive impacts on society, money is the byproduct of their impact.

You can also work a normal job to make reliable money to support yourself, and allocate some of your earnings to help others and make an impact… or even just your time. This can help bring some more purpose to your work, regardless of what it is.