October 4, 2022
Spending Money
More good advice, this time from Nik Maggiulli on purposeful, no guilt spending:
I’m parting ways with my cash to create memories with those I care about.
He’s taking a trip to Italy with his sister, seemingly to trace their lineage. It feels good to spend money on things like this, and I have tried to be more intentional about this as our kids get older and our time with them living under our roof gets shorter.
It’s been a rough month for us, my wife especially after losing her Mom recently. We are planning a trip we’ve been talking about for years because what better time than now? We need to grab these opportunities to make memories while we can.
I really like the story about overcoming worry he shares at the end:
A senior monk and a junior monk were traveling together. At one point, they came to a river with a strong current. As the monks were preparing to cross the river, they saw a very young and beautiful woman also attempting to cross. The young woman asked if they could help her cross to the other side.
The two monks glanced at one another because they had taken vows not to touch a woman.
Then, without a word, the older monk picked up the woman, carried her across the river, placed her gently on the other side, and carried on his journey.
The younger monk couldn’t believe what had just happened. After rejoining his companion, he was speechless, and an hour passed without a word between them. Two more hours passed, then three, finally the younger monk couldn’t contain himself any longer, and blurted out “As monks, we are not permitted a woman, how could you then carry that woman on your shoulders?”
The older monk looked at him and replied, “Brother, I set her down on the other side of the river, why are you still carrying her?”