What Money Cannot Buy

While trying to sort out my inbox, I opened an unread email sent by a friend probably before New Year’s Eve. It was one of those chain type of emails where it threatens that bad luck will fall upon you if you can’t be send it to over 20 contacts. I was just about to delete it (it was just a waste of inbox space anyway) but decided to read it first before sending it to oblivion. The email contains a short Chinese proverb that certainly punched a few holes into my personality. I’ve read it somewhere before and you probably did too but let’s go over it just to make sure we are talking about the same adage.

With money:

We can buy a house, but not a home.
We can buy a clock, but not time.
We can buy a bed, but not sleep.
We can buy a book, but not knowledge.
We can buy a doctor, but not good health.
We can buy a position, but not respect.
We can buy blood, but not life.
We can buy sex, but not love.

It makes one feel guilty right? Here we are living in this world, trying so hard to earn more just so we can buy a big house in a nice or if not, in an upscale neighborhood. In doing so, we no longer have time to spend with our loved ones, most especially with children (for those who have kids). Can’t get enough sleep because our jobs keep us anxious at night. Compromise health because of the tedious workload and in some worst case scenarios, forget about respecting others just so we can get what we want. It’s a shame, but that’s what money can make us do in exchange to all the material happiness it provides.

But yet we still yearn to have more cash. It’s like a global phenomenon that has been taking the world by storm since the beginning of civilization. Men have fought over it like animals. I guess people are born that way. We seem to have greed embedded into our DNA.

The proverb reminds me of a Nicholas Cage movie, The Family Man. In the story, Cage plays Jack Campbell, a rich and powerful businessman in Wall Street. He was surely on top of his game but one Christmas eve, Jack realized what he had lost because of his insatiable hunger for wealth. He lost the chance to be with Kate, the love of his life. He lost the opportunity to become a good father to kids Josh and Annie. He lost the chance to know what its like to live a simple life.

Because of money, I lost precious time. Time that I should have spent with my father. And now no matter how much I have, I can never get him back. Nor the time that I have wasted away from him. And I’m not even power-hungry as Jack was. I was simply trying to live my own life.

Obviously, the proverb implies that money is not everything. To some extent, it can make one happy but that happiness is only temporary. What matters most are the things that money can never buy: a home, time, sleep, vast knowledge, good health, respect for others, love and life itself.

By: Natasha Silverman

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Philanthropy: The Secret Key to Lasting Wealth and Achievement

In these desperate and trying times, who do you turn to when things go wrong? A world that sometimes seems so cruel and unkind with no one reaching out to help you through your deepest and darkest black hole. You are alone and hollow. Your tears have run dry.

How horrendous this is when this happens to you and your life becomes a desperate nightmare!

Fortunately for people who have lost hope, there are hands that reach out and make it their advocacy to give back the love for life. These are the philanthropists whose desire is to make this world a better place to live in by supporting charitable causes or creating a charitable foundation themselves.

Philanthropy is an innate desire to improve the social, economic and spiritual wellbeing of humankind.

Philanthropy is not only for the rich and powerful, it’s for everyone to learn and master, this is becoming and truly being a person who is selfless and has known his purpose in life. Everyone has the ability to help someone even in a small way such as letting an old woman go to the front of the line in the bank or giving a coin to a street child who stands hungrily watching people entering a fast food franchise.

Men and women differ in their perspective when it comes to giving or donating. Studies shows that men tend to give to have a building named after them, pressure from office or peers or get a seat on a board of directors and women on the other hand give to make a difference, pass on family tradition and give back to community. Well, it might seem that the women have humanitarian reasons while the men have utilitarian views.

Whatever reason we might have in giving doesn’t really matter as long as we give and try to make a difference to alleviate the plight of the world.

Just put in mind the principles of powerful philanthropy which are: financially educate yourself, put your finances in order (spend less, save more, invest wisely and give generously), right mind set (you are a philanthropist!), think of your legacy you will leave in this world, consult professionals when giving donations and make it a family affair to teach your kids the values of giving and helping make this world a better place to live in.

Being a philanthropist does not necessarily mean you are a big spender, so better be thrifty and be wise in making buying decisions so you could save more. Most importantly is how to invest wisely and create wealth and affluence that offer an ideal lifestyle for yourself as well as enabling you to make contributions to worthy causes. In our Forex trading community many entrepreneurs have expressed the desire to use their knowledge and skill in currency trading to contribute something worthwhile and meaningful to others less fortunate. Having a strong vision and reason “why” behind your business activity gives tangible life and power to your efforts. Many success gurus insist that tithing and giving to charity is the secret key to long term success and wealth.

Having read this article, you may want to become a part of the ranks of top philanthropists (named by Chronicle of Philanthropy in 2009) like Stanley and Fiona Druckenmiller (donated $705 million), John Templeton ( donated $573 million), Bill and Melinda Gates ($350 million), Michael Bloomberg ($254 million donated), and Louise Dieterle Nippert ($158 million donated). One thing is for certain. And that is that when you give you will feel like your life has a greater purpose and you will definitely feel happier, uplifted and inspired.

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Natasha Silverman