Money

Money is evil basically. It's amazing how much time everyone spends thinking about it, and of course I wouldn't be posting this if I wasn't guilty as well. Basically the point is that I need to stop thinking about money, while at the same time keeping my spending habits at the relatively low level they are at. Of course that makes no sense to some degree because just making the decision to not spend lots of money on things involves "thinking about money".

There was a good post on 2+2 the other day where someone was complaining about their bad fortune in poker to a doctor friend, and that doctor friend said that they just got done telling someone they had cancer. Whatever, I basically feel like I'm randomly preaching something that everyone knows right now. But okay, basically I need to let money have much less control over my life and emotions than it does now. In reality all I care about in life is being able to maintain my current living situation, as I really don't want anything else. Not only that, I think I could easily downgrade my living situation and expenses by about $1000 per month and still be very happy. I could easily pay $500-600 less rent per month, not have the 8 disc per month Netflix package, not have 2 cable boxes that I never use that cost a total of $18 per month, etc etc. I simply can't think of something else I'd want if I tried. Maybe an option for Netflix to allow me to have 10 discs out instead of 8? I don't buy video games anymore, I don't buy anything ever really. I forced myself to buy an Ipod the other day but realized that I had absolutely no use for it, and swiftly turned it into a semi-Valentine's Day present for Susan.

So why is it that I have everything I want, yet I constantly think about money? I think about how much I need to make per month to be ahead of my expenses (which fortunately I seem to do even when I have a "bad" month). I imagine circumstances in which I will no longer be coming out ahead each month, which is pretty much not relevant because even if I break even or lose a few hundred bucks per month, I can live in my current state for basically the rest of my life due to the reasonably large savings I have from the past few years of playing. So the question is why the fuck do I care so much? It's really a sickness, and unfortunately one that probably afflicts a lot of people.

Anyway I'm not quite sure if I'm doing a good job of explaining this, not only in this post, but also to myself. I guess my main point is that it should be very clear to me that I'm financially okay, much moreso than like 99+% of the population, yet I still think about it all the time. How sick is that? ITS ABSURD and it's a total waste of my energy and my soul.

I feel like all that really matters in life is doing good deeds. I think that's pretty much true and that everything else is irrelevant. However we must make some money to live, and thus we have to think about it, and we have to constantly spend money on things, and so it becomes a vicious cycle where we are constantly thinking about it and we have to figure out the exactly correct amount of mental energy to spend thinking about it. If we think about it too little our quality of life may be too poor, but if we think about it too much, our quality of life will probably be even worse. I have not yet found that sweet spot where everything is just perfect, although I think I'm working on it. But basically at some point in life I will be about to die soon, and anything remotely financial will be so far from my mind that it's ridiculous.

Probably the true key is to stop getting happy when I win money? That's an emotion that you generally pass off as being okay, because it feels good and how can anything be bad if it feels good? However it's generally impossible to be very happy about winning money, without being really unhappy when you lose money. If I eliminate the good feelings that come with making money, I am pretty sure I wouldn't allow myself to feel the bad feelings when I lose. So basically I have to not be happy when I win, and this way I am the big winner because my poker results will have absolutely no bearing on my happiness level, with the modest assumption that I make at least enough or close to enough to cover my monthly expenses. Yes I've decided that this is the key. From now on when I win, I will force myself to not care and not be happy, giddy etc etc.

Also I must continue to invest my money and use interest bearing online savings accounts for the rest of it. This is yet another thing that makes me constantly think about money and the value of money, but it's just so easy, requires almost no work, and is virtually free money so I have to continue doing it. Perhaps I could stop checking my index fund investments every day though? Maybe even force myself never to look if it's not a Saturday or something artificial like that.

Please note that I'm writing this after waking up at 6 am at Susan's house. She tricks me into going to bed early with her, at ridiculous hours like 130 AM, and my body just wasn't ready for it tonight. Anyway really everything I have posted here I believe is very important to me, and probably it's secretly very important to a lot of other people, because so many people I know are completely money-focused the large majority of the time. Anyway I will win this battle for sure now that I've written this. I just need to refocus my attitude and priorities while playing poker

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Greg Shahade aka Curtains

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Так говорил Заратустра.

Думаю, некоторым (многим?) полезно будет почитать.

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Моё мнение здесь для того, чтобы узнать, почему оно неправильное.

Вот гад... Ненавижу... Завидно

Подобные мысли приходят всё чаще и чаще. Слишком много усилий уходит на получение того, что не даёт равноценной отдачи.

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Так говорил Заратустра.

*ZARATUSTRA*
На эту тему есть хороший анекдот - про негра, который лежит под пальмой и ест банан. Всех людей можно (весьма условно) поделить на две группы - по их отношению к героям анекдота.

Я не говорю, что какой-то из подходов плох. Просто они разные.

Я свой выбор сделал уже давно .

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Моё мнение здесь для того, чтобы узнать, почему оно неправильное.

Ты про этот анекдот:
Лежит негр в Африке под пальмой и ест бананы. Подходит турист.
- Ты чего лежишь негр?
- А что делать?
- Так собери бананы, отнеси на базар и продай!
- Зачем?
- Денег заработаешь!
- Зачем?
- Бизнес сделаешь! Богатым станешь!
- Зачем?
- Как зачем? Будешь лежать и ничего не делать?
- Так Я И ТАК ЛЕЖУ И НИЧЕГО НЕ ДЕЛАЮ!..

Я так понимаю, ты уже бананы собрал, продал - бизнес сделал. И теперь лежишь под пальмой и подшучиваешь над туристами?

Я тоже с выбором определился. Но, ещё не избавился окончательно, впемя от времени, безпричинно усложнять себе жизнь.

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Так говорил Заратустра.

За этим текстом стоят еще 2 вопроса: "зачем" и "почему". Ответы будут конечно очень индивидуальные. В свое время мне встретился небольшой рассказ на эту тему: [Зарегистрироваться?]

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На трудном пути к легким деньгам...

Анекдот этот.

Нет, я просто лежу под пальмой .

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Моё мнение здесь для того, чтобы узнать, почему оно неправильное.

похоже хорошая статья, но я нифига не понял :o

Gnome
Чувак нарубил бабла в покер и у него возник резонный вопрос:
А чего я продолжаю дергаться из-за выигрыша/проигрыша если мне нарубленного уже хватит до гроба?
Ну и так далее, про неадекватность усилий/волнений и результата в его текущей ситуации.
Вот на его ситуацию мне и завидно
А то семейство не дает под пальмой лежать...

а зачем он играет дальше, если бабло ему, как он пишет, не нужно уже? занялся бы чем-нибудь полезным тогда

Он переехал туда, где есть пальмы

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Подпишись на бесплатный видео курс по увеличению личной эффективности в покере

Охотно верю. При богатом воображении, конечно, можно и берёзу за пальму выдать. Но не было бы тогда столько полезностей и оптимизма в его постах. Следовательно - точно под пальмой загорает.

Эх, завидно чё-то. У самой пока такой расклад:
365 дн. в году = 100%, из них: 60% выглядят так , 40% - так.

Вот на эти 20% и живу. Эх, а так хоцца самопродающихся бананов. К доктору Кукку на приём записаться что-ли... или губозакаточную машинку прикупить...

Лудоман, что с него возьмешь.

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Arthur Grey

Для меня деньги это скорее показатель успеха, а не ценность сами по себе. Покер мне нравится тем, что дает ощущение (иллюзию?) движения, в отличие от обычной работы. Ну а деньги как раз и отмеряют это движение.

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\"Il nous faut de l\'audace, et encore de l\'audace, et toujours de l\'audace\" Georges Jacques Danton