There are different kinds of rich families. There are families that have lots of money. There are families that have lots of time together. Sometimes these families are the same…too often they are not.
In the fascinating book The Psychology of Money, Morgan Housel quotes Karl Pillemer as saying, “Your kids don’t want your money (or what money buys) anywhere near as much as they want you. Specifically they want you with them.” More recently we posted a great line from the author Jon Acuff on the Daily Dad Instagram, “I’ve never met a 13 year old who said, ‘My dad was never around because he was always working but I have a sweet mountain bike now so it was all worth it.’”
A person living a rich life gets to see their kids. They don’t trade away the only childhood their sons and daughters will ever have. They have idle time for their kids. They get to do more than the occasional pick up and drop off. They don’t have to constantly check their watch or phone. They are not only there for all the games, practices, and plays–but they are present as well.
There’s a lot of ways to get to this place of wealth. One way can be by having so much money you never have to worry about anything again. But the other can come by being comfortable having less money, by reorganizing your priorities, by using the money you do have to buy the most valuable thing in the world.
TIME.