To everyone that says “Spend your money NOW! You might not be alive tomorrow!”

You don't need money and things to be fulfilled because once you escape that mindset, you realize that there is no price to happiness because it was free all along.

What's up, you guys? It's Graham here. So, gonna go a little bit more personal and maybe a little deep in this video, so make sure, if you can, to hear it all the way through until the very end. Also, make sure to smash the like button, because according to statistics, just me mentioning smashing that like button is going to increase the likes by like 30%! Believe it or not, so just like, just me talking about this, the likes are gonna go up. Keep smashing that like button; it would be greatly appreciated.

So anyway, hear this through. But every single time I make a video about saving and investing, I get the same sort of comments over and over and over again, and that's: "You could die tomorrow. You can get hit by a bus an hour from now. You should spend your money now and enjoy it because you could be dead tomorrow." Even my friends are somewhat the same way; they tell me to stop being so cheap and to spend more money.

But here's the thing: I think this outlook just perpetuates the notion that I am NOT already happy and satisfied with my life, and also assumes that going out and spending money is what's going to bring me more enjoyment than not spending that money. This also assumes that having this thing or buying this thing is gonna bring me way more satisfaction than if I didn't have that thing. But honestly, this couldn't be further from reality.

And if I’m honest, 99% of the time, I probably have way more fun with my friends just completely shooting the breeze, not doing anything, than I could buying anything I could ever buy. Now, all fairness, these comments of "you can die tomorrow" usually come from people who truly believe, deep down, that money and things are really what leads to happiness and fulfillment. After all, I mean, that's kind of what's all around us.

When you see any image of someone who's made it or someone who's successful, what do you see? It's usually the stereotypical exotic car, house in the hills, all these really fancy things. That's what we've been fed for such a long time, and for almost everyone, including myself—because I'm not exempt from this—we're seeking some sort of external validation that we can quantify and measure, which is usually by things and money.

The notion that money is the solution to a greater quality of living and greater happiness and greater satisfaction is really just a temporary band-aid on the belief that you need these things to be whole, and you need these things to be happy. It's the reliance on these sort of things to be happy that can really end up holding you back long-term, and this is what I see as being the problem.

The thing is, spending money doesn't necessarily equate to more enjoyment. Going and using and spending money just because you could die tomorrow is really just saying to yourself, "I need all of these things, and I need to spend money in order to enjoy myself as a person." Now, totally don't get me wrong because I am an absolute capitalist, and I love making money. I love seeing opportunities, and I love business.

But once you get beyond the bare essentials of like food, water, shelter—whatever the bare minimum is that you need to survive—everything else after that is really just some arbitrary number that you attach some random sort of value to. Once you have the bare essentials, that's really all you need. Then it becomes more about not being a slave to things, but really doing things just because you enjoy them; because it brings passion, and it brings excitement, and it brings meaning into your life.

When you start seeing it like that, money is more so like a strategic game that you can use as a resource to bring out those creative passions and enthusiasms that you have. It's less about making money to buy something as it is using that money as a tool just for self-expression.

This also gets a lot more interesting when you start learning about the hedonic treadmill. It's a tendency in humans to return to whatever their baseline happiness level is, no matter what life throws your way, whether it's positive or negative. So if you win the lottery, let's just say, you might be really happy for a little while, but your mind adjusts to that. That becomes normal, and then you return to the same level of happiness as you first started.

And that's the point I want to get across to everybody who says, "You can die tomorrow; spend your money right now." It's not about spending money, and it never has been. It's really just about the freedom you have to express yourself as a person, to be happy with who you are right now, and what you will leave behind to future generations.

The novelty of stuff wears off extremely quickly. But who you are as a person and the impact that you're able to make on others lasts a lifetime. Now, like I said before, I am a total capitalist. I absolutely love making money. I love buying cool stuff. I love having a good time. But these things shouldn't be seen as a crutch to enjoy your life.

I'm also never advocating not to spend money if you're gonna have a great experience—if it's gonna give you long-lasting, well-rounded memories; if it's something that's gonna free up a lot of your time. These are great things to have, but it's so important to recognize if you're spending the money to fulfill some sort of void or deficiency in your life, or if you're spending money from a healthy, self-reliant point of view.

Spending money on experiences is almost always more rewarding than spending money on random things. Things get old. Things break. Things get outdated. But memories and experiences will last a lifetime. That's why I often have just way more fun going and hanging out with friends, doing nothing, shooting the breeze, laughing, joking around, than I ever get from buying any sort of random thing or gadget or cool contraption.

You don't need money and things to be fulfilled, because once you escape that mindset, you realize that there is no price to happiness because it was free all along.

As always, you guys, thank you so much for watching. If you made it to the very end, I really, really appreciate it. Thank you so much for listening to me rant for a little bit. If you haven't already, make sure to click subscribe and then smash the notification bell to be aware any time I upload a video—if YouTube decides to send out notifications, which they rarely ever do. But if they do, you will be notified.

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