For most of my life I’ve worked under the assumption that money buys happiness. It didn’t matter how many times I heard critics preach to the contrary, it seemed simple: money will allow me to buy the things that make me happy. Over the last three years my perspective has shifted.<\/p>\n
One day I sat down and made a list of all of the things I wanted to do in my life<\/a>. I realized I’d never put much thought into it, so I wanted to see what would come out. Some of the things \u2014 like \u201cCompose a spectacular HDR photo<\/a>\u201d \u2014 were pretty simple. Others items \u2014 such as staying at the Burj al Arab Hotel in Dubai \u2014 were going to be a bit of a challenge. Then there were a few that were downright impossible (go on a Virgin Galactic space flight, for instance).<\/p>\n When I created this list, I had a solid job as a financial analyst. I was making good money. I’d written these things out, but didn’t really plan to cross many off anytime in the near future, simply because I didn’t have the time. After all, it was probably going to take more than my two weeks of vacation to prepare for my Galactic space flight.<\/p>\n To make matters worse, it was March of 2009 and the stock market was at its lowest point in years. Everyone was telling me how lucky I was to have a job, but I’d just received a 20% pay cut, morale was down, and there was no end in sight.<\/p>\n I had one revelation that was worse than any of that, though: I didn’t have any good stories.<\/p>\n My life consisted of heading to the office, running around the Willamette River during lunch, working some more, and attending the occasional happy hour. Rinse and repeat.<\/p>\n It didn’t matter if my salary doubled; the routine would stay the same. Sure I’d probably drive a nicer car, move into a bigger place, and have a bigger TV than my friends, but that wasn’t helping me accomplish anything of my new-found goals was it? It took awhile but I realized that experiences and stories were much more important than any of the material items.<\/p>\n Six months after creating that list, I quit.<\/p>\n Since then I’ve crossed off 28 things on my list, and have plans to knock off a bunch more.<\/p>\n If you handed me a million dollars and told me to have fun, I wouldn’t do anything different than I’m doing now. I’d keep working on my list. But has it taken me a million dollars to do the things I’ve really wanted in life? Absolutely not.<\/p>\n Were the experiences worth millions of dollars? I’d like to think so.<\/p>\n Whether it was staying in a three-bedroom Balinese villa for free, or skiing for free in Vail, I’ve simply done what most people wait until retirement to do \u2014 for a fraction of the cost.<\/p>\n\n