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bhikkhu

(10,787 posts)
17. I know what a lot of people think about that
Fri Oct 31, 2025, 10:14 AM
Friday

Why shouldn't I keep my money? And people who don't have money often don't have money for good reasons. But then again, there are so many people who just have dragon hoards of it and have no intention of ever doing anything with it at all, except maybe pass down as much as possible to their heirs, like the whole thing is a real-life Monopoly game. My mom is like that; we never had much when I was younger but property and some stocks she invested in ages ago have all soared, and she has a huge nest egg she's determined to never touch but keeps track of religiously. If stocks are up she feels like she made a bunch of money, but if they're down she probably has a bad day and starts worrying.
But really - it's almost completely abstract, she's never going to touch the money, it means practically nothing. Myself and my siblings have no plans for it either when she passes; my lifestyle is pretty determinedly frugal and that's not going to change. You get used to not having much and not trusting the future, so it's hard to ever relax. Anyway, I've read that there's a "money isn't real" sentiment among the young, and I'm starting to think they're close to right. Most of the country's wealth is squirreled away doing not much for anyone, just numbers on spreadsheets, never going anywhere or doing much good for anyone. Or rather - I can live like a poor person and feel like I have a little security because there's assets in an account somewhere, but if those assets are doing anything at all they're probably working against my actual interests, leveraged on the banking and finance end toward ai projects and all kinds of nonsense like that, leading to nothing particularly good.

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