Hello friend,

These days I had some simple but time consuming tasks, so I listened to multiple podcasts.

One of them gave me the idea to write this post. It was about money.

I’m trying to share with you my philosophy of money. This might sound pedantic and pretentious, but these are my beliefs.

TL;DR

• Money is a tool. You decide how you spend that money.
• Stop. Take a deep breath and think for a second: do you really need more?
• Just because you earn more, that doesn’t make you better than someone else.
• Be generous! Be generous!
• When you say yes to something, you have to say no to something else.
• Spend your money to buy more time.

1. Money is a tool

I see money as a tool. I’m not willing to make more money for the sake of making more. I want more money to be able to live the life I want to live.

Personally, living a luxurious life is not for me. I’m not used to that, I don’t think I’d be comfortable doing that. Even if I had that much money to afford crazy things, I probably wouldn’t do it.

I want money to be able to live the life I want to live, the one that’s meaningful to me.

2. I don’t accumulate for the sake of it

I surprise myself by comparing myself to others from time to time. Working as a freelancer or as a business owner allows you to make a decent amount of money. But, compared to how others do, your income is basically peanuts.

And I had to stop the train of thoughts and ask my self: “Hold on a second. Am I happy with what I have? Do I need more? Do I want more just because I want something, or because I see others affording something else?”

While putting things into perspective, I realised I’m grateful for what I have. Sure, there’s room for improvement, but I’m good. I can live a decent life in Romania and afford most of the things I want. I could even start working on my own projects, and not do freelancing again. And I made the decision to do this for one year. This is great!

3. Giving is an important part for me

My wife and I decided that 10% of our income goes to donation. We have a separate bank account for that, and 10% of what we make goes into that account. And when we find a good cause, something we believe in, we are able to support that cause.

Why did we decide to do so? There are multiple reasons.

I am a Christian, and I believe that God has blessed us so much, much more than I could have asked for. And this is our response to that.

Besides this, there’s the joy of giving. Even if you’re religious or not, donating can give you a sense of fulfilment. And there are always people in need or causes that are worth supporting.

Also, this humbles me. Just because I had the opportunity to earn more, that doesn’t make me better than someone else. This keeps my feet on the ground. We’re not donating to show off, and I think this is the beauty of giving: keeping the anonymity. I’m not important. The person or entity who receives the money is important.

4. Tradeoffs

You can make more money, but you have to trade something else. Like your time with your family, your health, your relationship with your friends, you name it.

It’s like in a negotiation: are you willing to give up 2 hours of watching TV or movies every evening to learn a new skill, that will eventually help you make more money?

That’s a personal question. I cannot answer to that. Maybe you have a boring job and are making less money that you’d like. In that case, learning a new skill makes sense.

But maybe you have a stressful job that pays well, and you need that time to disconnect and watch a movie with your family. It’s a personal choice.

Ask yourself this following question: “Here’s the opportunity X which makes me more money, but here are the tradeoffs - am I willing to lose Y to acquire X?“

5. Freedom

One of my personal values is freedom. I discovered it recently.

What does freedom mean to me? The ability to do whatever I want, whenever I want.

Don’t get me wrong: there’s a difference between freedom and libertinism. I’m not saying do not obey the laws, or do something immoral.

I think one facet of freedom means buying more time. And I realised recently that I’m willing to spend money so that I’m not constrained by things.

As an example, I don’t like being worried that my car breaks all the time. Especially here in Romania, it’s much cheaper to buy an older car and assume that you’ll be at the mechanic every now and then. I don’t really like cars, I don’t understand how things work, so I prefer spending more to have a reliable boring car (a new one if possible).

The same goes with the cloths I wear, the gadgets I buy, the food I eat. That’s the reason I don’t like smartwatches: I don’t want to have just another device I have to charge, and I don’t want to have to plan so that I don’t start my day with my watch discharged.

In conclusion

If you want a more comprehensive discussion about money, make sure to check out this episode of “The Diary of a CEO”.

Thank you for reading. These are a few places where you can find me:

👉 I’m most active on X/Twitter: https://x.com/razvanmuntian

👉 Checkout my LinkedIn account as well: www.linkedin.com/in/razvanmuntian

👉 Or if you prefer Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/razvanmuntian

👉 My personal website: https://razvanmuntian.com

Thank you so much for reading this post and I hope it’s been inspirational!

See you soon!