One of the biggest lies that keeps people poor, wanting, jealous, overspending, and financially irresponsible is the idea that they understand enough to judge the financial thinking of people—whether bad or good—who have more earned money than they. Equally, another big lie is that wealthy people can understand those who have less money than they ever had; this idea usually brings the downfall of the wealthy and powerful. We only understand enough to judge the financial worldview of wealth or poverty that we have already had ourselves.
One of the best-kept secrets about money is that everyone has exactly what he has, no more or less. Another secret is that God makes money vanish and appear as He wills, yet that is not why most rich and poor are rich and poor. To recognize how much money you have is the first step to mastering money so that money—whether wealth or poverty—doesn’t master you.
The “moral amount” of money is neither great nor small. Morals and money are not measured in dollars, pounds, yuan, dong, or shekels. Morals about money are about we as humans mastering our own money.
Your worth in Heaven is not measured by your neighbors, nor by the numbers in your bank account today, but in your ability to generate, to dig, drill, to strike oil, water, and gold—to put your sweat in the right place and the right amounts and to encourage and guide others as they do the same. But, none of that can happen if you think that you can understand people who have an amount of money that you never have.
Wealth can be unsatisfying, but so can poverty. Thriving includes wealth for the mature. Wealth comes from hard, smart work, combined with a share of luck. We create our own luck by trying again and again and again, not giving up, no matter the sweat and blisters from our weary hands. But, you can’t understand things you haven’t been through. So, don’t pretend. Focus on what you have and what you need to do. Neither despise nor covet anyone else. Rather, seek to master whatever you have by first mastering yourself.