Want money? Fine. Just decide now whether you’re buying time, choices or more stuff.

Money is not one thing, it is a choice between three different purchases. The same income can buy hours you get back, options you keep open, or possessions that then need maintaining, and those three lead to very different lives. Most people never make the choice out loud, so it gets made for them by whatever their friends are buying. Deciding early is the cheap part.

Write down which of the three you actually want, in one sentence, and keep it somewhere you will see it. Then check your spending against it now and then. Wanting money is not the problem; drifting into a version you did not choose is.