Finding Balance

I recently came across the story of Paul Navone, a 78-year-old second-generation Italian-American retiree who, on a salary of $11 an hour, accumulated a multi-million dollar fortune. Paul worked in the New Jersey mills, and made his fortune through buying rental properties and investing his money in the stock market. He also lived a very frugal life, shopping at thrift stores and not having a television or telephone. In interviews, he indicated that the last thing he remembers seeing on television was the NASA moon landing in 1969. Paul never married and had no children. He traveled out of New Jersey only three times in his life (one time for vacation, and one time for a work-related convention, and one time when he was drafted to the Army). He was described as somewhat reclusive; in fact, the only reason he became known is because he recently donated several million dollars to various schools.

Many, many people have found Paul to have an inspiring millionaire-next-door rags-to-riches story. But there have also been many others who, like me, find this to actually be a sad story.

Helen Keller, the deaf-blind American author and activist on whose life the play The Miracle Worker is based, was quoted as saying “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” In my opinion, life is about balance and about quality of existence. While it’s very important to save and invest, to avoid waste and seek opportunity, and to think about tomorrow, earning millions means nothing if it’s not used to improve and enrich the quality of your life. If you live like you have nothing, you might as well have nothing; what’s the difference? For all the importance we place on wealth and money here, in the end it’s only a tool, a piece of paper, a currency that we can exchange for goods and services. It’s really only as good as what we use it for. Living a disconnected life, from people and the world around you, is not healthy. Having a telephone and television will not determine whether you become rich or poor; neither will taking vacations, or getting married, or having kids (which, I’ve found, make life much more beautiful and meaningful). When your entire focus is on investing and frugality, you lose focus of all the other important things in life, like family, friends, experiences, spiritual fulfillment, and happiness. Living a hard and lonely life with monk-like austerity, and waiting until you are almost eighty years old before touching your money is, in my opinion, not inspirational or something to strive toward at all.

Happy New Year!...to all my readers who've noticed (like Joe in Tallahassee) that I haven't posted in almost a month. I wish you happiness, peace, and prosperity in 2008!