Interesting NY Times article from a couple years ago -- "Net Worth, Self-Worth and How We Look at Money."
It gives a brief summary of an academic paper that found four basic patterns around money:
1. Money avoidance
2. Money worship
3. Money status
4. Money vigilance
The first was avoiding money by being worried about its negative effects, or thinking it's dirty to have. People with money avoidance tend to have low incomes, low net worths, and are young.
Money worship means people think that money will solve all their problems, which has its own negative effects. While these people get wealthier (obviously), it places a lot of personal self-worth on having money and leads to risky and neurotic behavior.
Money as status comes in even worse -- people feeling the need to earn to prove themselves and show off status, which ironically often leads to bad anti-prosperous decisions. This style places the most self-worth on net worth and monetary activities, and leads to lots of risky behavior and trying to put on shows of status.
The final is "money vigilance," who are wary of spending and don't talk about what they earn much. They experience higher levels of anxiety about money, but yet the study found these people are the only ones who didn't majorly suffer from their pattern around money.
An interesting study with some interesting effects. Questions to think over -- how much do you tie your self-worth to financial prosperity, vs. living your values, friendship, and doing good in the world? Are you vigilant about your money? Do you want others to love you for it?
Worth thinking through. Might be hard questions to think over. Getting money and keeping a big chunk of it (and using the rest to power a meaningful life) is a great thing, but pegging money to your self-worth, self-evaluation, and status is a dangerous game. So is thinking money can solve all life's problems.
What's your pattern around money?