Rich has little to nothing to do with money. Some of the best times our family had were when the kids were teenagers during the 2008 downturn. My wife and I combined made less than 20k one year, and not much better for a few years. During that time, we lived in a freshly remodeled home that was the nicest on our road, were warm enough in the winter to open windows when it was snowing, ate better than one could eat from a supermarket, and had a lot of fun as a family. We raised chickens, hogs, German Shepherds, and lots of fruit and vegetables. The pantry was full of all manner of canned meats, vegetables, jellies, and more, The freezers were full of pork, chicken and deer, even beef after I got half a cow for helping butcher it. We hunted, fished, smoked our own bacon, made our own sausage, had neighbors and friends over, went swimming, hiking and biking, and cut wood for heat together.
Kids still comment from time to time that they never had any idea how little money we had. It was constant work, to be sure, but no drudgery. All of us still think of those years as some of the best times of our lives. My wife and I are getting back to that life now, even though we make far more money than we did back then. It’s what we love. No matter how much money we have or don’t have, we feel rich looking around at all the food we grow, the wood we can cut, the fields and ponds that feed what feeds us. We have more land, better neighbors, and tools like a tractor and wood splitter that make things easier, but those “hard times” will always be pleasant memories for all of us. Money is not riches. Money is simply a medium of exchange for a person’s productivity. Riches are the parts of life that make you smile decades later, that make you proud or happy on your deathbed. A man who dies miserable and lonely with millions is a pauper compared to the man who dies in a home he built on land his family owns, with his successful and loving family around him.
