Do you ever wonder what the point of all this is? What the purpose of our lives are?

Personally, I believe we all have a purpose in life, and that’s to live.

Breathing in one breath and out, sleeping, eating, waking, and other bodily functions.

That’s living at its core if you think about it from a purely physical standpoint.

Ah but there’s more! The emotional.

Our purpose as human beings is really not to hoard money like some Scrooge, but end up all alone (perhaps divorced) and regretting all the moments you missed out in life because you were sitting on your great big pile of money.

I know, it sounds so strange with a PF blogger saying this, but it really isn’t the whole point or motivation of why I save money.

Our only purpose is to live in the Today, and in the Now.

I’ve already long accepted that I set my own little human-sized goals to reach $250,000 in net worth, and eventually a million before I retire, but ultimately, it is actually an insignificant accomplishment if I were to drop dead the day before I go to use that money.

But wait — it’s also not an excuse I can use to say:

Hey living in the Now means I get to go on a big shopping spree like the world is about to end tomorrow.

I still have to consider and plan carefully for the other very real possibility — that I will live beyond my retirement age, and perhaps well into my 90s.

IT’S NOT DEPRESSING IF YOU ALREADY DO WHAT YOU WANT

So is this depressing that you would have to save your whole life, but then imagine you die before you get to use that money?

It isn’t to me, because I’m already doing what I want to do today, and that includes saving enough for my (high) probability of living well into my 90s.

I couldn’t imagine a happier overall existence for myself, all things considered.

Sure, some days really suck and I wish things didn’t happen, but it’s just one day in the grand scheme of my life.

It’s like saying you’re angry for 3 seconds because you didn’t have any milk for your tea this morning, and it ruined your entire WEEK.

Now doesn’t that sound ridiculous?

Exactly.

PEOPLE SPEND THEIR WHOLE LIVES WAITING FOR THEIR LIVES TO BEGIN

The other day BF and I sat around talking about what happens after people win the lottery.

I won’t bore you with the details, but we came to the conclusion that many people probably spend their whole lives:

• saving
• spending
• going into debt
• dreaming of hitting it big in the lottery

…all so that they can finally start living their dream life.

Reality Check: You won’t get another life.

This is already YOUR DREAM LIFE that you have been dealt with, and the longer you put it off, the longer your Older Self will regret it.

The writing is on the wall. Photograph I took in the Beijing Museum of old Chinese characters.

Seeing as the odds of winning the lottery are extremely slim (it’s so slim, I can’t even see it), it’s sad to imagine that we’re all putting what we want to do on hold before we can start doing what we want.

All because of money? How ridiculous is that?

You can change your situation, because it’s YOUR life and you are in control.

Start budgeting, track your expenses, and get your ass into gear to do what it takes.

Or if you tell yourself: I’d love more free time so I can travel, and read books which is why I work so hard, so that I can have a secure financial future to do those things.

Are you kidding me right now? Go read a book NOW.

You’re probably wasting time reading this blog when you could be immersed in your dream activity, instead of waiting for the right or the best time to do it.

WHAT WOULD MORE MONEY CHANGE FOR ANYONE?

Then we turned it back onto ourselves as a self-reflection after we thought about people who win the lottery:

What would we do if we won the lottery?

BF said he’d have grand plans for that cash, and it would involve…… wait for it…. putting it into the bank and waiting for the best day to use it.

O_o

Not only is it extremely boring as a grand plan, but I realized that I would do exactly the same thing.

o_O

So then we asked:

What’s the best day then, to use the money?

For that, we had no answer.

Most people would quit, and find that to be the “dream of a lifetime”, but I can tell you that from my past 3 years, there’s no way I’d go back to just sitting around all day long, doing jack squat, and being bored out of my skull.

Quitting your job or having a job where you don’t need to work a lot, and doing NOTHING ALL DAY is not all it’s cracked up to be.

It really isn’t.

I for one, am extremely excited to go back to work, no matter how politically-incorrect that may sound.

I am excited to challenge my brain again, make money (yes, it gives me great satisfaction to make a lot of money), and to have something to fill the empty hours of the day of what I have as a life.

So then we talked about perhaps opening a business.

Or doing something that would occupy our time and our empty hours that we’d enjoy.

Open a restaurant. No, too much work, and it’s hot in there.

Okay, open a store.

A business. But selling what? What could we sell??

We sat that racking our brains for a good half hour of ideas before I said:

But if we wanted to do something other than what we’re doing now…

… shouldn’t we go and do it today so that we’re happy NOW?

And that ended the discussion because we realized that we are already doing what we want to do with our lives.

I ONLY HAVE ONE THING I WANT TO DO: VISIT JAPAN

I only have ONE thing on my list for the rest of my life, and it’s to visit Japan.

I know everyone tells me that the radiation is not a problem, and I even agree with reading the studies (rationally speaking). I KNOW I just have to stick to Tokyo and other areas far away from the radiation…

….but I’m a very young Worrying Wendy, I don’t want to screw my chances of living to a long ripe age just because I can’t wait 20 years or so to go see a country.

Nor do I want to screw my chances of not being able to have kids.

Or worse, passing anything toxic on to them.

In addition, I’ll be closer to death (theoretically speaking), and radiation won’t be that much of an issue for me by that time.

But it is something I get to look forward to when I get older. I almost can’t wait for 20 years to pass!

SO ASK YOURSELF:

ARE YOU LIVING THE LIFE YOU WANT TO LIVE, TODAY?

WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?