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I'm already a millionaire. (No, I'm not joking.)
However, nobody would ever guess it by looking at me, or observing my lifestyle. I dress like a bum, live happily in my crooked old house, and don't even own a car at the moment (and doubt I will any time soon). I spend a lot of money on vet bills because taking in old, sick, messed-up cats is my idea of an awesome hobby, and on the rare occasions I bother to fly anywhere I go first class (which still feels decadent). But beyond that, I hardly spend any money because I have everything I need and just about everything I want. I have nothing to prove to anyone (including myself) by engaging in conspicuous consumption. If anything, I have more than enough stuff--to the point where I keep getting rid of it because it feels like a chain around my ankle.
I didn't become a millionaire until after I quit giving a damn whether I became one or not. For a long time, I believed that having more money would get me the life I wanted. But when I thought deeply about it, what I really wanted was enough money to meet my relatively modest needs, abundant leisure time to do as I damned well please, and the ability to call my own shots in life. I wanted a very high degree of personal freedom, with the ability to pick and choose which obligations I was willing to take on.
And I didn't need to be a millionaire to have that. Most of that freedom came from my ability to act fearlessly from my true desires, rather than submit to others' expectations. That feeling of freedom had to come from within my own head, first--no amount of money could have bought it for me.
That isn't to say that money doesn't play a part in that, and make my life easier; it most certainly does. But the money came after I started pursuing the life I really wanted for myself. It wasn't a necessity, or a condition that had to be met before I could finally act from my own deepest desires.
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