How to Liberate The Goodness of Money

Daniel Suelo was one of the most interesting characters I’ve ever met. I was having dinner with him and some friends a few years ago trying to process his view of money—or to be more accurate, his refusal to believe in money at all! He was in Montana talking about a book that had been written about him called, “The Man Who Quit Money.” As the title implies, Daniel, a well-educated and articulate man, had made a decision in the fall of 2000 to stop using money. He simply lived off the land, foraged for food in dumpsters and had managed to live without ever using money for about 12 years at the time I met him. He solved the need for housing by living in a cave in Utah when he wasn’t traveling.

The evening got even more interesting after dinner when we went with Daniel to a large standing room only event.  As the meeting began, he was treated almost as a god like figure by the crowd who seemed mesmerized by a man who had seemingly found a way to say no to the most dominating influence in our culture. I was reminded of the scenes in Forest Gump when a crowd began running with Forest because he seemed like he had the secret to life all figured out.  Daniel seemed to exude peace and serenity that others wanted. The dream of an apparently happy life spent without striving for money clearly captivated the crowd.

How to Give it All Away

Similarly, Chuck Feeney has also inspired many to think unconventionally about money.  Like Daniel Suelo, he is also drawn to spartan living. However, that’s where the similarities end. As profiled in Forbes recently, Chuck amassed billions through his very successful Duty Free Shoppers business he co-founded. Where Chuck’s story gets interesting is that he pledged to give away almost his total net worth of eight billion dollars before he died. And he just completed his goal!

According to Forbes, Chuck gave his money away over the last four decades to charities, universities and foundations. He has nothing left now and he couldn’t be happier. While most of Feeney’s generosity was done anonymously, his story is out now and he is the inspiration for a movement among billionaires to give away most of their wealth in their lifetime.  

Consumerism and Money

I think the intense interest people show in Daniel Suelo and Chuck Feeney’s stories suggest that something is not quite right in the relationship many experience with money. Why is it so fascinating to hear about one guy who quits using money, and another one who makes eight billion only to give it all away? When our culture teaches that happiness can be achieved through money, it raises questions about our money beliefs when we see someone taking a countercultural route.

As a bank executive I worked with a lot of marketing people over the years. One of the first lessons I learned is that it’s boring and ineffective to sell the features of a product.  Instead, you sell the dream!  In other words, don’t emphasize the low interest rate on a car loan, rather, encourage the customer to see the bank as helping them become who they were meant to be by financing that Tesla!

Professional marketers sell things by connecting them to happiness, life satisfaction, fulfillment and peace. The pitch is that we can become self-actualized only if we buy the right products that will get us there. And logically what follows is that we need to pursue money to bring us this self-fulfilled life.

While some products and experiences do bring short term happiness, and that’s a good thing, they do not have the ability to bring long term purpose. Our relationship with money can turn dysfunctional when we make a demand of it that it cannot deliver.

Historically, it’s not surprising that with the rise of consumerism and marketing after World War II, charitable giving began to decline. Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn gave an insightful Harvard commencement speech in 1978 in which he noted that the West was exchanging the pursuit of happiness through virtue for the pursuit of happiness by material goods. Today that speech looks validated.

A Thesis for the Purpose of Money

I did a radio show a few weeks ago and the interviewer asked, “What is the purpose of money?” I suggested that in it’s highest and best use it is, “a way to bless others.” This definition needs to be nuanced. For example, one way for a business person to bless workers is to reinvest profits in the company to be able to give raises and create new jobs.  Also, this definition doesn’t exclude caring for ourselves, as we know if we don’t plan for retirement, we may end up being a burden to our children to care for us. But to be sure, raising our game in the area of helping others with our money can be a spiritual antidote to endless consumerism.

5 practical ways to bless others with our money

If you don’t have eight billion to give, here are 5 ideas you might be able to use:

•  Tips. In Montana hair salons were forced to shut down for several months due to COVID. When I finally got in to my barber, I left by giving him a $100 tip. I think he was overwhelmed, but I’m sure I got a lot more joy out of it than he did. In this pandemic era there are a lot of restaurants that have laid off many employees. As we have opportunity to go out again, I think it’s a great opportunity to bless your barber, hairdresser, waiter or waitress with an above average tip!
• Revisit your will. Most of us cannot give away all our money in this life because we need it to live on. However, in addition to our children, we can focus on charities we want to support when our estate is disbursed.
• Look at your donation budget. I have a friend who had been giving away 10% of his income, but decided he should be able to give 20%. He has done it and inspired me to look at my budget. If you’re giving 2%, perhaps a boost to 3% is a way to bless a local charity.
• Find an international charity that will stretch your thinking beyond local needs. The impact of COVID in developing countries is horrible and it’s a great time to make a difference in another part of the world.  
• I found it interesting in writing this blog that when I searched for what happened to Daniel Suelo, I ran across a Wikipedia update that said he had begun using money again in 2017 because he was taking care of his mother who was in her 90’s. Perhaps counterintuitive to the topic today, charity begins by taking care of ourselves and our family first. As a baby boomer, I have many friends who are sandwiched between taking care of their aging parents and helping their kids with college. It’s not a blessing to get to old age and ask our children to care for us because we failed to plan for long term care.

If you have a unique story on how you have mastered the money challenge in life through charitable actions, I’d love to hear about it!

Joe Kesler

Founder, Smart Money with Purpose