My elven-year-old son and I were out walking his dog over the weekend. Out of the blue he asks one of his random questions – my son, not the dog.
“Dad. Would you rather earn a million dollars a year or a million dollars a month?”
I puzzled over this question for a moment. How to make use of this teaching opportunity?
I did so by turning the question on its head. “That’s not the real question we should be asking.”
I continued, “Let me ask you this. Would you rather work sixteen hours a day for six days a week to earn one million dollars a year or four hours a week to earn just fifty thousand dollars a year?”
That got him thinking. My goal was to illustrate the difference between riches and my personal definition of true wealth.
Riches are the measure of a bank balance. Wealth is the measure of freedom and choice.
Rich Abba, Holy Abba
True Wealth vs One Million Dollars a Year
What is the point of having a million dollars a year if you have to spend every waking minute working in pursuit of that money? Sure, you would earn a million dollars in a year but you would have no life.
To put it in perspective for my son, I explained, “There are fifty-two weeks in a year. Most people get two weeks of holiday and have to work forty hours a week, Monday to Friday, for the other fifty.
“If you only have to work four hours a week, that means you are effectively working just over five weeks a year. For the other forty-seven, you get to do whatever you want.”
What would you do with that time?
I suspect my son might spend it playing Fortnite on his PS4 or watching Youtube videos. My daughter, on the other hand, is a few years older and has a deeper understanding of Biblical Stewardship. She would probably use some of those extra weeks to volunteer on Mercy Ships. There, she would be able to help the poor and share God’s love with people who might have never heard the gospel before.
In the above illustration, I used $50,000 as an arbitrary figure. Some readers might consider this amount excessively greedy while others might feel that it would not be enough to live on. Every believer will have their own perspective on how much is enough.
There is no judgment here. Whatever your number is, I urge you to consider what it would take to earn that amount as a passive income that can, in turn, generate opportunities for personal freedom and choice.
Once you embark on that journey, may God guide you to use your time wisely as you work to further His kingdom, give generously and share the gospel with others.