19. Material Energy and Spiritual Energy

19. Material Energy and Spiritual Energy

Material things eventually become trash. Only spiritual spending does not disappear. So far this book has spent the vast majority of its pages on “money” — how to invest, how to grow, how to avoid tax, how to avoid risk. All important. But if a personal-finance book only talks about money, it is a technical manual, not a work that can change your life. Because money is only half the story. The other half is your heart.

Simple Living, Not Frugality

When many hear the phrase “simple living,” their first reaction is “save money” — eat one less meal, wear one fewer shirt, buy one less thing. This is the biggest misreading of simple living. Let me first give a discriminator I have used for 20+ years: before buying something, ask yourself: six months from now, will I still use this? Then go look at the things you bought in the past few years as “very necessary,” and see where they are now. Most people will find: over half are in warehouse corners, deep drawers, the back of the storage room. They were “needs” at the time; they are “trash” today. I’ve made this mistake too. I bought an espresso machine — not expensive, it worked, I was excited at first. Then I learned pour-over and found it suited me better; the espresso machine was recycled. I also bought a juicer — three months of juice, then I learned juicing fruit spikes blood sugar far more than eating fruit; the machine is still sitting there, taking up space. While in Taiwan I watched an era when automatic bread machines were trendy — friends made bread for neighbors at first, then in six months no one made it anymore; whether the machine went to storage or trash, even the owner couldn’t say. These are not isolated. I estimate in an ordinary household, more than half of the things bought never get used again. Money spent, space occupied, moving fees incurred every time you move — they didn’t make you wealthier; they continuously consume you.

So the real definition of “simple living”: not saving money — thinking clearly before spending. Think clearly: six months from now? a year? three years? If any answer is “not so sure,” don’t buy.

Material Becomes Trash; Spirit Does Not

Push it one layer deeper: All “material consumption” eventually depreciates, falls out of fashion, becomes trash. Coffee machines break, juicers gather dust, treadmills become your home’s most expensive clothes rack, furniture fades, electronics get obsoleted. They excite you now, but excitement has an expiration date. All “spiritual consumption” almost never disappears. A good meal with family — the money was spent, the food eaten — but ten years later, the conversation, the laughter at that table, are still there. Take parents on a real trip — the plane has been retired, the hotel renovated, the souvenirs long gone — but ten years later, when your parents recall that trip, the light in their eyes is still there. A good meal, a trip, a stretch of companionship — these do not become trash. So once your wealth crosses a certain threshold, please consciously shift spending from material to spirit:

• A family meal — $200 isn’t wasted; it becomes memory, not trash.
• A real trip with parents or children — the time left to walk together is limited.
• A stretch of doing nothing, just reading or walking — “thinking power” you buy yourself, with extremely high compounding. Use money to buy things that leave memories. Don’t use money to buy things that become trash. This is the simplest standard for whether a spend is worth it.

The Money ↔ Spiritual Energy Loop

Turn the whole thing into a diagram — the most important diagram in this book:

Money Energy ──→ Spiritual Energy
↑                  │
│                  ↓
Spiritual Energy ←── Money Energy

The logic: you must first have enough spiritual energy to hold large money energy; you must also first have enough money energy to raise spiritual energy. Each is the precondition and amplifier of the other. This is why:

• Lottery winners usually end up poor. Research from the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research shows roughly 70% of big lottery winners spend all the money

within 5 years, even falling into worse distress than before. Not “not enough money” — their spiritual energy didn’t keep up with the sudden material energy.

• High-salary lawyers, accountants, TV hosts, all kinds of “professionals” can still end up sick, poor, miserable. A high salary alone cannot solve insufficient spiritual energy. If your inner container is small, no matter how much you pour in, it overflows. Where does spiritual energy come from? Read a lot. I’ve run this channel for 20+ years; what comes out each day sounds original, but in fact it “emerges” from massive reading — like an AI emerging new thinking after being fed massive knowledge. What you input determines the height of what you output. Spiritual energy also comes from a calm heart, not jerked around by the market. A person inwardly certain, not pulled by fear or greed, is the one who can hold long-term. That “capacity to hold long-term” is itself one of the highest forms of spiritual energy.

Money Is Trash; Spiritual Energy Is What’s Worth Accumulating

Let me say something counterintuitive: money itself is trash. Why? Because money is just numbers. Sitting in your account, it doesn’t make you happier, healthier, closer to family; it doesn’t go with you when you die. Money only has meaning at the instant it converts into something not-money. Convert it to health, to family bonds, to good times, to the power to help others — then it “comes alive.” Money hoarded and never moved is, in essence, the same as that unused juicer in the warehouse. My spending logic now is simple: if this spend can convert to spiritual energy, it’s worth it. Buy what you can buy for health; show up for the family time you can; save the time you can save. Our window in life is short — average lifespan 80, free-moving healthy years maybe only 60. If at old age you still have hundreds of millions sitting in the account, that is failure to put it to full use. The ideal state is — The person in heaven, the debt in the bank. This is a CLEC line over 20 years old. Most of what you spend in life is “borrowed” (credit, pledge); what’s left as assets passes to the next generation; the account-level debit/credit gets a final settlement when you pass. Your life should open the “asset → spiritual energy” conversion channel as wide as it can — rather than stacking assets “just in case” and never actually spending.

You Don’t Need to Earn Money Anymore — It Comes by Itself

A last line for those who read this far: once you have absorbed everything in this book — index, compounding, don’t sell, pledge, don’t raise a house, don’t buy insurance, don’t randomly buy funds, be a capitalist not a laborer — you don’t actually need to “earn money” anymore. Money will come by itself.

What you need to do is: spend the time left in your life living a life worth living. Spirit and material must match. Don’t crave material when your spiritual energy isn’t there yet; don’t keep craving material when your material energy is already enough. See the boundary, walk toward what is worth it. This is what this book wants most to hand you, at this point. ───────────────────────────────────────

Key Points

One, money is material energy; thinking and wisdom are spiritual energy. The two must match. Lottery winners often go broke because their spiritual energy can’t drive the sudden material energy. True financial freedom is not just having enough numbers in the bank, but having enough cognition and temperament to drive them. Two, people with enough spiritual energy are unmoved by the market, unswayed by fraud, calm-add at the bottom rather than panic-sell. Those without it dance to market emotion, perfectly executing buy-high-sell-low, subsidizing patient long-term holders with their own losses. Three, there is a healthy loop between material and spiritual energy: use money for time, time for thinking, thinking for wisdom, wisdom for guarding wealth. Investing itself is a practice — what it tests is not intelligence but temperament. Every composed response to market volatility is a lift to spiritual energy.

Source Illustrations