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| | What Money Means: A Reflection on Wealth and Happiness | | Matthew Carr | Chief Trends Strategist | The Oxford Club | | | Editor's Note: Do you know Matthew Carr's story?
Born poor, he turned his life around and is now a wildly successful millionaire investor.
And now, for the first time ever, he's revealing the secrets that helped him massively increase his income, eliminate debt and skyrocket his net worth.
Check out his inspiring story below... and click here to learn how his techniques can help you collect six figures in the next 12 months.
- Rebecca Barshop, Managing Editor | | | | | Talking about wealth and happiness is borderline taboo.
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett sparked criticism in 2018 when he said, "If you have $100,000 and you're an unhappy person, and you think that a million dollars will make you happy, it isn't going to happen."
Digital gasps were fired off across the internet.
It's as cliché as they come, but it's true: Money doesn't buy happiness.
No. It offers you something much more important than that.
Stuff of Dreams
I always dreamed of money.
That might strike people the wrong way.
But the reality is every poor kid dreams of money.
And I didn't want money so I could accumulate things.
To me, money represented something else...
It represented freedom.
Liberty.
Security.
Stability.
Those were never provided for us when I was young.
On the Hunt
Growing up, we struggled.
And I don't mean "suburb poor."
I mean... "Where are we going to live?" "Where's our next meal coming from?" "Don't get sick because we can't afford a doctor." That kind of struggling.
My adoptive father raised us all on his own. He was one of the uncelebrated single fathers. We moved from one town to the next, multiple times per year.
It was difficult, especially changing schools so often.
My father was always on the hunt for money, sometimes at the expense of our own safety and well-being. But he continued to chase it from one coast to the other and back again.
And, unfortunately, he never caught it.
That was something my siblings and I promised ourselves would never happen to us. It was a huge motivator for all of us.
But here's the part a lot of people don't understand...
Through it all, my siblings and I laughed. We were close. We were each other's best friends.
We had to be because there was no one else.
We developed great senses of humor and learned to appreciate the joys in life - no matter how small.
And a lot of people born into similar situations do the same.
Finding the Joy
Believe me, there were times when I was overwhelmed. When I felt helpless. When I was angry at the hand I'd been dealt.
But I didn't let those moments consume me. They made me work harder.
What I let stay with me - the moments I let crystalize in my memory - are those that bring me the most joy.
The first time I kissed the woman who would become my wife...
The day I told her I loved her...
The day she said "I do"...
Each moment while traveling the world - one of our passions - where a new foreign place reveals its soul to us...
Hiking through the forest, watching the sun dance through the leaves...
The ocean...
Getting lost in a book...
Drawing... painting... taking photographs...
Listening to the chorus of wood frogs and toads during summer evenings...
These moments are what make my life worth living - why I get up each day, determined to be the best at what I do... to help as many people as I can.
Not money.
We invest, hopefully not because we think we'll magically be happier, but because we know it'll provide us the freedom and security to do what we want, to live a life of our choosing.
Buffett still lives in the house he bought in 1958 for $31,500. When asked why he hasn't upgraded, he simply said, "I'm happy there. I'd move if I thought I'd be happier somewhere else." The freedom is his.
A Life Well Spent
There are times when I feel like my journey from rags to riches has taken multiple lifetimes...
That the distances traveled and challenges faced are sometimes too vast to comprehend.
And I'm sure many others feel the same.
But my experiences have taught me how to live a life well spent, striving for more, not just for more's sake.
The secret - as Buffett and so many before him knew - is that I knew how to find happiness before I had money, even when life seemed bleak and hopeless.
The biggest difference today is that I have more freedom. And it's a freedom that I think we should all be able to enjoy.
To your wealth,
Matthew | | | | | |
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The Oxford Club is a financial publisher that does not offer any personal financial advice or advocate the purchase or sale of any security or investment for any specific individual. Members should be aware that although our track record is highly rated by an independent analysis and has been legally reviewed, investment markets have inherent risks and there can be no guarantee of future profits. The stated returns may also include option trades. 
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