Sunday, March 27, 2016

Seneca as applied to personal finance

This post is going to make a lot more sense if you go through the first post of the series. Here's the link. I promise it would take you less than a minute to read it.

We were (are) basically looking for answers to how to get rid of the eternal cycle of running behind money. Sometimes it feels like the goal is just within our grasp, only for it to elude us. And then the circus begins all over again. Its not just money, its the amount of time we spend in search of it. And its not just the time you spend at work, its also the time you spend in commute and also the time you spend getting ready to go to work. And can you even put a number on the amount time you lose in the evenings just because you are too tired after an entire day of work. I don't need to tell you that these numbers really add up!

But like I said last time, I would be the last one to knock down money. When you don't have enough of it to fulfill your basic needs, its the most important thing in life. So, here we are, looking for answers. Let's make one thing clear before we go ahead - I don't have any answers or advice for you. I don't have anything to sell. I actually don't care about you enough (sorry about that!) to even try and influence your way of thinking. This is not a self help site. Actually its a blog about trading. Or finance rather. Just an average guy trying to find some meaning from it all. Surely there is more to life than just …….. (fill in the blanks as you deem fit!). If you are still interested, lets go ahead.

My readings introduced me to this guy born in 4 BC and it turns out he had some pretty relevant stuff to say. Seneca. Here is a link to his Wikipedia page if you are interested to know more about him.  Pretty interesting life. Anyway, he wrote a bunch of letters which are available in book form, Epistulae morales ad Lucilium (Latin for moral letters to Lucilius). I came across them just a few days back and was blown away on how relevant the letters were even in today's times. I am still reading the book but midway through it, I decided to blog about it, so that writing about them might help me do a better job of understanding and appreciating them, and also make them available for easy reference. Since this is a blog about finance, I am going to concentrate only on the application of the letters to personal finance.


Enough said. On to letter number one when we meet again. 

Take care and good luck! 

You can follow me on twitter for latest blog updates. Also, here is the link for free subscription to the blog.

No comments: