The Purposes of Money and Wealth – a personal view

Neil Richardson – Chair, Momentum Waikato

Jan and I both came from families with limited means. When we got together at university our first challenge was to pay our way through our studies. Then, setting up a flat, and saving enough for the deposit on our first home.

And so, the story goes on – just like so many families in Aotearoa, and Australia where we were born and raised. Sufficient money was necessary for us to personally progress our lives, but as the years have moved along, our need and use of money, and wealth, has changed and evolved.

Over time I have concluded there are perhaps five simple ways in which we think about and use our own and others’ money and wealth. These views often reflect the differences in each individual’s personal values and aspirations, and the nature and current stage of their life journey.

First, people often seek money to escape from personal and family poverty. They focus on growing their income through personal exertion, at least until they can grow sufficient wealth to start leveraging their resulting financial assets. It is a fundamental human motivation to seek income and wealth to propel yourself and your family out of destitution.

This incentive is a prime driver for the immigration of people from poorer to richer countries, in the simple search for a better and happier life.

To a less dramatic degree, this motivation probably defined the start of my adult life and then Jan and I as a young couple – to have enough wealth to be financially secure, initially as an individual, then as a couple and family, and then to respond to the deteriorating prognosis for my vision.

Second, some people seek to use their growing income and wealth to buy enhanced personal status. These people self-identify by their focus on appearances. Just look at the ‘conspicuous consumption’ highlighted by branded clothing or cars or body ‘enhancements’, as well as selfies on Facebook and TikTok or on pages in trashy magazines.

These are the participants on reality shows, and the fans that want to be, where they can get ‘noticed’, even famous, without having to do anything more than look attractive and behave outrageously. Such people are as shallow as the things they buy and the self-images they spend so much time and money projecting.

In reality, it is hard and rare for them to be actually happy with status or fame, because they expect to be happy, but status or fame are not natural or certain paths to happiness. It seems to me this pointless pursuit is an addiction rather than an asset, a never-ending meaningless treadmill, rather than a pathway to actual personal fulfilment.

Which is a very different experience from those who earnt their recognised status through their intellect and actions, such as Warren Buffett with his investment wisdom, or Bill Gates via his innovative intellect and personal drive, or Nelson Mandela manifesting his indomitable personal values, or Sir Edmund Hillary through his humility, determination and support for the downtrodden.

Such people have much deeper characters and personal attributes, including intellect, perseverance and an innate sense of great timing, whether or not you agree with everything they’ve done.

It struck me that I did not get any happier as I became wealthier and developed a reputation as a successful businessperson. Rather, I got much more stressed, tired, and confused. In hindsight, I realised that public status did not make me cheerful or contented.

Third, some people seek to use wealth, whether theirs or others, to create and leverage personal power. This situation is demonstrated by people who seek personal financial power such as Mark Zuckerberg at Meta (look at its company Constitution which entrenches his control) and those who seek political power for personal gain and validation, such as Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

Formal personal power can also be achieved in a wider more-constructive context. Nelson Mandela became leader of South Africa, won the Nobel Peace Prize, and was internationally acclaimed because he applied his values and skills for the good of his country and its diversity of peoples, and in the process gave the world a wonderful example to emulate. The official roles he played over his lifetime gave him substantial power to formally direct others, initially as head of the African National Congress (ANC), and then as the first President of South Africa elected via a universal voting franchise.

Rather more significantly, Mandela also had informal or earned personal power, that went far beyond the authority of his offices. His mana sprung more from his personal values and behaviour when facing enormous challenges; first when he was imprisoned on Robben Island for resisting Apartheid, then as an astute and effective leader of South Africa, and finally as an international advocate for a fairer and more inclusive world. In so many ways, his informal power to influence people and their decisions far beyond South Africa and governmental politics reflected the person, his ethics, and his behaviours.

So, power and status can be separate and distinct personal drivers, or they can be sought together, and they can go far beyond simple financial achievement. For some powerful people, Donald Trump etc, they go together, with one feeding off the other. But how power and status are achieved and then used can be very different, as demonstrated by Nelson Mandela.

Fourth, some people accumulate their wealth expressly so they can then ‘do good’, which can mean different things to different people. This is demonstrated by the many people who give part of their wealth back to their communities, while living productive and otherwise uncontroversial and unpublicised lives.

These people know they only need so much personal wealth and assets. They believe they owe a responsibility to the communities that provided the foundational support for their success, and that they can improve the lives of others, particularly future generations, by supporting the development of people in those communities.

Fifth, some people go even further and use their accumulated wealth to also empower and enable others to do good. In New Zealand, Sir Stephen Tindall stands out as a beacon of great personal philanthropy, who gives not only of his wealth, but also lives his values by giving of his time, energy, leadership, intellect and inspiration.

Similarly, on the international stage, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have actively used their spectacular wealth for the good of humankind, rather than simply for a grandiose lifestyle or personal benefit.

This is really an extension of the ‘Levels of Leadership’ concept, where great and effective leaders not only personally lead and develop other leaders, but also create the environments where leaders can create more leaders, a psychological and values-driven process that creates constantly branching fractals of positive influence.

We are all different and have very personal views on wealth and what it means to us. I believe the most rewarding and inspiring journeys are those where wealth is initially created to escape from financial and opportunity poverty, as afflicts many New Zealanders today, and then used to propel our personal journeys through life, so we can then empower our families and communities and our world to move forward faster and further, to the betterment of all humankind and the environment in which we live.

I strongly believe that enduring happiness and personal satisfaction do not come from having more physical assets. Real personal fulfilment comes from giving more than you take in every aspect of life, be it financial, community, environmental, or whatever.

Using your wealth, of any level, to do good and, more importantly, to leverage and enable others to do good, will produce much greater personal satisfaction, contentment, and happiness, because it naturally brings the ‘positive forces’ of the universe together.

Such an approach to life combines an enduring outward-focused personal philosophy with non-judgemental family relationships, strong real friendships (not ‘deal’ relationships), and a clear purpose-driven personal action pathway to leaving our planet a better place for future generations.

That is why I am so committed to the Momentum Waikato Community Foundation.