So Biggerpockets.com podcasts is one of my favorite online shows to listen to, mainly because the information can be both inspiring and informational and the hosts are a blast to listen to. This particular episode interviewed a BMX/Crossfit athlete “Fat Tony”.

Fat Tony is an interesting investor for a couple of reasons. 1. He’s never been a huge income earner. He started out professionally as a photographer for a company and rode BMX bikes and then transitioned over to Crossfit. #2 Fat Tony makes it clear throughout the whole interview that his number one concern is to enjoy the life he’s been given. This is almost the exact opposite of the life philosophy that I’ve adopted through my twenties. But it aligns with how I’ve been feeling as I start the trek through my thirties. I’m leaning less and less toward saving every dollar for a mythical retirement day, and instead focusing on taking each day as it comes while trying to plan judiciously. Understanding deep down that the world is changing more rapidly than any one person can really come to grips and that the future that I scrimp and save may never come. Whether as a result of globalization, technology, or an 18-wheeler accident is something I’m becoming more and more cognizant of. As a result my focus is shifting away from saving for retirement, and cutting costs to creating a life of meaning now.

One of ‘Fat Tony’s’ thoughts is that he realized early on, that he wasn’t interested in being a handyman or sacrificing his time to make the maximum amount of income. He was more interested in paying other people to do the things he wasn’t interested in doing. I think I’m a little more hands on, mostly because I’m a little more neurotic than Tony. However, I can see the value in prioritizing the fragility that is life over money.

This podcast actually dovetails into some pretty major realizations I’ve been having about my reliance on money as a type of idol. Listening to another podcast which I’ll review later – Sin was described as treating something as though it was something it was not. So idolatry is treating something like money like it was a God or The God. And for me, because of my childhood where my parents did not have money and as a result I wasn’t able to do some of the things that I would have liked to do. Then the years of struggle followed by hard work and watching every dollar in order to make it – the importance of money sometimes did ascend the peak of mount Olympus and dethrone the actual celestial being that should have resided there.

So this podcast actually did a great job of putting things into perspective and helping me to rethink what should be most important to me.

Short answer: Not money.