The Overmonetized Life

The best financial plans have at least four legs. Four revenue streams that help prop up the table of your personal finances. We all know that I believe that side hustles are an important form of diversification. They not only provide endless fun and learning, they are also an escape hatch. A plan B. So it may surprise you that I always worry that something so good can also be bad. Is there a dark side to the side hustle? Are we all trying to live the overmonetized life?

Motivation Theory

Have you ever heard the story of the curmudgeonly old man who lived in the little house at the end of the street? His pride and joy was the insignificant plot of sparkling grass leading to his rather unassuming house. The kids on the block, however, loved to extend their football game from the adjacent lot onto his beloved patch of greenery. Trample, trample, trample. The daily routine tore up the old man’s little piece of heaven.

Try as he might, he couldn’t change the boy’s behavior. He screamed. He threatened. His impassioned pleas fell on deaf ears.

Until the day he smartened up.

The Offer

Being all too aware of the overmonetized life that even children fall prey to, he came up with a plan. He offered each child 10 dollars to play on his lawn daily. He told them that it was good for the soil.

The children, overjoyed to be doing their favorite thing, not only were relieved of his daily verbal lashing, but also were getting paid to do exactly what they wanted in life.

And so they played. And their hearts were content. For awhile.

Until the wily old man began to turn the screws.

Internal vs External Motivation

The second week, the story was slightly different. The old man-made a new offer to the kids. Although he was still happy to have them play on his lawn, he felt their performance was suboptimal. So he offered five dollars to each kid instead of ten. Maybe if they brought their game up a little, he would reconsider next payday.

Miffed, the kids hemmed and hawed, but eventually took the five bucks. Heck, they still got to play football!

And so they played. And their hearts were content. If not but a little less. Their pockets were not quite as heavy.

These were the ups and downs of the overmonetized life.

It All Unravels

With a smirk on his face, the old man returned on week three and threw down the gauntlet. It appeared that the little boys were no longer pulling their weight anymore. For all he cared, the kids could play as much on his lawn as they wanted.

But there would be no more payday. They would have to do it for free.

The kids looked back and forth among each other. As the venom rose, they shrugged their shoulders and stomped off the lawn.

And they vowed, until the day they died, that they would never, ever play on the old man’s lawn again.

In Conclusion

The overmonetized life can take something we are intrinsically motivated to do, manipulate it with extrinsic rewards (money), and turn joy into sorrow.

I have struggled with my side hustles to both collect my fair share, yet still find exhilaration and passion in the climb.

There is no greater evidence of this struggle than in the act of blogging. I was lucky to obtain two early sponsors from the get-go. Yet, extrinsic motivation can cull even the greatest joy.

It is something I am especially wary of today on my blogs six month anniversary.

DiverseFI By the Numbers

Age: 6 Months

Blog Posts: 173

Page Views Total: 63,530

Page Views This Month (as of 6/23): 14,250

Comments (including my own): 2414

Sponsors: 2

Features on Rockstar: 2

Features on Physician on Fire: 4

Best viewership day: Google ranked one of my posts for one day, and I got 2500 hits.

Worst viewership day: too many to count.

Thank you anyone and everyone who has honored me by reading my writing. I will keep trying to create honest, insightful, and occasionally funny material.

I’ll continue to battle the overmonetized life.