Money is not the end goal; it is the condition.

People may ask questions such as: Should we spend our lifetime making money? Or Does money bring happiness in life?
 

The answer to these questions is subjective, and may not be the same for everyone. Each of us must figure out the answer ourselves through experience and learning.
 

But I would like to mention a few ideas here and hope that these ideas would be useful for whoever read this post. First, we look at some very special individuals ever lived on Earth:
 

Leornado da Vinci is a genius and he spent his time for different endervours and all of them was not because of money. Vincent Van Gogh is talent but he did not use his lifetime to seek money.
 

In modern time, we see many great people did not spend their lifetime making money. Albert Einstein, for example, is smart, but he did not devote his life to make money. Steve Job said that we should never start a company to make money. Sam Walton is differrent, however. He said in his autobiography that he was satisfied with his life building Walmart, making money for his family and creating million jobs for others, saving money for his customers.
 

Money seems very important that some powerful individuals want to earn more by taking advantages of their knowledge and influence. For instance, many US presidents gave speeches after leaving the office and gained above $100000 per address.  
 

How those people spent their lifetime may give us some lessons in life. Each pursues different things in life that suit the personality and desire. Some need more money than others. Each has different priorities in life. Therefore, it is reasonable to say that the role of money to each of us is personal matter. We should not apply the same principle to everyone. Thus, the more we know about ourselves, the better we know about money’s role in our life.
 

In other words, to answer satisfactorily those questions at the beginning of the post, we must answer another question which is more essential: What do you want in life, now and the future? Think about it and answer it as honest as possible. Do not ask anyone, just ask yourself that question and write down what make you happy. The answer may consist of different things, but all is fine as long as it is true to yourself.  
 

Suppose you want a luxurious lifestyle: you need money to buy a mansion, to buy supercar, to travel the world or for whatever reason your have. This part of the answer indicates that money is really a solution for your life. Money really can buy things you need. You should be serious about making money to satisfy these needs. Otherwise, the money problems can drown you. Your solution is: make a lot of money and spend it or work in jobs that help you experiene this lifestyle.
 

But if what you want is something else, you need another solution and we use reverse-engineering method to find out that solution. What make you satisfied at 80? It is said that we have about 30000 days on Earth to live, equivalent with 80 years of existence on Earth. Money seems not important anymore. Maybe you do want to leave a legacy on Earth, maybe your great books, inventions, a lasting institution…your masterpieces. This part of the answer maybe true to yourself, that is your mission, your lifetime goal. If this is what you want, you should devote as much time of your life as possible to make this happen and you should start doing it as soon as possible. Try doing things you love and see if you can support yourself while doing it. If yes, congratulation. If not, spend as a small percentage of your time as possible to make money, and then focus the rest of your time as much as possible to devote to your long-term goal. Who know, maybe someday in the future your work is so valuable and well recognized by society, the society will pay you for more than you can expect. But if you do not see any recognization for your works, the only choice you have is love your work no matter what. 
 

Some folks are more ambitious, they want both a luxurious lifestyle and creating masterpieces on Earth. This is hard, because making money is hard and very time consuming. So do masterpieces. Some people are lucky or talented, they enjoy doing things they like at very young age and making money along the journey and at the end they leave many great things on Earth.