Welcome to The Stoic Ledger, a daily money meditation from one of the Stoic sages.

35/365: Marcus Aurelius on the other path

Someone got promoted. Must be nice. 

Someone got a brand new car. Must be nice. 

Someone built a palace of a home. Must be nice. 

Someone retired earlier than convention. Must be nice. 

Someone works for themselves. Must be nice. 

Must be nice dismisses the hidden costs we cannot see. The strenuous steps down a path we can’t really comprehend, a path we probably wouldn’t want to walk down. 

How much are you willing to trade? Do you want to sacrifice everything that person put on the table?

The time with family. The late hours. The pain. 

There’s an unseen cost, a hidden view as we explored yesterday, to the things others have. 

We can walk their path, we can. It’s in our control to pursue and make the requisite trade-offs in attempt to own that kind of life. To the Stoics, that’s fine. 

But we must wrestle with the question Marcus Aurelius told us to ask ourselves: is their path one we really wish to pursue?