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

10/365: Seneca on financial freedom

You’ve heard the saying, “let your money work for you.” 

This is what Seneca is teaching here. It’s not about power, but leverage and freedom. 

As you accrue more and more money, the embedded leverage works increasingly in your favor. The cost of money, interest, becomes an ally. An invisible worker that grinds away, second by second, day by day, to make you more money. 

This is why we must do all we can to build a base. 

If we don’t accrue any wealth, we won’t have financial freedom. And to the extent we must purchase goods to survive, we are enslaved by our salaries, and therefore our desires. 

Sentenced to desk, chained to the chair, locked in office, toiling away to produce the income that we need for whatever lifestyle we live. In this essence, our feigned freedoms are merely “recess” periods. Insignificant amounts of time away from the thing we must return to. 

All to replenish the account to buy the goods we feel we must need—priced in terms of their control on our time.