Konnected Minds Podcast

Segment: Rich People Have Problems Too: Why Financial Stability Doesn't Equal Joy

• Derrick Abaitey

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Money provides comfort but not happiness. The feeling of genuine joy is separate from financial stability, as many successful people find themselves comfortable yet unhappy, missing the carefree simplicity they had before wealth.

• Wealthy people often struggle with anxiety and depression despite their financial success
• Keeping money requires strategic planning - only a percentage of income should go toward lifestyle purchases
• As you climb the financial ladder, your social circle naturally shrinks, creating isolation
• The fear of losing wealth creates significant mental strain for successful people
• Self-made individuals face double stress without family support systems behind them
• True happiness comes from appreciating simple pleasures regardless of your financial status
• Middle-class thinking often leads to over-consumption that can't be sustained long-term


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Speaker 1:

Having money is one. Keeping the money is an entirely different thing. How do we do that? That's where you need a strategy.

Speaker 2:

More money, more problems.

Speaker 3:

Trust me, not just more problems, loads and loads of problems.

Speaker 1:

It's a very different feeling between just being comfortable and being happy, Sometimes because we tend to think the money is supposed to make us happy. We're quick to go buy a new Range Rover or a new outfit or want to buy a new house because we think those things make us happy. Alcohol and drugs never solve your problem. It only makes it worse. I think I've seen that on social media. I realized that it's some kind of a drug.

Speaker 4:

Jahara, usman, a therapist and multi-dimensional entrepreneur, has seen it all successful people drowning in stress, torn between family expectations, business demands and even destructive coping mechanisms like addiction. In a world where money is supposed to bring happiness, why do so many high achievers feel empty? Or is there something deeper at play? In this conversation, jahara pulls back the curtain on the hidden struggles of success.

Speaker 2:

It is possible to change your financial circumstances without a money, of course. What does it take?

Speaker 1:

I think it just takes courage. You don't always have to retire at 60. You can retire at 40, 45, 50, 60. But most people know that you don't have money and you're taking drugs, so you'll be happy. But you get addicted and you need money to find that addiction. So what does it come back to? At the end of the day? You still need money.

Speaker 2:

Hi, you're welcome to Connected Minds Podcast and my name is Derek Abayde and I'm your host on the show and thanks to you, we are now the number one podcast in Ghana. We appreciate all the support. Today's conversation is with Jahara Osman. How are you doing?

Speaker 1:

I'm doing well. How are you?

Speaker 2:

I'm doing fantastic. Yeah, I think dopamine levels are going up little by little. The first question I want to ask you is what do you think is the biggest misconception about money and mental health?

Speaker 1:

Well, I think, when it comes to money we've all heard famous people very well to do rich people always say money was never the solution to their happiness. And I think it's very difficult to understand when you actually haven't been in that space. And so, because when we are starting up we always think that, oh, once I get all the money I'm going to be happy. And so once you get to that point and you realize that you having the money actually doesn't equal happiness is that's when you begin to have like difficulty navigating to your real life.

Speaker 1:

Um, I would say for me that stems from when the kind of happiness that I used to have when I was much younger and struggling is completely different from what I experience now. Um, I think when I wake up in the morning, the first thing I'm thinking about is how I'm going to sustain my businesses and how I'm going to be protective of my financials. But then, when I was younger, there was just a sense of joy and irresponsibility because I didn't have so much to worry about. So that to me was like real happiness. But then as I can say that so many times and go and go on, but we all would agree that you know, financial stability.

Speaker 2:

It's also a very you know good start for you to actually feel a bit comfortable, but not actually happy in life, though yeah, do you think that a lot of the people you speak to about their health, mental health and their finance and, um, you know the business people that you know do you think most of them are happy because the money they have?

Speaker 1:

I think that I would say a lot of them are comfortable. But when I say happy because of the money, it's usually not the case. Um, I have met very rich well to do people that don't even eat breakfast. Some of them hardly even eat the kind of foods that maybe me and you would actually enjoy, because they are so, so busy and they tend not to even get time to relax and actually enjoy the little things that we do.

Speaker 1:

So I wouldn't say that the money doesn't push them to a certain degree. But when you ask most of them, they will tell you that when they said genuine happiness, it doesn't push them to a certain degree. But when you ask most of them, they will tell you that when they say genuine happiness, it doesn't really give you that. The only time you can achieve genuine happiness in your soul is you actually having to invent that for yourself, but not necessarily the money. Giving you. The money will give you comfort, it will give you a sense of peace of mind, but happiness is a completely different thing what does that mean to you?

Speaker 1:

happiness is just like that feeling you get in your, in your heart, in your brain. That makes you feel like the things around you. You get to enjoy the Sun, you get to see, like you know, the trees moving. You just have that peace of mind. But you could be in the best hotel in the four seasons and still not have that feeling. So that is what I'm trying to contract like someone can be, like sitting under a tree and feel that sense of happiness. You could be in your you know, roast rice or something and still not get that feeling. It's a very different feeling between just being comfortable and being happy.

Speaker 2:

So I guess the saying is true that more money, more problems.

Speaker 3:

Trust me, not just more problems, loads and loads of problems.

Speaker 1:

Because even trying, to the fear of having to lose that money is enough to hold you like a grip that you end up just worrying so much because having money is one, keeping the money is an entirely different thing. Okay, let's talk about that.

Speaker 2:

How do we do that?

Speaker 1:

well, that's, that's the. That's where you need a strategy. Um, when you have enough, at a certain point you can hire a financial advisor. But let's say you are starting up, you're beginning to come through money that you've never had before. Sometimes, because we tend to think the money is supposed to make us happy, we're quick to go buy a new Range Rover, or we want to buy a new outfit or we want to buy a new house, because we think those things make us happy, and so we have the money now. So why don't we go for the things that make us happy? But that's not how money works. Money works by you having a strategy.

Speaker 1:

So if you're making a certain amount of money, it's only a percentage of that money that's supposed to go through to buy you the little things that you expect to make you happy. So in order to keep that money, a higher percentage of that money is supposed to always cycle itself. And then the returns is what the rich people used to buy the private jets and the boats and the big cars. But when you come to middle class, we tend to make a hundred thousand, and fifty thousand is going towards buying a new car and ten thousand is going towards buying new clothes and then we are left with like about forty percent. That forty percent it's not going to be able to circle itself around to be able to maintain the range rover and then the new lifestyle that you've picked. So so I think we tend to think money makes us happy. That is where it stems from. Money equal to buying toys. Toys equals to making you happy, wow.

Speaker 2:

What would you say are some of the rich problems to have?

Speaker 1:

I would say rich problem is actually anxiety. You know, sometimes a rich, you experience a bit of depression and, I would say, just general being unhappy. That stems from when you're financially well to do, you tend to have a smaller space as compared to people who are not so much invested in their financials. The difference is that when you're climbing the ladder, the less friends you begin to have, not because you do not like people or you don't want people around you. It's just that your brain begins to work in a way that it's very high, intense, and you're always looking for people who actually are to you than people who actually derive, derail you from where you're, you're you wanting to go? So once you figure that out, it makes your circle a little bit smaller and those circles are always talking about how to upend themselves, to how to move up the ladder. So you begin to have your mind, you know, cluttered and very like, you know, in a very small space. So you tend to be a.

Speaker 1:

It's always about work. It's always about, you know, being the person on top. It's always about appearing perfect, whilst if you're on the lower end, you wake up in the morning. Most people don't even think about what they're going to wear, or how the day is going to go and how it's going to be planned and what they intend to eat, and you know how they when they intend to go to bed. But when you are climbing the ladder, your life became begins to be so structured that you actually don't get to get that free time and go play golf on a wednesday I'm talking to someone, okay, so I hear people talk about it's a lonely road.

Speaker 2:

It's a lonely road you know once you start is a lonely road. You know once you start making money is a lonely road.

Speaker 1:

Is it really lonely it? It? It is a very lonely road, you know, unfortunately. I would love to say that it's a it's like a beautiful journey for everyone. Everyone is different.

Speaker 1:

You know when I when I'm saying that, because some people are blessed by you know, being born into families that already have the financial resource to keep supporting them as they go. But if you are someone like me, that you are your own cushion, you tend to worry two times more because you're going to be the one going to the top and you're going to be the same person looking at the back making sure you don't fall because you don't have anybody there supporting you. So you tend to be stressed two times more. And when you become lonely, when you're always trying to figure out how to move forward, especially when you have. You come from a family that it's not, as you know, doing well as you are, so it's hard to go to someone and say, can you advise me? Because probably your father has no idea what you're doing, your mother has no idea what you're doing, your siblings are lost in whatever your dreams are.