But there’s also a middle ground. While my business and income are doing great, my end goal is to amass enough money such that the money itself makes enough for us to enjoy life. When that occurs, I’ll probably sell the business, retire and live off of investments doing what I want to do the most, hang out with my family.

Tim, it sounds like you have reached that point already and power to you. Meanwhile, because of compounding, I know that I will reach my retirement goals much faster if I don’t spend frivolously.

I definitely don’t consider money an evil force. I guess the main point that I want to emphasize is that money shouldn’t be the only motivating factor. There has to be some other driving force that makes you want to start your own business.

My wife and I always talk about whether our lifestyle would change if we were rich (By rich I mean 10-15+million). Quite frankly, I don’t think our lifestyle would change much. We might get a big house and travel a bit more but that’s about it. I don’t think I’d be buying the 1000 dollar handbags or the 3000 suits either.

My wife and I can afford nice cars, expensive handbags, gadgets, you name it, but buying those things isn’t our style. But heck who knows? I might change someday once 1k becomes a drop in the bucket. We’ll just have to see. Right now, we’re doing our best to diversify our income streams so I can retire too.

Its all about preferences.

The media loves to spread doom and gloom. But there are folks out there quietly continuing along with their businesses and doing very well because they refuse to be told that they should be struggling right now.

The comments like one above that say, “$1000 for a purse? I’m not surprised, but I would NEVER spend that kind of money for a bag no matter how much money I have or how much I like it.” drive me nuts. I guarantee that person will never have the money to afford that purse so they essentially justify the reason why they wouldn’t want it.

I truly believe that most people don’t achieve the wealth they want because they have it in their head that they don’t deserve it. BS! If you want that $1,000 purse – don’t fell guilty about it – go earn it!

I wouldn’t say that we feel (or at least I, as a reader here) feel that money is an evil force. I guess reading and hearing the doom and gloom in the media on one hand and then observing where we live kind of have me scratching my head every now and then. Seeing a Maserati drive down the street is not uncommon here while it seems the rest of the country is in shambles.

I did a search where I live and this area has the highest per capita concentration of Nobel laureates in the United States and its only 1.1 sq miles. These people are not wage slaves working for “the man” and living on credit!

My personal goal is to be SET financially. I know I will get there one step at a time. I’m sure it wont be this business, (maybe, maybe not) but I know something else would come along to help me achieve my goals.

I’ve been reading your blog for a few months now, and while I think you have some great insight into starting a business, it’s beginning to sound like you feel money is an evil force.

Based on this post, you and many of your readers don’t understand it, but there is a tremendous amount of wealth out there and they shop in stores like the ones you mentioned which is how they stay in business. They don’t give the price a second thought because they can easily afford it. Many, if not most, are self-made millionaire entrepreneurs.

If I wanted to constantly find ways to make a dollar stretch as far as humanly possible, I’d work for someone else. Why bother with the headache of owning a business? For me the headache is worth it because I am finally at the point where I could afford that $1,000 purse – 10 of them even, without thinking twice. All because I worked like heck for the first 5 years of my business. I was willing to live frugally for a while, but in the end I simply wanted to be able to afford anything I wanted.

Money may not buy happiness, but it sure helps.

Just a reminder that for some people (like myself – I admit it), the pursuit of wealth is a perfectly valid reason to be a business owner. If I wanted to scrape along, I’d go get a great paying job and just live paycheck to paycheck.

But I understand that your niche may be just for those who want to “own their own job” – and that’s fine. But keep in mind that those of use who want the expensive car, the big house and the crazy vacation are out there – and our motivation for working hard is just as acceptable. Those stores and those pastry shops stay in business because I can easily afford what they sell – and that’s an important part of the economy as well.

In the words of Gordon Gekko: “Greed is good.”

I’m not sure if it just has to do with where I live, but there was a crowd of wealthy looking people in the store with us. They were essentially walking billboards for designer stuff. My wife and I walked in wearing tshirt and jeans. It’s no wonder that we even received any service. Perhaps, the economy just hasn’t hit us hard yet.

Have you ever been to the site burbed.com? It’s pretty funny. All the site does is make fun of real estate values in the bay area.