You need more than making money as a long-term motivation

If you’ve read my writing for a while now, then you know that I started creating content and learning this because I hit a wall in my earnings.

I started out making mid five figures out of college as a tenure-track professor for SC State University. The position and prestige were impressive for me back then, and it still rings true to this day. However, I needed to feel validated for all the hard work and time that I had put into getting those seven degrees. My students were also a big part of the inspiration to do more to contribute to the state-of-the-art.

So I jumped to Intel after fulfilling my two year obligation to them.

To say that it was a nice boost in my income for a single guy in his late twenties is an understatement. My income jumped by nearly fifty percent while my living expenses stayed at graduate student levels. By the time they had let me go, I had a rather large nest egg that I was sitting on, and I felt confident that I could bounce right back.

Then I got married, started a family, and moved across the world as far away as I could from South Carolina.

While living expenses fell dramatically as a result, so did my income. I was paid well by Taiwanese standards, but it was basically the same amount as my teaching position in the US. With new responsibilities, it definitely wasn’t enough.

For the first time, I felt like I wasn’t earning up to my potential.

That’s when I started questioning if the world worked in the way I thought it did — the way that my parents had taught me. That’s when I started searching for the truth, and it’s lead me to this point after near fifteen years of digging.

The Uncomfortable Truth

Wanting to make more money isn’t sustainable for a pursuit that requires any level of long-term commitment.

No, really. It’s not.

• Take your career (if you have one).

• Take your marriage (if you are fortunate).

• Take your hobbies (please tell you have at least one).

The first and third naturally have this component on some level. If the second has this…well, you do you.

But seriously, money isn’t everything. Having it is certainly a fundamental requirement to participate in society as a means of exchange, but having too much of it renders it meaningless.

Just ask all the oligarchs that are ruling our world now, or even a wealthy person with about a million bucks.

A quick peek around the internet using traditional search (can’t believe I had to type that) indicates that Hawaii is the most expensive (makes sense) and that we in South Carolina rank somewhere in the middle (28th) for the salary needed for a single individual to live “comfortably” at around $92k. We rank 37th in the country for a four person family (which I have). So really, if I’m being reasonable, that’s the level of income I would need…which is around $208k. Beyond that, it’s mostly gravy on top.

I can live with that. Unfortunately, I’m a mite short as they used to say.

Getting up to that point is my first goal, and I’d like to build a side business out of this to reach it.

Plans for 2026

Not to get off track on my message, but let’s reiterate.

Nothing that is solely sustained by monetary gain lasts for long. It’s just human nature. But the hard truth is that there has to be a baseline target that needs to be reached, and that’s arbitrarily depending on where you live. I didn’t bother to look into it until now, and it’s humbling.

Fortunately for me, content creation has evolved naturally to be more about establishing a digital presence with my thoughts and helping others do the same. A marketplace is meant to offer a service that helps others, not to extract from them. I was never interested in that angle, and all of the people in my community are very much focused on making a difference for their audience.

I’m building a system centered around this newsletter and teaching what I’ve learned across several platforms. It’s taken three years to get here, but I’ve given myself a ten-year timeline.

Here’s to year four!

P.S What long-term commitments have you made in your life? How are you sticking to them in the coming year?