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Your Self-Worth Is Not Your Net Worth
You can be forgiven if you thought that self-worth is the same thing as net worth. Although they may appear to be the same thing, they are not. I’m not going to say that one can’t find a single thing these two things have in common, but they are–for the most part-distinct concepts.
Net worth is exactly what it sounds like: it’s the assets that you own (e.g. stocks, bonds, commodities, real estate, etc.) minus your liabilities…should you have any. That doesn’t say much about you as a person.
Self-worth is all about how much you value yourself. For example, do you consider yourself a moral person?
If you have a lot of money, but you hate yourself, do you have a good sense of self-worth? It also works in reverse: just because you have a good sense of self-worth doesn’t mean there’s more money in your bank account! (if one is looking for that).
We also “value” money for what it can get us. Money is a means to an end, so it doesn’t make sense to view one’s identity through it. If you do, I can see why you would be anxious and depressed (or narcissistic). I certainly don’t want to spend time with people who think the meaning of life is how many assets you have in your name. That’s the creepiest thing I’ve ever heard! It reminds me of the movie American Psycho.
