# 07 The Poorest Stoic *Week 2, Day 1 of [[00 The Wealthy Stoic Course]]* #source/course << [[06 Week 1 Tips and Tools - The Wealthy Stoic|Back]] | [[08 Money Is A 'Preferred Indifferent'|Next]] >>  ## Content > “The fault is not in the wealth, but in the mind itself. That which had made poverty a burden to us, has made riches also a burden. Just as it matters little whether you lay a sick man on a wooden or on a golden bed, for whithersoever he be moved he will carry his malady with him; so one need not care whether the diseased mind is bestowed upon riches or upon poverty. His malady goes with the man.” — Seneca Last week, we profiled [[Epictetus]], the richest Stoic. This week, we will look at someone who might be seen as the poorest Stoic, **[[Seneca]]**. **Watch [Instagram video](https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cpf-MnHAwbq/)** 📺 This might seem like a controversial or even inaccurate statement because Seneca was born rich and through his political connections and savvy investments came to amass an extraordinary fortune. It was said that he owned some 300 tables made of citrus wood and ivory for the purposes of entertaining. We also know he accumulated huge land holdings and impressive estates. He made enormous loans to the colony of Britain, making him one of Rome’s biggest financiers. But as we said last week, having a lot of stuff or money tells us nothing about whether a person is or isn’t wealthy. [[Seneca]] is a case in point. He was born in southern Spain over 2,000 years ago and educated in Rome. He was the son of Seneca the Elder, a well-known Roman writer. Seneca pursued a career in politics and quickly became a high-ranking financial clerk. Seneca’s life took a sharp turn in 41 A.D. when the emperor Claudius exiled him to the distant island of Corsica. Eight years later, in another twist, Agrippina, the wife of Claudius and mother of future emperor Nero, secured permission for Seneca to return and become her son’s tutor and adviser. For all that he wrote, for all of the Stoic philosophy he is responsible for elucidating and proliferating, there was clearly a big part of Seneca’s personality that was dazzled by money. It’s what drew him into Nero’s service. Over the span of about a dozen years: Seneca accumulated a personal fortune in the many millions of dollars. He accepted piles and piles of gifts. His net worth exploded. And yet, the control he exerted over his own life shrunk to nothingness. He couldn’t see it, but Nero had slowly built a gilded cage around him that grew ever more confining with time. It is said that writers are often writing the advice they themselves need. It’s true of Seneca who would write about wealthy Romans who spent themselves into debt, lamenting the misery and dependence this created for them. In fact, he has a whole series of essays titled _On Benefits_, that largely deal with discharging one’s debts.  “You talk one way...but you live another,” he writes, restating the criticism launched at him. “I am not a ‘wise man’ nor shall I ever be. I speak of virtue, not of myself, and my abuse is directed at vices, especially at my own.” In time, Seneca would run afoul of Nero. Realizing, alarmingly late, just how deranged Nero was, Seneca tried to walk away from politics. Nero wouldn’t let him. Seneca tried to give the money back but he couldn’t—Nero had his hooks in him and wouldn’t let him go. Seneca would eventually be freed from Nero, but only in death. Paranoid about potential enemies, Nero decided to clean house and sent goons to demand Seneca’s suicide. Whether money comes as salary or in an envelope slid under the table, there are always strings attached. The same goes for material possessions. There is always a cost, always a debt incurred. Seneca talked about how those who measure wealth in money and extravagances are actually the people who are impoverished. They are the ones who have the _hardest_ time escaping poverty, not the slave or the commoner with barely two pennies to rub together, because they can never have enough. Theirs is not a poverty of the purse, but of the mind and spirit.  That is truly what it means to be poor: wanting more than you have. Being _insatiable_ is a guaranteed form of poverty because it means there is never enough.  **Watch [Instagram video](https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cq-32W0sh9f/)** 📺 Consider, Seneca says, the person who has or wants the nicest stuff—the furniture with gold trim, the silverware made by ancient artists, a team of butlers, jewelry from every part of the globe. "Though he should pile up all of these,” Seneca writes, “never will they satisfy his insatiable mind...This is not a thirst, but a sickness. And it is not merely money or food that leads to this result; the same nature is to be found in every desire that derives, not from need, but from vice: all that you pile up to satisfy it will not terminate but advance desire." That’s the irony of material riches. It’s a series of moving goal posts. You think having X will be sufficient only to find that 2x is better and that 3x is preferable still. “Prosperity is a restless thing: it troubles itself,” Seneca says elsewhere. Or rather, it propels itself. See if you can find one millionaire who isn’t trying to become a billionaire. See if you can find one billionaire who doesn’t check the Forbes list every year and glare jealousy at the names above them.  That’s what getting rich does to us. It rarely gives us a sense of “enough.” Instead, it gives us a sense of how much more there could be. Needless to say this is a path to bankruptcy, mentally and emotionally if not financially. It’s a hedonic treadmill that eventually breaks down…or breaks the person frantically running atop it. The Stoics would try to caution us from ever getting on, or to get off while we still can. As we talked about towards the end of last week, knowing what is _enough_, living in a place of fullness rather than of craving—that, the Stoics would say, is a wealthy person. That is someone whose life is one of abundance. Seneca didn’t listen to his own advice (which he borrowed from [Epicurus](http://dailyphilosopher.net/who-is-epicurus/)): “If you wish to make Pythocles rich, do not add to his store of money, but subtract from his desires.”  If you wish to be the Wealthy Stoic, think less about your store of money and more about getting the goal post to stop moving or to move closer. Think less about multiplication and more about subtraction. Think about how you, right now, can have something most millionaires and billionaires will never have: **the knowledge that you have enough**. **Watch [Instagram video](https://www.instagram.com/reel/CsmH7_MMszV/)** 📺 To listen to the rest of Philipp Meyer's podcast episode, click below or click [here](https://dailystoic.com/author-philipp-meyer-on-channeling-history-philosophy-and-failure-into-art/). --- ## Activity **When will it end?** > Once I make more money, I'll be able to save more. > Once that bonus hits, I can buy a newer, nicer car. > Next paycheck, I'm buying everything in my Amazon cart. We've all been there, we've all said it. Shoot, some of us have done it. But when does it end? When will you be satisfied? When will what you have, be enough? Who are you competing with? Why? ## Workshop * How much does money affect your lifestyle outside of basic necessities?  * How much do you think about money?  * Do you stress about money more than necessary?