This feels like such a controversial statement in a knee-jerk kind of way. I have spent my career helping the underprivileged and working with non-profits and I come from an area with a lot of poverty. My parents were civil servants and no one in my family ever encouraged wealth or prosperity.

I was raised, like many of you I’m sure, with the mindset that we earn enough to live comfortably and be stable and then we work for 30+ years and then we retire. The end.

But why does it have to be like that? Why can’t we flip the narrative a little and actually try to “get rich”? Why is that frowned upon? Why does the phrase “money-hungry” have a negative connotation? Because for so many years the priority of wealth equates to prioritizes exclusively wealth and forsaking all other things.

To me, money is not a dirty word – it’s literal freedom. The more money I have the less of my time I have to give away to someone else in exchange for money. Because in the end, all of us working a 9-5 job are just exchanging our time for money.

If we start looking at wealth as a synonym for freedom, it becomes much more palatable. I want wealth so I can choose how and when I work. I want wealth so I can have the stability to stay afloat even if I am sick or can’t work as much as I used to. I want wealth so that I can prioritize family and be able to care for them if/when they need me.

Wealth gives you choices. Wanting to make and have money does not mean that is all you want, but it should not be a negative thing. For women especially, wealth is an equalizer. Financial independence mean women can stay home with young children, or leave abusive significant others, or buy their own houses, or start their own businesses or put themselves and their children through school. Women can and should seek wealth. Wealth levels the playing field. Wealth validates your voice when it has been invalidated. Wealth opens doors that merit can’t.

That last part is why wealth is ugly. Wealth has been used for centuries to keep those in power where they are and to keep those out of power where they are. The most powerful thing we can do is to beat them at their own game. To come from nothing and become wealthy and stabilize that wealth for future generations is life-changing on an exponential level.

Seek wealth, it gives you choice. Attain wealth and give others choices. Change the dynamic that keeps those in power where they are. Level the playing field.