If I have money but no control over my time, am I really wealthy?

Rabbi Landau teaches that money is meant to buy your freedom. “If it still dictates your time, then it failed.”

You see someone with millions, “still running meetings they hate, still doing work they can't stand, still no control over their days.” His verdict: “That's not wealth. That's just expensive exhaustion.”

Dovid HaMelech said, “Shav lachem mashkimei kum, me'achrei sheves, ochlei lechem ha'atzavim”: it is useless for you who rise early and stay up late, who eat the bread of worry. If your money forces you to live like that, “waking early, staying late, grinding endlessly,” but you are not doing what you actually want, “then the money didn't work.” In the end, “money buys time, and time should buy freedom.”

Also answered in this teaching

Is my money working for me, or am I working for my money?

In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau suggests asking exactly this question. The goal is not to be poor but to be free, and sometimes that means giving up some income to buy back hours.

Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level

Surface claim

Money is supposed to buy freedom. If it still dictates your time, it failed.

Fear, vulnerability, or tension

A person can succeed and still feel owned: running meetings he hates, doing work he can't stand, with no control over his days.

Underlying need or longing

What people really want from money is time that belongs to them and the freedom to do what they actually want.

Deepest human truth

Money buys time, and time should buy freedom. In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that true wealth is measured by how much of your time is your own.