Mel Abraham#1 Best Selling Author, Money Mentor

The Money Was Never the Point

15 Oct 2026 · 1 min

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1:05

In this monologue, Mel Abraham responds to questions from Ted and Elizabeth about why saying "yes" to building wealth can feel wrong, even when a financial plan supports it. He explains that the purpose of the "money machine" they built is not to amass wealth for its own sake, but to fund a life worth living. Abraham emphasizes that the true goal is the quality of life, not the size of the bank account, and that if his work only results in a larger balance without improving life, he would consider it a failure. He shares his personal struggle with this tension, underscoring that money is merely a mechanic—a vehicle—to achieve a fulfilling life.

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But that raises the harder question, and it's the one that Ted asked me next. Because if the money's there and the plan says yes, why does saying yes feel so wrong? You didn't build a machine to admire it. Elizabeth answered that one for him. She looked at me, she said, I guess I'm still afraid that someday I'm going to need it. And I told her, that's exactly why we built the money machine, not so you could die with the biggest machine. And I'm gonna be honest with you, just a personal perspective. I feel this myself. I get this pull myself. And I'm the dude that talks about this, that built it, that wrote the book. But the machine was built not to observe. The machine was built to fund a life worth living. And I wanna say something here that might sound strange coming from that guy that wrote the book. If all I do is help you build that large bank account, I actually failed. And I mean that. The money was never the object. The money was simply the mechanics, the vehicle, the life is the destination.