Seneca on Riches — The Wise Use of Wealth
Seneca, both philosopher and one of Rome's richest men, taught that the wise person may possess wealth but is never possessed by it, holding riches as a useful servant rather than a master.
In On the Happy Life, Seneca answered critics of his fortune by distinguishing between loving wealth and merely using it: the sage neither despises riches nor clings to them, but keeps them at hand to deploy for virtue and generosity. Wealth, he argued, is the servant of the wise and the master of the foolish, and its value lies entirely in how it is used. He counseled holding possessions loosely, ready to lose them without bitterness, so that fortune's changes cannot shatter one's peace. This detachment-in-the-midst-of-plenty parallels modern findings that financial well-being depends more on one's relationship to money, sense of control, and freedom from anxiety than on the raw sum possessed. Seneca thus models a prosperity that is enjoyed freely yet never enslaving.
For the wise man does not consider himself unworthy of any gifts of fortune; he does not love riches, but he prefers them.
Studies of financial well-being find that one's relationship to money, sense of control, and freedom from anxiety matter more than the sum held, echoing Seneca's counsel to use wealth without being mastered by it.
De Vita Beata