A Billion Dollars

I want to always be able to do the next thing without worrying about getting to a point in my life where I'll need money to survive that I can't earn.

How do I do that?

Right now the next thing is to build neat stuff in my garage wood shop. One of the next things is going to be traveling in comfort. After that the next thing might be learning to fly a plane. But some day I'm going to be in a nursing home, and I don't want to suffer or be a burden on my family. The only real answer I see that gives me that kind of freedom (freedom from worrying) is to earn money now.

The billion dollar question is unnecessarily short-sighted and hedonistic. It advocates that you sell your future self short by doing what your present self wants. We are ever-changing bags of meat, and what you want in 10 years is almost certainly not going to be what you want now.

This is a little "Follow your dreams", not really bad or wrong just a little narrow minded. Some good companion thoughts might be found in Grant Sanderson's commencement speech a few years ago (https://www.3blue1brown.com/lessons/harvey-mudd-speech/)

This reminds me of a comment left on HN about two months ago -

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48707341