Money Creates Freedom

I ran across the following paragraph in a magazine article about a book. It opened my eyes:

“Living rich requires freedom. Every dream of a rich life is based on the idea that you can pursue your interests without significant compromise. Living rich is having the freedom to live on the beach, to explore the world, to create art for art’s sake, to spend your life serving your fellow man, to seek internal peace.”
-Stephen M. Pollan with Mark Levine, Live Rich, Harper-Business, New York.

Isn’t this freedom an absolute truth? People don’t crave money; we crave freedom. Our personal picture of wealth isn’t leisure or sloth. Instead, we seek freedom to pursue things that mean a lot to us (including, occasionally, leisure). Good things, mostly for our family and friends.
To me, money is just a tool that helps us achieve these important goals, Used properly, money creates freedom.