Money is a tool that can change my life for the better.

The most useful thing money quietly buys is the ability to leave.

To hand in notice at a place that has gone bad. To not take the flat with the landlord who makes your skin crawl. To end something in April rather than staying until August because the arithmetic made the decision for you.

None of that gets called wealth, and it appears on nobody's list of financial goals. It is what people mean when they say freedom, and it is bought in surprisingly small amounts.

A tool is only ever worth what it is pointed at. Pointed at a door, this one changes the shape of a life.