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I am planning for a tattoo with an image of a target, and the caption I thought of is "Aim life with money". Money being an arrow, and life being the "center of the target".

I want to make a point, something like "live life to its fullest, and this is only possible with money so focus on your career". The reason is that I lost my job and now miss the fun in life because I can't afford it.

Am I getting it (the caption) right? Does it express what I'm trying to convey?

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    If you're going to have the tattoo for the rest of your life, you should probably think hard about whether you really want this sentiment to "define" you in years to come. As the Beatles said many decades ago, money can't buy you love (or indeed, happiness). I suggest a temporary tattoo saying Gizza job, for something a bit more light-hearted.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Aug 30, 2013 at 15:35
  • ...but there's always Money makes the world go round for an established turn of phrase that won't necessarily pigeonhole you as a breadhead.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Aug 30, 2013 at 15:39
  • adhineth, it is not obvious what your suggested caption means.
    – Tristan
    Commented Aug 30, 2013 at 21:28

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The four-word phrase you've provided makes no sense to me as a native English speaker.

It would become interpretable, though, if you added one preposition:

Aim for life with money

Whether or not that conveys what you are trying to say is up for debate.

Some might parse the phrase as

Aim for (life with money)

pointing to a philosophy where a chief goal would be to have life with money. In that context, "aim" could mean one of two things:

  • My life's goal (aim) is to get money
  • My goal (aim) is to get myself into a position where I can get money

The first sounds quite materialistic; the second a bit less so, because it could be thought of as incentive to work hard in school, etc.

Others might parse the phrase as

Aim for life (with money)

This reading would imply: We can live an exciting life by using our money to live an exciting life. It's a bit ambigous because the word life can take on several different meanings and nuances; pay particular attention to Defs. #4 & #12 at Collins.

You could also use the preposition at:

Aim at life with money

I would interpret this to mean, roughly: I'd rather die rich than die poor.

If it were my tattoo, I think I'd opt for the phrase:

Stay focused

this will exhort you to focus on your career aspirations without making it appear as though you are a shallow person who can't see the good in life unless your wallet is full. Some consider the love of money to be the root of all evil, but I've not heard too many people talk about the dangers of focus.

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    The Dangers of Focus. ;) +1!
    – WendiKidd
    Commented Aug 30, 2013 at 20:27
  • @Wendi - Believe it or not, I thought about lasers when I wrote that last line, but I decided to leave it as an exercise for the reader. Nice catch!
    – J.R. ♦
    Commented Aug 31, 2013 at 9:24

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