america is a capitalist country, or so i read and heard. money should be the motivator here.
and i also see your point. the general trend of money is to move upward. your fighting chance is to get the money to stay longer in your hands for you to benefit before it gets sucked up.
all i can say here is don't stay too much on the bigger things. more likely, you will not have control for any of those. focus on the smaller things you can change on the dailies.
when i get to the point i think i am bored i think "maybe i am tired?" or "maybe i am hungry" or "maybe i need to unwind?" and it is surely one of those.
afaik, never really experienced pure boredom.