People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them.
-George Bernard Shaw
Sometimes in order to tackle a big topic like how to improve our financial situation and thereby our quality of life, we need to go back to the beginning. So today we are asking the most fundamental question in personal finance: what is money? Is it better to have more money or less money? Does more money make us happier? How much money would it take for you to be happy? Is money good or evil? We will eventually tackle all of these questions in this blog, but for today, we will stick with the main question.
Obviously money can mean many different things and we all differ on what it means to us. In the end, money is simply a currency: a piece of paper or metal for which we trade goods and services. Of course, it can also carry with it significant psychological connotations. It might engender feelings of security, insecurity, fear, greed, love, envy, revenge, shame, pride or innumerable others. Spending some time thinking about what money really means to us is a great way to start on a path to improving our relationship with it. Are we spending, saving, and investing our money in a way that reflects our core values surrounding money? Are we happy with our money values or would we like to work on changing them? Do we need to change our perceptions about money in order to improve our current situation?
My own take on money is as follows: Money is potatoes. It’s rice. It’s a blob of clay, an empty canvas, a blank sheet of paper, an instrument waiting to be played. In short, money, like life, is what we make of it. We can season it, add vegetables, bake, boil, or fry it. We can write a comedy, tragedy, farce, or heroic epic. We can sculpt, draw or paint anything we want with it. We can make it play any tune we like – or we can let it play us. It is our choice. Our financial situation acts as a mirror for the rest of our life. Look at the people with serious financial problems. Many also have problems with relationships, work, or health. Many have friends and relatives who have similar issues.
The point here is not to blame anyone for their situation, but to empower them with the knowledge that thoughts and actions, like compound interest, work both ways. For the debtor, compound interest is a bane, adding to the amount of money they owe and often, to their stress levels. For the saver, it is a boon, providing money on top of money, and the security that goes with it. Similarly, small positive changes in our outlook and actions can compound and spread.
So how do we know that we need a change? It’s not always as obvious as collection agencies calling or credit lines being pulled in. Some of us have a really strong feeling that we need a change, but we don’t know how to get started. More of us, I would guess, live everyday with a nagging background sense of things we know we should be doing but are not. We feel out of balance. And that, dear reader, is tomorrow’s topic. We will explore the ubiquitous concept of balance, its background and implications. Until then, think about what you want to do with your potatoes.
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