If people get their attitude toward money straight, it will help straighten out almost every other area of their lives.
-Billy GrahamIt makes me sad to see so often the ways that we don't try to foster healthy relationships with money--neither as a society nor as individuals. So many of us have a negative relationship with money, never having "enough" of it, considering it something terribly powerful in its absence in our lives. Others of us use it to try to impress other people or to buy things to make up for ethical, moral, or emotional shortcomings. People blame it for their problems, and they use it to show off to others. When we look at the concept of money objectively, though, we see that it's nothing more than a method of exchange--we exchange our work doing or creating things for the money that people give us, and then we exchange the money for goods or services that other people offer. It's very much like electronics have become, though--a tool that should serve us has become a god that controls us, when we allow it to do so.
Just the other day I went to a ticket-selling website to look at the prices that are being charged for tickets to Bruce Springsteen concerts that will happen next year. I found two decent seats next to each other that were being sold for over $4600 each--and they weren't the most expensive ones.
Why would anyone spend that much money for a two- or three-hour concert? For most of us, this makes no sense at all. Personally, when I think of all the good that I could do with that amount of money, rather than put it into the pockets of a singer and a ticket agency, it makes me kind of sad to think that the money is going for something so fleeting, so unenduring. This is especially true today, when so many people are having a hard time just meeting basic needs like paying for rent or food or diapers for their babies.
As members of our society, though, we've been conditioned since we were able to comprehend messages to spend our money, to buy things that we don't really need, to "contribute" to the cycle of capitalism (which has become a bastardized version of itself in our country, favoring the very wealthy and those who are already affluent, and penalizing most of those who aren't wealthy). We've been told that buying that more expensive bike helps our economy, even though the bike was built in another country. We've been told that we "deserve" the most expensive things for ourselves, that we should always buy the $4.00 cup of coffee instead of the $1.00 cup of coffee, even when there's no difference at all between the quality of the two. We need to buy the more expensive things because of the ways that other people will look at us and admire us when they see us wearing a $400 dress instead of a $75 dress. Yes, sometimes the higher price is an indication of higher quality and it makes sense to pay extra, but that's actually rarely the case.
So what are we supposed to do? Of course, there is no easy answer to this question, but there are some definite rules that do seem to come close to being laws of dealing with money. For example, money is meant to circulate--when we have it, one of our goals should be to spend it. When we do this, we help our entire community to thrive. When you eat at the local restaurant, you're helping to support a local business and you're helping the owners to pay their bills and send their kids to college and take vacations and prepare themselves for retirement. That tip you gave to the guy who helped you with your luggage helps him to pay his rent or his electric bill or his student loan payment. When we hide our money away, we're contributing little to our own communities.
And this is one of the hard parts--our society has made it a norm for chain stores and restaurants to come into our communities. Yes, they do provide some employment for local people, but most of the money that we spend there leaves our communities rather quickly, so that money benefits our community very little. But we still need to buy things, right? Of course we do--we need to eat and wear clothes, and our homes and cars need upkeep. One of the hardest decisions we can make, then, is to spend ten dollars more for the same product or service at a local store rather than at a chain store, for then our contribution can make a bigger difference when the people who now have our money then spend it locally, also.
The main point, though, is that money is meant to be shared, and it's meant to be circulated. And when we do circulate it, we need to be discerning about where and how we spend it. I don't go to restaurants, for example, that end up costing over $50 a meal for each person. I don't have enough money for that kind of price not to be an issue for me. I don't buy the $6 bag of cookies when the $2 bag tastes just as good--but if the latter bag tastes crappy and I really like the cookies, then sometimes I will splurge for the good package, and I'll never buy the crappy ones just because they're cheap. Decisions like this tend to define our relationship with money, and it's important that we take those decisions seriously.
One of the biggest problems that I witness is the idea that money exists just for me to fulfill my every wish. That's not why we have money, and if we think it is, we're bound to spend our lives with "money problems," which often could be better called "decision problems." If you're having problems paying your rent or car payment, then perhaps now isn't the time for that $400 concert ticket. Another problem is not understanding the value of money, which we see constantly when people pay $5 for a bottle of water that they could just as easily get from the tap. Advertisers have convinced these people that the water really is worth that amount of money, when the simple truth is that it's not--the water in that bottle is no better than the water in a $1 bottle, or even, as in most communities, water from a tap.
How do you and money get along? Are you okay sharing it when you see situations in which it really should be shared? Do you respect its value, and try to make sure that the exchanges you make for it make sense? Your relationship with your money is yours alone, and when you can develop a balanced relationship that's based on common sense and a desire to help others, then you can be pretty sure that your relationship is going to be a healthy one that will benefit you and those you love.
Let money be a positive part of your life, and it will do so. Share it, and more will come back to you. The avenues of supply are much more common and easy to access than most of us think, and they'll open up when we develop that strong relationship.
And this is one of the hard parts--our society has made it a norm for chain stores and restaurants to come into our communities. Yes, they do provide some employment for local people, but most of the money that we spend there leaves our communities rather quickly, so that money benefits our community very little. But we still need to buy things, right? Of course we do--we need to eat and wear clothes, and our homes and cars need upkeep. One of the hardest decisions we can make, then, is to spend ten dollars more for the same product or service at a local store rather than at a chain store, for then our contribution can make a bigger difference when the people who now have our money then spend it locally, also.
The main point, though, is that money is meant to be shared, and it's meant to be circulated. And when we do circulate it, we need to be discerning about where and how we spend it. I don't go to restaurants, for example, that end up costing over $50 a meal for each person. I don't have enough money for that kind of price not to be an issue for me. I don't buy the $6 bag of cookies when the $2 bag tastes just as good--but if the latter bag tastes crappy and I really like the cookies, then sometimes I will splurge for the good package, and I'll never buy the crappy ones just because they're cheap. Decisions like this tend to define our relationship with money, and it's important that we take those decisions seriously.
One of the biggest problems that I witness is the idea that money exists just for me to fulfill my every wish. That's not why we have money, and if we think it is, we're bound to spend our lives with "money problems," which often could be better called "decision problems." If you're having problems paying your rent or car payment, then perhaps now isn't the time for that $400 concert ticket. Another problem is not understanding the value of money, which we see constantly when people pay $5 for a bottle of water that they could just as easily get from the tap. Advertisers have convinced these people that the water really is worth that amount of money, when the simple truth is that it's not--the water in that bottle is no better than the water in a $1 bottle, or even, as in most communities, water from a tap.
How do you and money get along? Are you okay sharing it when you see situations in which it really should be shared? Do you respect its value, and try to make sure that the exchanges you make for it make sense? Your relationship with your money is yours alone, and when you can develop a balanced relationship that's based on common sense and a desire to help others, then you can be pretty sure that your relationship is going to be a healthy one that will benefit you and those you love.
Let money be a positive part of your life, and it will do so. Share it, and more will come back to you. The avenues of supply are much more common and easy to access than most of us think, and they'll open up when we develop that strong relationship.
