What Does Money Mean to You?
September 24, 2009 by Frugal Dad
er">This is a guest article by Ray, the owner and primary author of Financial Highway, where he discusses investing, saving and practical money management concepts. You can check subscribe to his RSS feed or follow him on Twitter.Money plays an important role in all our lives; the fact that you are on this finance blog reading an article on money illustrates that money is an important topic to you. Earlier I discussed the importance of money and asked if money is the means to an end or an end in itself for you, the responses were interesting to say the least. Although majority of readers said it’s a means to an end, their “reasoning” varied widely. Today’s question is what does money mean to you?
Meaning of Money to You
We are often so consumed by earning money that we forget to take a minute and think about what it means to us; how do we feel about money and how does it effect our lives. For some money is just a necessity, they need/want just enough money to meet life’s basics needs. To other’s money means freedom and independence. Take a minute and think about what money means to you.
What feelings does the thought of money bring up? Is it worry, joy, freedom, anger, power…?
Do you give a percentage of your income to a charity? Do you share your wealth or do you control other’s with money?
For me the meaning of money has changed over time, when I was very young my parents were well off and I enjoyed more luxuries than most of my friends, but my parents fought constantly over money. As I grew older my parents lost all their wealth and I spent my teens being fairly poor compared to my friends while my parents continued to fight over money and eventually divorced each other. At this stage I developed an extreme hate for money, the thought of money would make me angry. As I grew older and started to earn some money, the meaning of money changed for me. Now money is a tool for me, it’s a tool to accomplish things and get what I need/want. Does it mean freedom to me? No it does not and I do not understand those who say money means freedom to them, if your freedom is dependent on money how free are you really? Aren’t you enslaved to money and money is your master? What will happen when you lose your money?
Although the meaning of money to me has changed over time, it has not become a symbol for freedom or independence. What is the meaning of money to you? Has it changed over time?
Post by Frugal Dad
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