Money - An Essay

Money didn’t mean much to me until I was old enough to get an allowance. Seems such a tiny bit now ~ $0.35 on a Saturday night.  I don’t think it was every Saturday but when I did get it, it bought me a $.10 bag of popcorn from Mr. Blaney’s popcorn stand, with $.25 to get into the movies. Popcorn was my priority then and now, when it comes to movies, but that amount of money wouldn’t even get me an hour at a parking meter today.

So money grows and changes over time. (I think it’s called inflation.) What we purchase with our money, is often the same as we always have ~ just in different forms, as well as innovations of whatever generation we inhabit.

Coins and banknotes are the same size and shape as they’ve always been, changing only in their physical makeup. When needed, a different form of coin or bank note has been designed and put in the market place as a new medium of exchange with the same purpose.

But what we need and want can be the same. A roof over our heads, food on the table, entertainment, health care, transportation and of course, stuff. One other category that doesn’t always fall into the realm of ‘wants’ is donations to support people in any stage of life assisting them to learn, to grow, and sometimes to survive. There assuredly are more broad categories, but these may be the main ones.

Getting money, saving money, spending money, donating money ~ four activities that can often seem all consuming. Each day will bring something tied to the medium of exchange that supports a society, whether it be working at a job or purchasing groceries.

There are rich folk, and there are poor folk, and then there’s all the rest in between. Over time any of us can move back and forth within these categories depending on the whims of circumstance, what we have learned about the balance between spending and saving, donating and acquiring money and what attitudes we each have about money.  

As the years have passed, I’ve learned many lessons about money and am still learning as I go. The quote that I’m closing with has helped me to put money in good perspective ~ money is not, nor should it be, the be all and end all of a well lived life.

“People first, then money and then things.  Money never comes first.”

~ Suze Orman