This is a guest post from Ashley over at Learn Stock Market Basics. If you are interested in learning more about the stock market stop by and see what they have to offer. They are focused on helping you find the best investments for your situation.
I like money. That’s no secret. I spend all day every day thinking about money, almost to the exclusion of anything else. I think, live, breathe, write, talk, eat money. And I live the principles I write about here.
I return things if they don’t meet my expectations. I adhere to a fairly strict budget. I spend my money consciously and if an opportunity comes up to spend money that doesn’t fit into my goals I decline.
Sometimes I get some slack for this. “All you care about is money.” I’ve heard it. Usually it’s because I’ve refused to give someone money. I said “No.” to someone and they are mad about it. They wanted to take advantage of me and I turned them away.
The words “It’s not in my budget.” make some people very mad. Especially if they know you could but don’t want to. I’m not saying I can’t do something because I can’t afford it. I’m saying that I’m not choosing to spend money on whatever activity or project they have. Not because I can’t afford it, but because I don’t want to.
It’s because all I care about is money.
Oh wait, that’s not true at all. I care about money because I care about life. You trade your life for money. If you are lucky you are making money doing something that you love, which even then you are still trading your time and effort to make money. Most of us however are literally trading our hours for dollars. Think about how precious our hours are.
That’s our life. Our real actual life. So to care about money is to care about life. When return something that doesn’t work, or refuse to buy candy for a school fundraiser. It’s because that money represents my husband’s life. He had to leave us and go to a job that’s not his passion, take abuse, work hard, get dirty, get stressed out so that we could have money. I’m not just going to hand it out like I don’t care. I’m not just going to shrug my shoulders and be too embarrassed to say “No”.
Here’s another thing I’ve noticed about people who think that if you want to keep your money that you are evil. I’ve noticed that they themselves are usually willing to bend, or flat-out break, ethical rules for money.
When someone implies that rich people are evil I often wonder what they themselves are willing to do for money. Usually it doesn’t take me long to see that they are willing to lie, cheat, steal, and game a system for a few extra dollars. Maybe they feel they have to lie to make money. Therefore if someone has a lot of money then they must have lied a lot.
I mean, that makes perfect sense. If stealing was the ONLY way to get money then someone who was rich must have done a lot of stealing.
Thankfully, that’s not the case. There are lots of very ethical ways to make money. I will stick with those, thank you very much.
My thoughts: This guest post carry the same idea I expressed last week about steps towards pursuit of being rich. Like Ashley, I do take extreme care of my money and I know beside family and very few close friends this is the only resource that would take care of my life.
What do you think readers?
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I think of money as a tool to use for things that are consistent with our values. We value time spent with family the most, so we put as much money towards that as we can. Experiences with family translate to happiness, and I don’t feel guilty using money for family get-togethers. They know that we have sacrificed over the years to help them, and they appreciate it. I’m sure they would support us in the future if we needed it. We also give to charities that we believe in, but not for just any request that comes along.
we should not feel guilty using money in good cause. very good thought Maggie
Very refreshing way to put it. Time is money as the saying goes so why give my time all willy nilly? Love the post.
Thanks MS!
Money makes the world go round, you can’t hide from it but to embrace it and take control of it. never let it control you. great post 😀
congrats on your blog’s progress Aaron!
To me, money represents the gift of choice. The more money, the more choices I have. I also chose a career that does not pay well however I go to bed at night knowing that I am making a difference. I feel sorry for people that are driven to make huge sacrifices for money, to me it is not worth the personal cost!
Depends on your needs. If all doors are closed you got to take the extreme steps like relocating to other parts of the country to get one door open.
Simply put, having money gives you choices. It opens up more doors.
You bet!
Money is not everything but it is definitely most valuable after family. Money can really buy happiness.
can’t agree more Autumn. For some money is evil and for others its boon.
Money buys opportunity and who’s to blame you for that? People that “don’t care about money” don’t have any and have lost hope, they have no reason to cut you down because of your values.