Previously we’ve written a few articles regarding different money attitudes and beliefs. A few of these include: Money Attitude – Your Money Psychology, What is Your Money Type?, and most recently we wrote Why Money Does Not Bring Happiness – It Brings Unhappiness. There was great feedback to the articles and for the most part most people agreed that money does not bring happiness and hence should not be our driving force in life. Although I enjoyed reading these posts and the accompanying comments it’s unfortunate that I do not regard money as most of our readership do. I say it’s unfortunate because the importance that I give money in my life stems from rather sad life experiences of people around me as I was growing up.
Money Story
What Does Money Mean To Me?
The reason that I hold money to such high steam is because I think it can render one freedom. To me freedom and independence in life are the most precious and valuable human positions. Most of us live a democratic society and therefore have the freedom to chose our course of life and live through all its opportunities and consequences. However, the freedom to live one’s life as one desires should never be taken for granted.
Early Experience With Money
I spent the earlier part of my life in a country torn by civil war and hence my family, and those of my countrymen, had to move around a lot. My parents did not have jobs for a large part of my childhood and hence we were exempt from a lot of necessities and luxuries of life. When I think back to our living conditions when I was younger I am surprised that we were once able to live on so little, nonetheless I know people who survived on even less then we did. Money provides us with necessities and little luxuries and gives us choices and hence brings happiness. Being able to send our kids to a good school, buying them nice clothes and cool toys, celebrating their birthdays, taking them out on excursions and vacations, teaching them about the wonders of the world, and spending quality time with them are all part of a fulfilled and happy childhood and require time and money. Of course anyone who works for a living and values their time as I do equates time and money to money and money. Although our days of scarcity are long behind us the bitter memories will last lifelong. Those were not happy times – the lack of money made those times almost unbearable.
Money Used To Control And Abuse
In my life I have come across many women who are trapped in loveless and abusive marriages, most of which were not of their choice, without a way out. For the most part these women could not leave because they did not have the earning potential of their husbands. Therefore, these women endured a life of disgrace and misery so that they and their children have a place to live and food to eat. At a young age I had decided that I would do well enough in school so that I can always pay for my own food and shelter and that if I ever got married then I would have the means to walk away in case my husband was ever abusive towards my kids or me. Therefore, money grants me freedom and choices in life otherwise not available.
Due to these experiences and others I have come to equate money with independence, freedom, security and the choice to live as I please. I often ask myself how much money will it take for me to feel secure and free and the answer is always enough to take care of all the needs of those I love. I am not sure I’ll ever be able to make enough money to ensure this however I am willing to work hard enough and save as much as I can so that people I love never have to suffer due to lack of money.
What are your thoughts on this? Has your experienced shaped your attitude towards money, if so how? Share your Money Story!
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Ray, it wasn’t until the second to last paragraph I realized this wasn’t written by you. Still, a compelling story and frankly a sad reminder that money is too often linked to independence and freedom.
It seems that in times of abundance and in times of need, there are other things that hold us together and keep us persevering. But that moment of refinement and clarity often comes through struggle.
Nice guest post and always interesting to hear another story and someone else’s views. Like Aaron says, money it basically directly related to freedom, sucks but thats the way it is.
Very nice post. In my opinion it is definitely true, that money creates freedom and possibilities in life. However, from my own experience, there is a major difference between seeing money as a goal in life (having money in order to use it for one’s own benefits at the cost of other things), or as a feature (having money in order to be able to better enjoy the possibilities life has to offer). Myself, I went from the first to the second a few years ago, and I don’t regret one single moment of it.
Thank you for sharing your story. It does make one think twice about what most of us take for granted in the free world is but a dream to millions of poor and oppressed people around the world.
In many ways I share this view, but from my perspective money does not provide the happiness, it provides the opportunity for some happiness. My grandmother gave away virtually every dollar she has ever had to charities and is one of the happiest and blessed people I have ever met. We have also read many stories about those that have won lotteries only to regret it.
Maybe it would be better to say that money can buy us choices. Make the right choices and you can leverage the money to create a more fulfilling life, make the wrong choices and …
Thank you everyone for your feedback. Of course I agree with all of you and I hope one day I can be in a place in my life so that I can regard money as just a means to an end and not an end in itself!
Thank you Recessionista for sharing your personal experiences with us, it’s great to have a different voice on the blog sometimes.
@aaron although I was not the author of this article, I too have had very similar experiences with money.
I think this story is a great example of what I have said early about money attitudes coming from your early experiences.