Spoiler alert: I’m not going to be saying anything necessarily new here. Just a reminder. Which sometimes is exactly what we all need.
Money is a tool.
It’s nothing more – and nothing less.
It’s amoral – it’s not good, and it’s not evil.
It’s not the destination – it’s the fuel.
But we oftentimes treat it as something … different. We treat it as a desired state. An arrival destination. Don’t we, at least sometimes?
I was at a national conference this past week learning lots of great things relating to financial planning and wealth management strategies, and I was encouraged by some speakers who reminded us these things are all fine and dandy (great – really) – but they’re not the end goal.
Like other forms of life currencies, money is something we have a finite amount of, and so we have to be super intentional with its management. Unlike other life currencies, money manifests itself through two different ways: income and assets.
So if money is a tool in both these manifestations, what are we building with it?
For our income, what are we actively accomplishing, through our spending and giving? Things to be used Today?
For our assets, what are we actively constructing through our assets? Things to be used Tomorrow?
“Money is a great servant but a bad master.”
Francis Bacon
We need to remind ourselves of this. Money should be working for us – we shouldn’t be working for money. And sometimes we have to honestly evaluate if we’re driving our money decisions, or if our money decisions are driving us.
I’ve noticed in myself – and in others – that money doesn’t like to be put in its place. It likes to rise up and take control. It wants to try and force us to serve it, and not it serve us. It wants to make us make decisions based on fear of not having enough, or greed in only wanting more.
And I think if left unchecked, it succeeds in this. Always wanting more, never satisfied with what it has.
It requires an ongoing mindset to put money in its place.
Make money a tool – not a tyrant.