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Money

Ana wrote about her views on money. I agree with nearly all of them, but for different reasons than she wrote about.

1. Rules for expenditures.

Ana judges the wisdom of an expenditure according to whether the time will appreciate, depreciate, or retain its value. This makes a lot of sense, but I think of this as the "disposal value." In other words, how much will this item be worth to me when I don't want it anymore? I base my decisions about spending almost exclusively on the use I'll make of the item. How long will I need/want it? How often will I use it? How much satisfaction will I be getting out of it per dollar? I think about the "use value" rather than the disposal value.

For instance, we renovated our kitchen pretty soon after moving into the house. Will we make our money back? I think so, but I'm not sure. I don't care that much because we enjoy our kitchen every day and we could afford it at the time, so the expenditure was worth it.

2. Rules regarding displays of wealth.

Ana says displays of wealth are rude because to be gracious, you shouldn't make others feel bad that they have less. Again, this makes total sense, I've just never thought about it in quite this way. I've always thought that displays of wealth are tacky because they show that the person doing the displaying has their priorities way out of whack. When I see someone wearing some huge logo I think, "It's okay, you don't have to prove anything to anybody. Go home and put on something that you actually like."

Also, on wearing logos in general, Ana says "Why on earth would someone want to be a walking billboard that basically says 'Rob Me!'?" True, but I'd stop at "walking billboard." I am a human being, not an advertising space for a brand.

[Omitting lots of rules in the middle.]

9. Money doesn't make people happy.

Ana's point here is that you don't need money to impress people, and that "it's a means to an end." I agree with that. But honestly, money does make me happy. It makes me feel secure to know that we have enough savings that we won't be in crisis if one of us loses our job or gets sick. It makes me happy to be able to give money to people in need. It makes me happy not to have to scrutinize every purchase, to feel that I can buy anything I need and enough things I want. I don't think this is a huge difference in attitude, but it gives me a higher sellout threshold than Ana.

I guess all of these rules about money assume some basic ideas: that you don't buy things that you don't need (or really want AND can afford); that you don't spend beyond your means unless absolutely necessary; and that you have some sense of having enough and aren't consumed with the idea of money as an end in itself.

Full post as published by Magic Cookie on August 07, 2009 (boomark / email).