What does money mean to you?

You read about it in the money pages of the newspapers. You work hard 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. for it. You go to school, study, take your exams in order to qualify for a job in the future where you earn enough of it.

What exactly is money
But what exactly is that IT we are pursuing?

"Don't be stupid, Singapore is a very practical society, we need money and a decent income to have a certain standard of living!"

Exactly, money in itself is just the notes and coins in your pocket. The figure in your savings account book. The number that represents your status in society. But what money does is that you use it to exchange for something else. Other than those who collect numismatic coins and notes, money is used as a form of exchange. Money facilitates us selling our labour in exchange for goods and services that we need and want from other people. Money is used as the measure of value and exchange of goods and services between different parties.

If you withdrew all the money in your bank account in terms of bank notes, pooled them in a pile and jumped into them, that would make you happy maybe for all of 10 seconds. After that, you find that you cannot literally eat it or build a house with it.

What do you want out of money
So what do you ultimately that want out of your lifelong endeavour to earn enough money from work, investments or gambling? That is what drives you. If you find that it is to continue this endless cycle of exchanging it for goods and services you do not need but want, then it could be time to examine the reasons that drive your very existence.

How many of us are trapped in our daily grind and we blame it on the mortgage, taking care of the family and obligations? How many of us can reframe money to see it that it is the reward for us contributing to society in productive ways so as to facilitate us bringing life into this world and sustaining the next generation for the future? How many of us can alter our perspective that we have choices.

We have choices
We can choose to work or we can choose to starve, but these are choices! Instead of seeing ourselves as the victim of our circumstances, see ourselves as masters of our financial destiny. We choose to work because we want to build up enough money to exchange our time for other pursuits. We chose to save because we want to bequeath a positive financial legacy to our children. We chose to invest because by building up capital for the future, we give ourselves more options when we get there.

Are we able to reframe our attitude and approach to money?

Pause in your daily life, think about what is the ultimate aim of this endless pursuit of money? If you goal contributes to the universe, money will flow onto you.