What Is Money?

There are many ideas of what people think money is.

Some say it is a form of measurement.

Yes, but a measurement of what? Wealth?

In the olden days, people measured wealth by how many cows, sheep and horses they had. But do people measure wealth today by your cows and horses?

How about slaves? Was there a time where manpower is considered a hot commodity? Are slaves worth anything today?

Are your dollar bills sitting in the bank going to protect you if a recession strikes the country?

No, wealth can not be measured by the dollar bill.

Some say it is a form of power.

Yes, money can give you power, but if you are stuck on a desert island forever with a trillion dollars, will that money mean anything to you?

If someone offered you water and a helicopter to fly out of there, you would trade all your money in a split second, so money is not an accurate measurement of power – it heavily depends on how and wisely you use it.

Many believe it is the root of all evil… and several others take on this belief without much questioning.

Let me tell you that MONEY is NOT the root of all evil.

If you are trading your life away for the dollar, money then has power over your time and life. And unless you have proper financial knowledge, the lack of money can spawn a lot of evil thinking and negative mindset as observed in primarily cheats, thieves, criminals, breakups, freeloaders, cheapskates, and more to name.

But what is money, really?

Money is an idea supported by confidence.

While money has naturally been developed by merchants in the older days to replace the questionable barter system, money today is literally invented by the rich and wealthy.

Entrepreneurs are willing to part with their money to buy other people’s time. Other people’s time i.e. employees and self-employed people becomes their employer’s asset and the employers this priceless resource to go on to create more wealth for themselves.

And here’s the thing: as long as you work for money, you are a slave of money! 80% - 90% of the populations today are slave to money involuntarily.

What we don’t realize is that there is a part of our soul that cannot be bought at whatever price. Would you chop off your little finger if your boss offered you 24 months of your salary immediately?

You and I know we are worth more than that. But when you hear of cases of people selling their body parts for cash in some countries, we can have our eyeballs pop out of our eye sockets.
On the other hand, we occasionally DO sell out a part of ourselves for money like a donkey and a carrot.

Now don’t get me wrong: I’m not banging on working at a job.

But let’s face it: our needs today are growing more than ever before in any period of history. Oil price goes up and everything else follows through, salaries don’t. There are more baby boomers than ever and have very little pension to show for their decades of years of work efforts.

And there is no guessing to how many people really, really hate the unhealthy, hectic lifestyle of getting up early, coping with stress for most parts of the day, join traffic jams, spend more money and time in traveling, enjoy very little rest, and repeat the viscous cycle.

Definitely doesn’t paint a nice financial and lifestyle picture, huh?

The first step to change is to be aware of the problem. Awareness before change is necessary if you are to make any changes in life to start taking control of your financial life and then get out of the rat race. Financial freedom is achievable.

We need the awareness to know what state we are in, so, we know where we are going to achieve financial freedom.