What is money? A currency? A means to exchange goods and services? Yes and Yes. But, is that all it is?
We make trades with and for money all the time. When we want goods or services, we exchange our money for it. When we need money, we generally exchange our time and energy for it. Or, our life energy. We all need money to live and we all exchange at least a portion of our life energy for it.
When we see our money as our time and energy and not just a currency, it changes how we view our purchases. When buying a new car, the question is no longer if the car is worth the $25,000 price tag, but am I willing to exchange 6 full months of my life energy for this (if you made 50k/year)?. Now, it will take the average Joe longer than 6 months to pay off a new car, but it can be helpful to remember how much life energy your purchases can represent. Are you willing to sign over 6 full years of your life energy for that house?
Now, I am not saying no one should buy nice things. Some things can bring tremendous value into our lives and are completely worth the price tag. But it is important to remember what we are actually exchanging.
Money is made and lost all the time. But we never get our time back. No matter how much money you have, you can’t buy a second of more time. Be intentional about how you choose to spend your life energy so that you have some left for the things that you truly care about.