Everyone has a different emotional response to money. We all have different expectations, goals and dreams related to money.
To get a handle on what money means to you and what purpose money has in your life, imagine you have just won a very large lottery. Imagine winning a lottery that will pay you several thousand dollars every month for the rest of your life. Imagine any amount of money you wish.
Spend a good amount of time thinking about how you would live your life if you won a huge amount of money.
- What would you do with that money?
- What are the first things you would buy?
- How much would you give away?
- To whom would you give money? Why?
- Would you buy cars, houses and clothing?
- Would you donate some: to whom and why?
After a few months of purchasing everything you ever imagined owning, imagine that you still have an enormous amount of money left.
- How would you resume your life?
- Do you think you would spend all your time playing with all of your new toys or spend the rest of your life traveling the world?
- If you could financially have and do anything you want, what would you do?
The television images of luxurious homes, vacations and jewelry lead us to believe that we all desire the same lavish luxuries in life. In reality, each of our lists of financial desires will be unique and even vastly different.
Personally, I enjoy the comfort and stability of my home and spending time with my family. If I won the lottery I would thoroughly enjoy buying nice items for my family members and being able to afford nice vacations for my family. I would certainly donate money to people who really need help with basic needs and I would probably start a non-profit organization which would provide counseling, financial education and resources to teens and young adults. And, if I had enough money, I think I would buy everyone in my family a new car. That is what I would do if I won the lottery and that is what I may be able to do one day if I continue to work, earn and save.
What would you do? Ponder it for a while, write a list or think about it at a later time. The choices are yours: each financial choice is always yours. Everything in this book is just an idea, story or suggestion. What you do on your financial terrain is your choice.
Once you begin to have a few ideas about how you would spend millions of dollars, consider what those decisions reflect about you.
- What are the most important things in your life?
- What things are not very important? Why?
- Do you believe your answers will change as you get older or if your family structure changes?
- What are your financial priorities right now and what would they be if you won millions of dollars?
- What circumstances would cause your financial priorities to change?
If you think long and hard about what you would do with millions of dollars, a few themes will probably emerge. You may want to make sure your family is taken care of, you may wish to purchase close family members a luxury item, you may wish to donate a large amount to a charity, you may buy a lavish home for yourself and you may choose to take lavish vacations. Whatever the ideas that emerge in your mind are a good starting point about what you really want in life, more specifically, what you want money to do for you in your life.
Figuring out how and why you want to save and spend is an exercise worthy of some time and effort. It can help motivate you to work, earn, save and invest. Determining why you want more money and what you will do with it sets the scene for your financial terrain. It provides meaning and purpose for you acts of earning, saving and spending.
What does money mean to you?
Photo by dylan nolte on Unsplash.