Too Much Money?

To me, money is a “means to an end.    It definitely tends to rule the world.  It seems everything is about having money, earning money, wanting money, or not having enough money.  Can you ever have enough money?  It seems not so. It is my belief that too much money can cause people to participate in frivolous spending and causes selfishness and problems.  I think of famous people that have three and four homes in different locations, even different countries, and multiple very pricey vehicles.   I feel this is frivolous and I cannot understand the actual happiness in this. 

I grew up with the feeling that we really didn’t have money problems. The truth is we were a middle-class family and at times, due to illness, found money to be a challenge.  I never felt that I went without anything.  I know my family loved me, we had a lovely home in a wonderful part of town, and I was very happy.  I had an older sister so I also had to wear hand-me-downs.  I also loved to sneak some of her really neat outfits out of her closet much to her dismay.  I had a pact with my mom that I could purchase a new sweater for weekly dances, but was to reimburse her with my babysitting money.  She would then make me a skirt to match.  This consisted of one yard of fabric.  I babysit often and when I came home at night she would be sitting there with her hand out.  She kept a very good track of my expenditures and I always had to reimburse her without fail.  My parents paid for the necessities, but the things that weren’t really necessary I paid for.  After graduation, I lived at home for one year.  Since I worked and lived at home, I was required to pay rent.  I guess this taught me the value of money to some degree, and I never felt deprived.   

I was taught that you never spend money frivolously and are to be responsible in spending.  This works MOST of the time.  After I was married and pregnant with our first child, I had just enough money ($13.00) to purchase an area rug for the nursery.  We went on a road trip to Madison, got a traffic ticket for a whopping $13.00, and that took care of my budget for the rug.  We came home without our purchase, but did manage  to buy our rug after again saving for it in the future.  This is how I was taught to handle money.  You don’t spend what you don’t have.  We also didn’t have a credit card until I was thirty-five, and only got one when we went on a trip to California in case there was an emergency.  Plastic is just too easy to use and gets us in trouble if we can’t pay the credit card bill within thirty days.

If I had so much money I didn’t know what to do with it I believe I would donate a lot to those less fortunate.  I see so much poverty and people in need that I would feel extremely awful actually spending a surplus of money on stupid things.  How can you need multiple (million dollar homes, yachts, designer clothes, vintage cars?) There seems to be such an uneven distribution of money in the world.  There are the very rich and then the very poor.  Too bad this can’t be evened out even a little bit.

To me, having enough money to be worry-free about how to pay bills, do the things important to you, and have a comfortable life is what it is all about.  Actually, you really need good health.  Without good health, money is really of no value.

I feel if I won the lottery for example I would not be foolish as so many people are.  First I would pay off any debts that I may have, make sure my family and friends are comfortable, set things up so money issues would not be had, and donate the rest too so many needy organizations. Two such organizations close to my heart would be the Zor Shrine Hospitals and St. Judes.  

Money seems to really be the root of all evil.   We work to earn money so that we hopefully someday can be comfortable and not have to worry financially.  People often end relationships due to money issues.  Such as when a family member dies often money is an issue that divides many families.  I find this really sad.  

Money controls who we are, how we think, who our friends are, and basically rules our whole lives.  I don’t see the answer to this, but it is an unending problem.  We should have enough money so as not to have to worry about how to pay bills and live the life we would like to.

I never feel the need to spend money when I have enough.  But when I don’t have a surplus watch out.  Don’t get me wrong I love plastic money as well as the next person, but I really try to control my spending. The key word here is “try”!!

Too much money is not always a blessing, too little is a problem!!!

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