Money is a misnomer

31 May 2023

This is my first post under the category of Personal finance. In this I wanted to pen down the way I look at money.

What is money ? ( hehe basic question ! )

I personally feel that money is just a very popular misnomer. It is simply a currency. A medium of exchange. Yet it is often misunderstood as wealth. And since they primarily look at money as wealth and not as a “side outcome” or “byproduct”, they often have misconceptions of money as being the primary objective. Money is the figurative representation of the amount of value you add and hence primary objective should be to improve the value you add in earning the money.

This not only makes one appear greedy but it is not sustainable in the long run since being wealthy is about the journey of earning wealth and not only the destination.

In fact one should understand how money is created which will make it easy to understand how it can be seen as a “byproduct”. I will write about this “money printing”, may be some other day since it is not the primary reason of writing this post.

My take is, it can be seen as a vehicle to go from point A to point B rather than as wealth.

Now you may say, “yeah yeah Shubham, definitely it is not wealth and we know that”.

Well my point is not about only the wrong interpretation of money as wealth, but more about the fact that money should not only be seen as a currency but what you do with it is also more important esp. when you ask yourself questions like,

“How happy I am by earning my money ?”

“Am I spending money on the things I like to do ?”

“How am I using my money to invest in myself ?” - Most important if you ask me.

“Am I investing my money ? “ : This one is more tricky. Since if the answer is “Yes” to this question then, you should ask more questions to yourself like,

“Are you investing your money in other people’s investment or your own one ? Like something you want to build yourself personally or be part of or want to contribute to.”

Do you like the way you are earning money ?

The thing about money is there are many ways to earn it and hence how do you feel about the way you are earning it, is more important than how much you earn it. This includes the terms and conditions that come with the way you are earning it.

Each person is unique and hence “find your game” of earning the money. Take it as a sport and hence decide if you like the sport you are playing first i.e. know if you are loving the way you are earning money and happy about it. And like any other sport, this has rules too. Understanding the economy is one way of knowing the rules of this sport. I am learning about it too.

Whats your definition of being wealthy ?

I think the time value of my money is more important in terms of giving me the happiness.

To sum up, I would say that as money is time-driven it is more about how happy you feel while you are on the journey of earning it, since at the end even if you are wealthy the thing that is going to matter to you alone is, “how did you became one” rather than “you became one”.

So my definition of being wealthy would be my happiness in the process/journey of becoming wealthy esp. the mindset.

Keep learning !

Disclaimer : I am not wealthy :-P and this post is to express my mindset about money.