I want Money

Are the best things in life free?

The Flying Lizards song, Money, is playing in my head. It’s new wave madness, but I love it. It’s open in its gluttonous quest for money, rippling beneath the synth hits. Money feels like a constant in all our lives. So, how do you feel about money?

I don’t feel great about it.

Let me clarify. Money for me has always been in my mind, for as long as I can remember. It’s a basic necessity, like food or water, it’s a tool of survival. It’s also a tool of enrichment, joy, ecstasy, of pleasure.

One way or another it’s part of being human.

I generate my own income, as a self employed individual, if I don’t make it, I don’t have it. But if I do make it, beyond taxes & expenses, it’s typically all mine.

You’d think, that’d I’d feel empowered by my money, that I generate, create, and charge for services rendered. My brain makes money. That start to finish my money comes from within me is a fun concept. But money doesn’t empower me, it worries me, it obfuscates me, it scares me.

If I don’t have it, I’m worried where it’s going to come from. If I do have it, I’m worried I’m not being smart enough about it.

So much of life is set up around money, why are we not taught about money management at school, college, or university?

I remember being told “you won’t have a calculator in your pocket all the time” as the reason we had to learn trigonometry. Well stuff it Mrs Fraser, because we do. I’ve not used trigonometry once, but I would have loved to learn about doing my tax return and finding the best return on my savings account based on compound interest.

Whilst not an answer, I do think the cagey way we grow up around money, and the lack of education means that for many of us our relationship with money is not simple. Perhaps if we were all more open about money, and received more education about it, the ride would be easier.