Table of Contents
What is money?
“My father makes a lot of money,”
“Bill Gates has more money than anyone else,” or
“Google made twice the money this year than it did last year”.
Let us see what does each of the sentences mean.
“Bill Gates has more money than anyone else” – means how much wealth Bill Gates has.
“Google made twice the money this year than it did last year” means how much profit or net income did Google make.
Do we need money?Yes of course! We need it to:
- Buy things such as food, clothes, cars, CDs, books etc.
- To pay school fees, doctors, drivers etc.
- To go to restaurants, movies, travel etc
Without it, one cannot eat, one has no place to sleep, one cannot have clothes. It pays our bills, it buys things for us. If money can be anything, then what is its purpose? Money serves three purposes:
- Medium of Exchange: People use money to buy goods and services.
- Standard of Value: People measure the value of a service or good with money. For example, chocolate is worth 4 bucks while a Barbie doll is worth 50 bucks. So, which is more expensive?
- Store of Value: Money can be saved and used in the future. If you put 5 bucks in piggy bank and then take it out after a month or a year, you would be able to use it.
- Power – Nobody will push me around, I will be strong and have control over my life.
- Happiness – I’ll be happy. Lack of money causes all the problems in my life. If only I have money all my problems will be solved.
- Security – If I have money I will be safe.
- Freedom – If I am financially independent. I can choose whether to work or not.
- Love – Money makes me love able and relationships much easier.
- Respect – I earned all the money.
How do we learn about money?
As Robert G Allen said, “Money is one of the most important subjects of your entire life. Some of life’s greatest enjoyments and most of life’s greatest disappointments stem from your decisions about money. Whether you experience great peace of mind or constant anxiety will depend on getting your finances under control.”
With money being such an important part of our life, how do we learn about money? Research shows that most people learn about money from their parents at home and yet look at the statistics:
- Only 31% of 9-12 years say their parents discuss finances with them.
- 70% of parents said that their children had not any formal training in money management
- 76% of college students, wish they had more help preparing for their financial future.
(For more information on statistics and what parents want children to learn you can check out Section Financial topics at bemoneyaware.com )
Asked to select topics they wish they had learned more about when they were teenagers, the greatest percentage of today’s parents with teens (57 percent) chose Money Management. Surprisingly, most parents admit to raising children who may someday share the same regret!
Kotak Mahindra Bank’s Money ka Matlab Advertisements
Money means something to everyone..dreams aspirations . What does money mean to you? Please share with us.
Kotak Mahindra Bank’s Money ka Matlab Game on Facebook
Kotak Bank has also launched “Money Ka Matlab” game on Facebook on 20th Aug 2011 which will run till 25th Sep 2011 . Similar to Farmville, Treasure Island everyday you have some tasks to do and for attempting tasks you get coins. Some of the tasks are shown below:
But money is not everything
Note: This is not a post sponsored by Kotak Bank or for any Kotak related contest. But yes it gave me idea to write about the post.
Similar question when asked on getrichslowly.org(a famous US blog site on personal finance) the responses were Read more..
What does money mean to you-Power, Freedom, Happiness, Security, Love, Respect? Where did you learn about it. Please share with us.
It was inspiring with ability of your writing.Any ways good article and keep it going. Visit our website http://www.letzbank.com
I am really inspired together with your writing abilities and also with the format to your blog. Is this a paid topic or did you modify it your self? Either way stay up the nice quality writing, it is rare to look a nice blog like this one these days..
“Love is the delusion that one woman differs from another.” ~ H. L. Mencken
Thanks a lot.