Money Moves

Money moves. I've been thinking about that lately as I've looked at how people work with money in their lives and businesses. Money is in a constant state of movement, changing hands, changing businesses, and demonstrating the flow and exchange of life for material goods and comforts. In Your Money or Your Life, the authors discuss how life is exchanged for money. More specifically they note that everyone exchanges amounts of time for money. That time is just part of the overall time we have to life, and yet it is the one resource can never be replenished or renewed. We exchange time for money, life for the means to sustain the remaining amount of life we have.

This is important to recognize because without that recognition we will never really understand the value of money within our lives or business. With that recognition we can start to make informed choices about how we spend money, as well as what we are willing to do to acquire it. We stop looking at money as an end goal and recognize it is a means to an end.

When awareness about money allows us to see it as a means to an end, we start to ask questions. One of those questions is: "What do I really want to use my money for?" Another question is: "Is how I'm spending money reflecting my values and the way I want to live my life?" These questions help us understand what our time is worth and in turn allows us to examine if what we are doing to earn the money is really within our best interests.

Money moves and its movement is a reflection of our lives and business. The way we spend money and what we spend it on reflects the values of our lives, but also shows the relationship we have with money. If we don't track the way we spend money then we are avoiding understanding how money moves through our lives and business. It is absolutely essential to track how money is spent and earned, in order to discover patterns of spending and determine if the movement of your money is going in the right directions.

The way that a person addresses financial fears starts with tracking your money and learning these patterns of spending. When you understand how money moves through your life and business you can make informed choices and take control of that movement. The reason so many people don't have control boils down to an unwillingness to examine their relationship with money. The examination of your relationship may make you feel uncomfortable, but that discomfort will be temporary, especially when you start to make choices that give you a sense of empowerment, because you are focused on directing your money toward long term goals such as retirement or buying a house or sustaining your chosen lifestyle.

Money moves and its movement defines your life and business. But in turn you can define its movement through your life and business. Start tracking your money and use that as your first step toward understanding the relationship you have with money, so that you can create goals around your financial life that will help you get the most worth out of your money. Afterall, you've already exchanged precious tiem for that money. Shouldn't you want the most out of it, as a result?