What I learned about money

Here’s what I learned about money💰 in the last 2 years:

When I began my career, I was pretty naive about money.

What is money after all?

For me, it was the ability to purchase ‘things’. Having an “X” amount of money means I could buy XYZ things. I could pay my XYZ bills. I could travel to XYZ places.

But over these 2 years, having experienced both the good and ugly parts of the so-called ‘real’ world, I realized the shallowness and limits of this view.

On some days, I witnessed people on the streets fighting over money.

On other days, I saw the same money falling from people’s pockets and they did not have the ‘time’ and ‘energy’ to pick that up again.

This led me to ask myself, “What is money, after all?”

“Why does it mean different things to different people?”

I don’t think I have my answers yet, but it led me to an interesting realisation. Perhaps you’ve realized this too.

Fundamentally, money is a form of potential energy. It is also how humans store potential time.

(While time is also a form of energy, for clarity, I’ll focus separately on money, time, and energy.)

How?

Let’s take an example:

Consider this: You are working at a job. It’s salary day.

For the whole month, you traded your time and energy to get that money.

Now with all that money in hand, it’s time to celebrate!

You decide to give yourself a treat at your favourite restaurant with friends. Fair enough.

If you think for a second, what are you doing with your money?

No, I am not talking about whether your decision was right or wrong.

You are now trading money, to save the energy and time that you would have otherwise needed to make that favourite dish on your own.

After all the partying, you are very tired. It’s already late, and your family wants you home early. You decide to take a quick cab home.

But your friend has all the energy in the world and is a fitness freak. He lives alone and time isn’t an issue for him. He decides to walk back home.

What’s happening here?

Again, you are trading money to save your energy and perhaps some time. But your friend is saving money in exchange for time and energy.

This is just one example. Think of everything you decided to do today.

Do you see? How all this is about converting time, energy and money into each other?

But the question remains.

“What are we truly chasing in this exchange of time, energy, and money?”