Good Morning Dinks. Every single day we get up and go to work so that we can make money. We like to make money because we can spend it to buy all of the things that we want to buy in life, we can use money to travel the world and we can save our money to build our net worth. We all love making money, spending money and saving money for different reasons, so let me ask you a question – why do you love money?
Money can be your best friend if you have it and use it responsibly or money can be your worst enemy if you mistreat it. Do you ever wish that you had your money now and your favourite items where the same prices as they were when you were a kid? Just think about that for a minute and imagine how far your money would go.
Sometimes when I go into a store to buy my favourite items I remember how much that same item cost 20 years ago when I was a kid (wow did I really just write that?). I wish that I had my money today to buy my favourite items at the prices from when I was a kid. My dollars (now that I have them) definitely don’t go as far as they used to which is ironic because now I have a lot more money than I did 20 years ago. I work hard for my money but sometimes I don’t feel that it’s worth the time I worked to make it.
How do you evaluate the value of your money?
- What you can buy for it. Some people value their dollar at how much they can buy for it. If you can buy 10 items for $1 does it mean that your dollar is more valuable than an item that costs $10? Some people would say yes. In today’s society we consider the value of an item to be relevant to its cost but I don’t necessarily think that it’s true. If I pay a lot of money for an item the benefit over the long term has to be worth the cost. Just because an item is expensive doesn’t necessarily mean that it is valuable.
- Appreciation over time. If you put a dollar in a piggy bank 20 years ago and you wanted to use it today your $1 would still be worth $1. However you wouldn’t be able to buy the same items for the same price today as you would have 20 years ago. This is the cost of inflation; it’s the value increase of our money over time. Technically $1 is still worth $1 20 years later but what you can buy for that $1 definitely changes over time.
- How hard you worked for it. When you were a kid and you asked your parents for a gift did they ever tell you how long they had to work to pay for your item? At 32 years old every time I eat a piece of candy I am constantly reminded by my Dad how many nights he had to work overtime to pay for the braces that I had as a child. I definitely try to buy items that are a good deal which means they aren’t necessarily on sale (which is an added bonus) but it means that the items that have a benefit that is worth the cost. Sometimes I compare the price of my items with how hard I worked to pay for them. Do you ever do that?
Photo by images of money
DINKS (Dual Income No Kids) Finance is a blog discussing personal finance for couples. While by no means financial experts, we own a variety of assets including real estate and stocks. We've both been up to our eyeballs in debt and have made tons of financial mistakes. However, we've both successfully retired that debt and we both do learn from our failings. We hope that our voice in this blog can help others in achieving their goals!
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These are some really good points. When we are evaluating what a dollar is worth to us I think the biggest thing is how hard we had to work for it. While in reality a $1 is a $1, I know I valued those $ more when I worked at pizza hut and literally had to work like hell for minimum wage.
I also tend to think in terms of how hard I’m working to earns those dollars, but I do mix it up a bit with consideration towards how much buying power the same dollars now have. I, too, can remember some of the prices of things from when I was a child.
I tend not to think about how much the money is worth. Instead my focus has been on how to make more of it.
Hi. I added a lengthy, substantive comment to your essay from over a year ago about whether or not to demand your longtime boyfriend marry you. You may want to look at it.
Take care.