I think money means different things to different people. To me, it means security. I don’t want to lose my home. I don’t want to be unable to get the best health care available. I want to be able to raise my kids well. Those are the most important things that money is helpful for, for me, and because of that, it is very important. Something worth spending a lot of time on.
As far as having money to spend things on—well, that’s nice, but that’s not why I worry about money. If I can buy a horn or a vacation—that’s great! I’ll enjoy it. And I probably could afford those things or more of those things, but that’s not what money is for. Money is for security and thus shouldn’t be spent on things I don’t absolutely need.
Money is for taking care of things. We’re painting the house now. We have lots of other house projects in the works, as well. Insulation. Heat sealing. Other projects I don’t remember. Oh yeah—painting inside, and maybe putting in new cabinets in the kitchen so we can organize things and it doesn’t look so trashy. This last is something we can do without and in fact, have done without for a long time. Maybe we’ll do it…. some day.
The car is six or seven years old, and we plan to use it until it no longer moves, or we downsize. We spend money on education and the house and health and food and not so much on entertainment. Not so much on clothes.