Here’s the real secret about money in our society:  It’s not supply based, it’s emotion based.   The market responds to emotion.  It responds to rumor and innuendo.

It used to be that the success or  failure of economies and businesses was  based on things like the Gold Standard meaning there was actual gold stashed away to back up the value of the money.  The gold is no longer there.  Now the value of money is much more amorphous.  It’s based on what “experts” say it is.  When it was based on gold there was the possibility of determining how much money there was.  Now it’s based on numbers.  A super computer could probably determine how much money there was at some magic moment in time but it’s like counting grains of sand.  There truly is plenty of it for everyone.

Even the treasury knows that.  For example, the US government doesn’t actually care how much counterfeit money is floated.  The government wants to stop counterfeiters, not because the fake money will devalue the dollar, but because we, the users of money, might be afraid it has devalued it and panic.  See how it’s “emotion based money” even for the government?

And you, too, are bringing emotion to your money.  You feel good about some purchases and bad about others.  You have emotion and even shame around debt or bankruptcy.  You have emotion around how much money others do or do not have.

Money itself isn’t actually emotional.  These emotions belong to us, not to money.  Money is just a human construct.  All it does is keep track of what you are up to. If it were a person and you asked it how you were doing it would say “you have $545.39”. It wouldn’t say “fine”, or “not too good”.  It just doesn’t work that way.  It’s literal and non-judgmental.

Emotions in themselves are wonderful things.  However, when we assign emotion to symbols, and money is really nothing but a symbol, we lose track of what’s real.

Maybe it’s time to take a good long look at your emotions around money and to see if they are serving you and your goals.  Perhaps you might let go of your anger at others who have more and focus on enjoying what you have.  Perhaps you might choose to have more so you can help others.  Perhaps you might choose to have less money in order to remove stress and enjoy life more yourself.

What might be different if you choose to stop having money be emotion based?

Ka-ching

Shell Tain, The Untangler

Want some help taking the emotional charge out of money? Give me a call at 503-258-1630 or check out my website at www.shelltain.com