The Money

Introduction

We live in economic society. Today’s economic world could not exist without money. Our civilization is, materially, a cash and credit system, dependent on people’s confidence in the value of money.

Money comes to be as necessary in the exchange of goods as language in the exchange of ideas. People everywhere weighed, counted and measured money. But, what is money? What is its importance in our lives?

Body Paragraph

Money is a tool which easily enables us to buy and exchange services and products. It is simply one kind of wealth which is taken, not for itself, but to be passed along. Further, it serves as the general instrument of exchange, as a measure and medium in the sale and purchase of other commodities and as a common denominator in comparing values.

Money reinforces our economic pursuits with commitment to basic human values that gave us a reason to work hard since we expect that the work will pay off. Money also contributed to the realization of personal, family, community and spiritual values and dreams. Moreover, human interests, ambitions and activities tend to descend around money.

We invest a great deal of effort in creating money designed to manage a complex social relations that expresses not only intimacy but also inequality, love but also power, care but also control and solidarity but also conflict. Hence, we used and absorbed money, transforming it to fit our variety of values and social relations.

Money brings disputes and misunderstanding among people. Women, men and children often lied, stole or deceived each other to protect and get money. Money gifts also become controversial currency especially when it came to exchanges between strangers.

Further, it symbolizes the disparity of particular social relation. On the other hand, money given to poor people balanced precariously between gift, tip, rightful benefit and payment for services.

However, we can reshape money in other positive form, that of a sentimental gift, expressing care and affection. At Christmas, weddings, christenings, or other religious and secular events, money becomes a dignified, welcome gift, almost unrecognizable as market money.

Money is a powerful and visible symbol of our social relations and meanings. It directly affects our social practices. We turned spending money not only in our central economic practice but also in our dynamic, complex cultural and social activities.

We do not only think of our money per se, but also on how we will spend and save it for different purposes and for different people. We also think of what should money buy, when and how often.

Spending Money

Having money provides a margin of comfort. We can buy what we want to satisfy our needs and desires. We can eat what we wanted. We can also go to any places for enjoyment and relaxation. However, money can lead to more stress since we overestimate the pleasure we can get from having money and that we are never satisfied when good fortunes comes our way.

While earning more makes us happy in the short term, we quickly adjust to our new wealth and everything it, we buys. Even though stuff seldom brings us the satisfaction we expect, we keep returning to the mall since we are not contented. The big salary we pull in from our high-paying job may not buy us much in the way of happiness. But it can buy us a spacious house in the suburbs. Trouble is that it also means a long trip to and from work.

However, money spent wisely can contribute greatly to happiness. Money can help us find more happiness, so long as we know just what we can and can't expect from it. If we want to know how to use money for us to become happier, we need to understand just what it is that brings us happiness in the first place.

One secret of happiness is people. Our friends and family are the major source of our happiness. Moreover, innumerable studies also suggest that having friends matters a great deal. Compared with the happiness-increasing powers of human connection, the power of money looks weak indeed. So throw a party, set up regular lunch dates, and invite them to see a movie and whatever it takes to invest in friendships while spending the money.

If we really want to be happy in spending our money, then we must do generous works. We can buy things that could help charitable institutions in any ways. We could also donate cash amount to these institutions. Further, giving alms to the beggar and poor will also bring us happiness in spending our money.

We must spend money toward things that promotes and gives us the components of happiness. Loading up on stuff though gratifying for a moment is not a lasting source of happiness. Instead, spend our money on our relationships, our health and our experiences.

Conclusion

Money is very important in our lives. It is one of the primary needs in purchasing goods and services. It can bring us happiness and satisfaction. It can also cause disputes and misunderstanding. Money affects and influences our daily economic and social activities. Moreover, it symbolizes inequality in social class.

We have different purpose in spending our money. We spend it to buy things and services that provide our basic needs. We also spend it to satisfy our needs and wants. Furthermore, we spend it because we really just want to spend or waste it.

We spend money depending on our values. Values are personal beliefs about what is important to a one person. Our values may be the same or different than those of our family or friends. Some values are more important than others at different times in our life. We will be happier with the way we spend our money if we spend it on things that are important to us.

References

Foster, WT 1923, Money, Houghton Mifflin, Boston.

Futrelle, D 2006, ‘Can Money Buy Happiness’, Money Magazine, 18 July.

Rubin, G 2006, ‘Money Can’t Buy Happiness, The Wall Street Journal, 6 September.

Wuthnow, R 1996, Poor Richard's Principle: Recovering the American Dream through the Moral Dimension of Work, Business, and Money, Princeton University Press, New York.

Zelizer, V 1994, The Social Meaning of Money, Basic Books, New York.