mon·ey \ ˈmə-nē
plural moneys or monies\ ˈmə-nēz
1 : something generally accepted as a medium of exchange, a measure of value, or a means of payment
2 : a form or denomination of coin or paper money
A simplified version of what Merriam-Webster has to say about it.
Money, as we know it, is a piece of metal or paper that someone says has value. Money is not valuable in and of itself, it’s just a piece of paper. Alright so it’s a highly technologically advanced piece of paper, but is it worth the number printed on it? Probably not since 1971 when Nixon finished what FDR started in 1933 by taking the U.S. off the gold standard.
Then who says it has value? Some old dead dude from waaaayyy back? 1100 B.C. the Chinese started using metal coins. 600 B.C. Lydia (western Turkey) started minting coins. But we keep it going because it’s an easy way, in it’s most basic form, to make something or do a service for someone and trade these little slips of paper or coins for something else that we want that someone else has or will do for us.
Simple right?
But what if I gave you $20 to get me a coffee and it takes you 3 minutes to do that. You’re thinking “Cool!! I just made something like $400 an hour”. Value of that $20 dollars just went up in your head. But then when you got back I tell you that I made a Million dollars in the time you were gone, you’d feel like you got ripped off and that $20 just dropped in value. That’s perspective.
Here’s another perspective, if you think of 1 dollar being equal to 1 second, $60 equals 1 minute. 1000 dollars would be 5 hours and 45 minutes.
Now jump to 1 Million dollars is 12 days.
A billion dollars is 31 years.
And a trillion dollars is 31,688 years.
The U.S. National Debt as of today is a little over $23 Trillion or 728,824 years.
How about your personal debt? Well you can do the numbers but the total US consumer debt currently sits at over $4.165 trillion and has increased nearly 22% over the last four years. Total revolving debt is $1.088 trillion of that and has increased 20% over the last four years. An estimated average of $275,000 per adult. And that’s just the average!
Well, those numbers went crazy in a hurry. I hope I didn’t get you too dizzy. Next time I’ll start to explore what we can do to turn that number around to the positive side of your personal balance sheet.
Stay Loose
Mentored Money 