Does money make you happy? Or stressed?

Today's Topic: Money

When it comes right down to it, all it is, is coloured paper.

But it is the absolute common denominator in life. And if you haven't realized that yet, wake up.

Those who have an abundance of it spend it and those who don't have enough of it spend it anyway. Society makes it seem that all life's ambitions and dreams take money. And you never stop spending it, saving it, borrowing it, lending it or losing it. See, that's the great thing about money. It comes into your life everyday. And you don't have to spend it to have some sort of interaction with it. You could drive by advertisement with a message to spend money. You could hear a conversation where that one buddy that you have it always asking to borrow "like 2 bucks" or "20 bucks" (And that has actually been proven that those are the two most common amounts of money people ask for when they want to borrow it from someone they know)

Everything takes money. To create this effect, let's do a simulation. I am going to go through a list of a very average day and in brackets, the money you would spend (or did spend in previous days) to get through your day. When I start the simulation, I find it rather ironic that you spend money on an alarm clock because if you don't spend money on an alarm clock, you might not wake up on time, THUS, losing your job that makes you money. Anyway here it is. My typical day:

I wake up in the morning (alarm goes off: $50.00 for an i-pod dock) and I get up to brush my teeth (toothpaste and toothbrush: $6.00) When I went to purchase my latest toothbrush, I went for the manual because the automatic toothbrush was out of my price range. And I realized that I'm not too lazy to move my arm in a horizontal motion. I wash my mouth out with the cool minty Listerine (mouthwash: $5.99) and next up is my wardrobe. Because I work construction, it doesn't have to be super high matinence at work (socks, boxers: $15.00, t-shirt and jeans: approx $60.00) Luckily, it's the summer time so I don't have to spend that extra money on the sweater. So I have now been up for ten minutes and I have already spent $136.99. Yes, you read that right. I'm not a big breakfast guy (unless it's the weekend) so it's usually a banana and granola bar (fruit and bar: $3.00) I grab my keys to my vehicle (truck's approx resale value: $10,000) put on my boots ($89.99) and I'm out the door. Luckily, I don't need gas today (company provides: no charge) so I show up to work with my hardhat and gloves (company provides: no charge)

...At this point I could bore you with logistics (but I won't) because technically I didn't buy the machinery that I operate...meaning I am not spending my money.

Time for lunch! A good ole sandwich (bread, lettuce, cheese, meat: averages around $10 to eat. All those ingredients usually makes me a week's worth so $2.00 a day) followed by a drink ($2.00) and other snacks ($5.00). My lunch keeps cool in a nice blue cooler ($15.00) and a variety of containers ($8.00).

So then I come home, make a meat-vegetable-potato meal ($15.00) with my pots and pans ($40.00) and use my brand new cutlery ($60.00) with a glass of milk (glass and milk: $4.00) and watch some TV (bell satellite TV: $85.00) but I get to watch the movie network and realize that the extra $21 a month on my bill is so worth it because I have never actually seen The Hangover until now. And it looks even better on a 42 inch plasma ($800.00).

From here on out, it hard to figure in the cost of a bed with bed sheets, pillows, etc etc. Or if I fall asleep on my couch I purchased a while back. For very simple math, let's just say $1000 was spent in order to sleep.

And now I brush my teeth again and take a rinse of mouthwash ($11.99) and it's lights out.

Many of you may not have read that all, but to total up your days spending in order to get you THROUGH the very plain and modest and most average of days, I hope you are sitting down because to do all this, I just spent $2275.97. I didn't include the price of the truck. And yes I realize you don't spend $1000 a day to sleep or $800 a night to watch t.v. BUT, I did at some point and that means I spent that money at some point to have some sort of comfort level.

But over $2000 a day. Just to live up to a standard lifestyle. And I realize everyone's situation is different because you may not have to buy all of your food or you might commute instead of drive but you you become so routine to life that you forget that it costs a lot of money just to brush your teeth. Or shave. And how deluxe do you take your shower? How much do you spend on soap or shampoo in a day? A week? A year? A lifetime? Wouldn't it be amazing to see your life's calculator? And just watch all those numbers go up one after the other?

Do you know what the saddest and most depressing of all of this is? How much money is spent on people who die. Funeral costs, a casket or a container for ashes, the headstone, etc etc etc. You spend your whole life trying to make money to get ahead and then when you die, you go broke covering the cost to be put six feet under. But it's the right thing to do. In NO WAY, am I trying to be rude, politically incorrect or heartless. I'm just saying, doesn't it just seem to be even just a tad ridiculous? So I'll complain and then someday, I'll do it anyway. I'll spend all that money just to be put in the ground for eternity.

I dare you to take a piece of coloured paper that we call money and deface it in some way. But that's illegal right? What about burning it? We've all heard that it's illegal to burn money. So if I walked up to a cop with a lighter and just set a $20 bill on fire right in front of his face, he would have to arrest me? Because it's illegal? WOW. I am going to try that.

So whether you spend it, save it, borrow it, lend it, invest it or burn it, realize that at the end of the day, it's just paper. And realize that it does control you but you have the power to manipulate it however you want. And boy, does that feel good.