Money as a Symbol

Posted on: August 02, 2007

We all know money is actually a symbol, a concept given form. But are we truly aware of how pervasive that symbol is? Money originally evolved as a bartering symbol. I give you money so I can buy your goat rather than having to exchange my wheat for the goat, since you really don’t want the wheat. A great example of how things might have worked before money was amusingly portrayed in several episodes of M*A*S*H, where Radar worked the system exchanging all sorts of odd things to end up with what he really wanted. Money, theoretically, simplifies all that. But at what price?

Even though we have paper and metal tokens to represent money, it is really a concept, not an actual item. However, we seem to have taken the concept to unintended extremes. We assign meaning and significance to money that is purely arbitrary. We act as if money had its own volition. We blame things on money, and even more amazingly we assign responsibility to money. Money seems to be responsible for ideas like: “Rich people aren’t as nice as poor people,” or “I always struggle with money.” The way these concepts are expressed implies that money itself is the responsible party, not the humans involved in the process.

There are also many words in our culture that hold sway over both money and our sense of who we are. Let’s look at a few:

$ Worth and worthy. No mistake here. Notice how often we seem to tie our worthiness to our worth. We even speak of “self-worth.”

$ Value and values. There’s lots of money interaction with this word. Things have value; money has value; people act on their values.

$ Trust. How does the concept of being trustworthy tie to the concept of setting up a Trust account to safeguard your assets?

$ Spend. I spend money, I also spend time. Actually, the dictionary definitions of spend make this overlap of concepts even more evident. The first two definitions for spend are: (1) to use up, exhaust, consume, waste, and (2) to pay out, disburse.

$ Credit. We use the word “credit” to imply validity and trustworthiness, and even praise: to give credit where credit is due. And then there is the issue of your credit when it comes to how much money you can borrow. Have credit cards changed the way you think of the word “credit”?

$ Save. This was the first money metaphor in my life. As a child, I had heard about how “Jesus Saves.” In fact, there was a building downtown that had huge, red lights above it saying “Jesus Saves.” As a five-year-old, kid I decided that this sign was over a bank, and that this bank was so good that even Jesus saved there. Seemed perfectly logical to me. So how do the ideas of soul saving and money-saving co-mingle in your mind? Is there some judgment about how much better a person you might be if you “saved” more?

$ Broke. If you are broke, are you broken?

As humans, we are pattern-makers and also metaphorical thinkers. In many areas this can be and is a valuable and effective tool. However, when it comes to money, the metaphors and homonyms seem to complicate our understanding rather than to simplify.

Spend some time exploring where you tie up the money words and concepts with other aspects of your life. Do you want to continue to operate based on those analogies, or do you want to make other choices? In order to change the path your money mind takes, you must first acknowledge all the twists and turns that are already part of the road of your everyday thinking.

If you want or need a partner to help you explore more about how you make up your money mind, or to help you identify your limiting beliefs around money, understand where they came from, and change them for the better, call me.

Shell Tain of Sensible Coaching is a money coach. She works with people, helping them change their habits and beliefs surrounding money, and guiding them towards plenty and prosperity. Shell believes we can all enjoy bigger and fuller lives. She takes you from the crunch to the ka-ching! Shell’s clients range in income, professions, and lifestyles; she successfully coaches individuals, budding entrepreneurs (more than a quarter of her clients are in real estate and mortgage related fields), couples, and groups. Call or email her to schedule a free, sample session; you can also sign-up to join her monthly teleclass.