What does money mean to you? Do you like having it? Do you avoid discussing the topic over dinner? Is it a bother? Maybe you get mad when you think about money, or you might get a certain beatific glow at the thought of all those digits lining up in your name. Like religion, there are probably as many ways to look at money as there are people in the world. Whether you love it or you consider it a pain in the patooty, you've got your own special relationship with money, as Millionaire Maker Lorel Langemeier likes to say. And when you think about it, it all boils down to how much value you yourself place on your time. Never thought of it that way, did you? Well, it's true.

Here we are with April 15th staring us right in the face. For most people, U.S. federal income tax returns are due. Some folks will be getting a fat tax return. Others will get a tap on the shoulder from Uncle Sam, and most folks in this category are likely to groan with resignation and regret - maybe even a little fear in the mix. But there are a lot of good reasons to pay a bit of your taxes at the end of the year instead of getting a refund. You might think I'm a little funny in the head for saying so, but that's why you keep me around. Who else can you count on to lighten up the topic of money on Tax Day? I'll get to the explanation in a sec.

The word money is thought to have come from the temple of Juno Moneta on one of the seven hills of Ancient Rome, the place where the mint was located. The good folks contributing to Wikipedia tell us that money is anything that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts. Now, that doesn't always mean currency, if you catch my drift. That word "anything" takes in a lot of territory. Money is what you say it is, and you can handle it in any number of ways.

For a lot of people, money has become a stream of ones and zeros across a computer screen, representing a 10-based system of counting credits, accessed with a plastic card at the grocery checkout. For other folks, it's a check that comes in the mail that they take to the bank and exchange for some green bills. For others it's an agreement that covers food and shelter in exchange for time and services - a barter system that circumvents that third party tool, cash. This last one is the most ancient and the closest to the naked truth about money - a direct exchange between time and results. This point was keenly illustrated in one of my favorite books, The Good Life by Helen & Scott Nearing - two school teachers from Depression-era New York City who chucked it all and made good with their own "use economy" in Vermont. These guys had a whole lot to say about the value of personal labor, economic ideals and the power of self-reliance. They didn't sell out to anybody. But I digress.

Your money is a unit of measure for value placed on goods, services, effort and ultimately... time. Your time. That's right, it represents a chunk of your life you're never going to get back. Think about it. If you're going to part with your money - or even lend it to somebody - you darn well better be getting something in exchange for it. That includes small loans you might inadvertently be making to the U.S. government. (Here we are again as promised, back to that ol' tax issue.) That's why I say it's better to owe a little bit of tax at the end of the year or guesstimate your taxes dead-even, rather than loaning your money interest-free to the government and getting a chunk back at the end of the year. If you're of the oh-but-I-love-getting-a-refund mindset, you might want to retrace your steps. You can bet that Uncle Sam is making a tad bit of interest on your money throughout the year, and repaying your generous loan without any interest to you. It doesn't make good financial sense. Some folks say if they see that money in their paycheck, they'll just spend it. But try taking a look at money in a new light - as the symbol of your good works, a piece of your time. It is quite literally a golden memory. ...Yeah, like that.

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Until next time,

JS
Spokesman

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