Money money money.

As of late, thoughts of the green have been invading my mind constantly. I hate money in a lot of ways. Money…is valueless…except that societies all around the world have decided it is necessary and they have therefore given it value. Whatever. That’s fine, I mean there has to be some form of commerce in the world, so it’s all good. But ultimately what I hate about money is how people tell you that you have to have it (or at least spend it like you have it) to be worth anything as a person. Now of course, all of you—my logical wonderful friends know better than this, but many people around us do not.

In an effort to develop a healthy working relationship with money, I have started to study it. For example, up until about 4 months ago, I had never considered saving in pretty much my whole life. Not because I have any problems with saving, but I would rather just spend my money. But then, I started to realize that it was definitely a good idea to save—to save money in an emergency fund because emergencies can and do happen; to save to buy a new car or house or other big ticket item, so that the amounts of debt I have in the future can be greatly reduced; to save for retirement, because having a million dollars to retire on is probably going to be an absolute NECESSITY in the future.

But then as I started reading more and more about money…I realized that not only do I want to start saving more or less immediately after college, but I eventually want to invest as well.

But alas, I have all of these aspirations when I have 2 obstacles to consider. Numero Uno…I’m not going to have all that much money at first. PLUS number two—I have ABSOLUTELY no desire to be rich because as I said earlier, I kinda hate money. So I’ve been trying to find the happy medium and I have stumbled upon my new favorite word.


Frugality.

Apparently, there are thousands of people in this country who are doing the very things I want to do, but not by landing the $100k/year “American Dream” job, but rather by reducing or eliminating their debt and living a common-sense life when it comes to spending money. Cool. And living frugally doesn’t mean that you give up all of the finer things in life. If you really want a 50-inch plasma TV or something, then buy it…when you have the money to do so. If you want a new car, get a new car—but make sure you can afford the monthly payments on it without stretching your budget so thin that you give up on your savings plans.

I really like the things I’m learning, it’s quite interesting. If you are even remotely interested, I highly recommend that you check out Smart Spending Blog. It’s a part of msn.com but it has new blogs every day with tips and thoughts about spending your money wisely, and when it’s wisest to be really frugal or when it’s best to really not worry about it so much.

This leads me to my new quote for the week: "Frugality is more than saving a few pennies and becoming debt-free; it's about pursuing your dreams and not someone else's idea of success."

Don’t spend more than you should just because people expect you to. Follow your goals and dreams and find you own, personal brand of success in life…and that doesn’t just apply to your finances.