The Purpose of Money
Early in my journey of learning about money, I noticed a very odd disconnect. On the one hand, it was obvious that there’s a ton of personal finance advice readily available. Search on any financial question and within seconds you can find answers. And yet, lots of people struggle with money. Why is that?
I believe it’s because too many people aren’t clear about the purpose of their lives. They’re living reactive lives, bouncing from one tempting use of money to another. The only way to understand the purpose of money is to understand the purpose of life. And the only way to manage money effectively is to orient our use of money around our life purpose.
Do you know who you are?
Our culture would have us believe we’re consumers. It sounds harmless enough, right? But have you ever looked up the definition? To consume literally means to use up, devour, or spend wastefully. How’s that working out for us?
To entice us to buy more and more stuff, advertisers try to link their products to our identity and happiness. Huge sums of money have been spent in an effort to make us believe we are consumers.
What’s in a name?
Consumer is more than a word; it’s a worldview. If I’m a consumer, who’s the most important person in the world? I am, right? Life is all about me – my pleasure, my comfort, my happiness. If I’m a consumer, where is happiness found? In money and what it can buy. And if I’m a consumer, life is a competition. It’s a quest to have more. More than I had last year and more than my neighbors have.
People who study happiness say this is the path that leads in the exact opposite direction of where we’d all like to go. It’s like trying to get to New York from Chicago and getting on a westbound train. They say happiness isn’t found in living for ourselves. It’s found in living for something bigger than ourselves. It isn’t found in loving money and things. It’s found in loving people. And it isn’t found in living a life of competition. It’s found in living a life of contribution.
Remembering who we are
The good news is that we were not meant to be consumers. We weren’t designed to use stuff up. We were designed to create, build, and make something more of what has been entrusted to us.
What is that something more? The Bible says we were designed to live not just for something more, but for someone more – God (Colossians 3:17). So, the first purpose of money is to use it in ways that glorify God. The Bible says the second most important priority in life is to love others (Matthew 22:37-39). It never says that money or things are inherently bad. It just teaches us not to love money or things, but to love people. So, the second purpose of money is to use it in ways that strengthen our relationships with others. And the Bible says we’ve all been given certain talents and passions in order to make a difference with our lives. So, the third purpose of money is to use it in ways that enable us to make our unique and meaningful contribution to the world.
If you were to honestly evaluate your current use of money, how well does it line up with these three purposes?