what’s your purpose for money? this week’s burning question

{Excerpted from The FIRE STARTER SESSIONS, SESSION 13: Money: More is more. Enough is plenty. GET YOUR FREE SESSION HERE. AND SERIOUS PRE-ORDER TREATS ARE HERE!}

Beyond the basics of food, shelter, and health, what do you need money for? Does beauty matter? Does comfort matter? Does stability have great meaning for you, or the capacity to travel the world? If you say it matters to you, then it matters. And what matters varies wildly from person to person.

You are the economist of what matters to you.

~ Danielle LaPorte

Danielle LaPorte has begun to ask burning questions on her site, with the opportunity to share on your own site if you want.  Burning questions can be so powerful in providing an outlet to dream big, to gain clarity, and to move forward at lightning speed.  Here’s my answer to this one:

My purpose for money is to have a choice.  I learned about the power of choice and how what money buys us through a class I took called Monetary Identity, offered by Rich Chicks.  I had such a sense of relief when I learned this, it was amazing.  That’s all I’ve ever wanted was to be able to choose what happens in my life…to make those choices myself. And that’s what money give me…that’s why it’s such a focus for me.

I’ve always had this insane focus on money.  I say insane because it literally doesn’t matter if I have a single digit (or less) in my pocket or six figures in the bank, I still think about money all they time and usually with anxiety around it.  It sucks.  I have a lifetime of having my needs met, of having some level of choice available, and I still stress about it all the time.

Its better than it was because I’ve done a lot of work around it but it’s still there.  As I move out on my own, even though I have taken care of my expenses with no problems for some time,  I feel it there in the back of my mind.  Its time to do some more work, I guess.  Here’s what I want my choices to include, how I define the purpose for my money:

• The opportunity to live in a place I choose.  A place that I love to come home to…to be in…to simply just be.
• The opportunity to buy a few new things once in a while that will make my life better somehow.
• The opportunity to take a vacation a couple of times a year…a vacation that looks like I want it to look.
• The opportunity to have a few things, just because I want them.
• The opportunity to do something good in the world for a group/cause I believe in and want to support.
• The opportunity to do nice things once in a while for those around me.
• The opportunity to continue to learn and grow and connect with others.

That’s my purpose for money.  What’s yours?