Between our conversations about complementary currency and working on the budgeting and projections for my own coaching business, Remabulous, and working on this blog every week, I've been giving quite a lot of thought to the purpose of money lately.

 Many of us look at money as an outcome that we are striving for, as in "If I could just make more money..."

 However, I was talking to a colleague a year or so ago and she replied by saying, "It's just paper." It was a funny way to put it, but I realized that she was right.

Money and what it can do for us is a real power, but the energy of money gets tied up in many more ways when we think about it. I love the idea of complementry currency because it breaks down the concept of money being an end result in itself. 

Tim Ferriss, in The 4 Hour Work Week, makes an important distinction:

"People don't want to be millionaires- they want to experience what they believe only millions can buy. Ski chalets, butlers, and exotic travel often enter the picture. Perhaps rubbing cocoa butter on your belly in a hammock while you listen to waves rhythmically lapping against the deck of your thatched-roof bungalow? Sounds nice.

$1,000,000 in the bank isn't the fantasy. The fantasy is the lifestyle of complete freedom it supposedly allows." (author's italics)

This passage stuck with me as much as the comment about money being paper. One of the greatest pieces of advice I ever got about working on wealth consciousness was to think really long and hard about what qualities I thought money would give my life: freedom? security? spontanaeity? opportunity to explore? Study? Grow? 

Then, after seeing what I wanted from money, instead of looking around for it by itself, I could cimply look at how to cultivate those qualities in my life even outside of grasping for money and hoping that it would bring those qualities along. 

This is much like people who work and work like crazy and say they will enjoy themselves later. They believe that they will learn to relax and enjoy life after they retire, or hit that income goal. But guess what? Without learning how to experience these goals now, it will be harder and harder to add them into your life later, even with more money in the bank.

One great way I learned to do this through the CB process was to put categories in my bookkeeping that reflected theese values. If I want security, I can name my savings account that and every time I put money into it, I know that I am supporting that value in my life, no matter how much I am making. 

What values and categories are you looking to develop with your money and personal financial plan? Please share them with us in the comments!

Until next week... thanks for reading.