Each Dollar, an Emissary

…placed in your pocket to do your bidding

How you think about money dictates how you operate in the world. Period.

Until recently, I honestly didn’t really think about money. When I did, all I thought was that some people (the lucky few) have it, and everyone else (the unfortunate many) do not. Ultimately, I felt money wasn’t important (...pardon me as a groan at my younger self). 

Why would I think such a foolish thing? 

Buckle up, we’re about to go on a journey. Back to a time when everyone makes the best decisions and comes to the most logical conclusions ever. We’re going back to high school.

The Journey of an Idiot

When I was in high school I took an economics class. And in this economics class I learned a tiny bit about economies and economic history. One of the things I learned was a short history of international currency. Before this education, I thought money functioned the way it did in historical-fiction movies, like Gladiator or Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, #RIPAlanRickman.

An educational movie about monetary policy.

Through this Hollywood-ization of education, I thought all money was somehow tied to gold (otherwise known as the gold standard). Technically true at one point in history, I discovered this was no longer the case. Turns out that the US (and effectively all countries) terminated the gold standard in the 1970s. This led to an international monetary policy where countries around the world more or less agreed on rules that governed money.

Discovering this, my brain imploded: “Wait, what?! You’re telling me that governments around the world are just agreeing that money is worth XYZ amount? So the value of money is essentially fiction? Is money all THAT important since it’s made up?? Clearly not! Money is made up, it’s not important, it doesn’t matter.”

Oh poor baby Jill brain. Yes, my ignorant and underdeveloped brain had a field day with this knowledge. I somehow twisted the minimal understanding I had into a justification for not caring about money. I thought money would come and go, but ultimately it wasn’t THAT important. How could it be? Since it’s completely made up!

I cringe (CRINGE) when I think of how privileged a perspective this was. Yes, I was an idiot. I saw money as a fictitious thing, so why not spend it? Why not live in the moment, what does it matter? Saving is for accountants and people who don’t know how to live! 

Ooof, ouch, cringe, *shields eyes from the onlooking crowd and slowly creeps back into the shadows*.

Turning Point

Realizing this wildly-cringe-worthy take on money was not benefiting me took time to settle in. We don’t know what we don’t know, and oh boy did I not know a lot. Once I finally got real with myself and accepted that I was exceedingly ignorant about money I decided to try to understand where I had gone wrong.

I mean, I get that people like money, especially mob bosses and Tik Tok real estate influencers, but for us normal folks, how does it really function? Can it benefit us beyond keeping roofs over our heads, food in our bellies and supporting us in accumulating more “stuff”? 

Seeking knowledge, I read books - The Wealthy Barber, The Simple Path to Wealth, etc. - and while the concepts presented were accessible, I was still resistant to what was being presented. Truth be told, it took me a few years of reading and reflecting for important concepts to fully land (picking up a theme here? Yes, I am a stubborn, change resistant human). But when the most important concept about money landed for me, it punched me in the face with the force of a thousand Hulk Hogans.

What Money Is

What I came to understand is that each of our hard earned dollars is an emissary, placed in our possession to do our bidding. And these emissaries should never be static, oh no, they have important things to accomplish on our behalf. Money is not a sentinel on the wall of our castles to protect us, it is an active, strategic agent, helping us to achieve our goals.

Varys knows how to get sh*t done.

You might be thinking: what Games-of-Thrones gibber gabber is this? What the heck is Jill saying?

I get it, it might be a bit “out there” to think of money as an actual agent or emissary. A dollar doesn’t have a heartbeat, it’s not a person. But for me, attributing some personality traits helped me understand that I ultimately decide what these little units of potential do. 

We all work hard for our money. And we regularly collect our money, typically in the form of a paycheque. When this money hits our bank account something magical happens: our bank account transforms into a holding cell for our little emissaries, who wait patiently to do our bidding. Each dollar is a little unit of energy that can take any form we choose. (Again: our money can take any form we choose!) Put to use, these emissaries can support our living standards, food intake, entertainment, collection of things, etc. If we are strategic in how we deploy these little agents, we’ll have some left over to invest.

Once I started to think of money as units of potential (emissaries), I started to imagine what that potential could hold. Revisiting the concepts explored in resources, books and videos about money, I began to see the potential of it in new ways. All money not deployed to support daily living could (and should) be put to work. 

Realizing that money has untold potential AND can be put into motion to grow changed how I behaved. I started to ask myself all kinds of questions about how I wanted to use my money (or deploy my emissaries). Do I really want to spend my money on Uber Eats? Or would I rather stick that money into a savings vehicle to be multiplied through compound growth? What are the things in life that I actually need? How do I even want to live my life?

This realization paired with having a really good understanding of where my money was going provided a glimpse into the future. Perhaps this kooky goal of saving 50% of my income could really work to get my finances in a better position.

Reframing how I understand money transformed how I operate in the world. And knowing that I could and did shift my perspective was very empowering. 

Acknowledging that money is YOUR active agent shifts you from a passive position to an active position. Your money is your loyal, unflinching emissary. Deploy it with knowledge and keep it in motion. Grow it to support your goals.

We’ve got this.