What does money mean to you?

[VeteranLocum]

Some say that all that "Chemists" are intersted in is money. I'm sure you all know the sort, they're usually quite clearly preoccupied by it themselves. But I've never been able to come up with a good, non-trivial definition of money. Certainly the words "symbol", "energy" and "freedom" would come into it. But what does it mean to other board members?

[El-Loco]

Life is a game and money is how you keep score.

[Defblade]

To paraphrase Dickens, enough money = happiness.

But I don't live to work.

I dropped from 6 to 5 to 4 days a week when first locumming as that was enough money and I was happy.

[Krystal]

To paraphrase Dickens, enough money = happiness.

But I don't live to work.

I dropped from 6 to 5 to 4 days a week when first locumming as that was enough money and I was happy.

Happiness is a choice we make not the outcome of our actions. Dickens was wrong. Money does NOT equal happiness. But to quote my guru Paul McKenna its easier to be happy when your life doesn't suck - and that means enough money for the lifestyle that makes you happy

'Money' is basically a formalised barter system that enables the worker to have the things (s)he needs .How the needs are defined - is a very very subjective matter.

I need enough money to pay the bills , to take part in activities I enjoy, and to enable me to have a decent lifestyle in retirement.


Sally

[Sirius]

What does money mean to me? I view it as a means by which a select few can own vast quantities of it whilst keeping the majority in relative poverty. The ultimate method of control.

Personally I keep a stack of it on the table and I keep the window closed so it doesn't blow away.

[Defblade]

Also,

I used to think that money unspent is pointless money.

I'm coming around to the idea that it might be nice to have a few grand tucked away for a rainy day though.

[Miall James]

What Dickens said was: "Income £1, Expenditure 19/6d. Result happiness. Income £1, Expenditure 20/6d, result misery."

Which is roughly what Sally said.

For younger readers. 19/6d = 97.5p, 20/6d = 102.5p

As a passing thought, in Dickens day £1 per week wasn't a bad wage. In 1911 the Essex LPC Secretary was paid £200pa, (he had a pharmacy but "would need a locum much of the time") and in the mid 30's, I'm told, the PJ would not accept adverts for pharmacists at under £3.50 per week.


Miall

[VeteranLocum]

Also,

I used to think that money unspent is pointless money.

I'm coming around to the idea that it might be nice to have a few grand tucked away for a rainy day though.

We had a family friend, a man always obsessively "careful" about money, who inherited two houses, worth an aggregate of about £1/4 Million in 1999. He was found, after an alert from neighbours, by the Police, naked and dead on the kitchen floor in one of those houses. He had had a stroke. A bailiff was instructed by the solicitors in charge of the will to "turn out" the houses and Building Society A/C books were found with an aggregate of £68,000 in them, set aside for a rainy day. Under the terms of the will the value of one house and any residue went to a local Cottage Hospital Trust. Looking at the way that money is spent nowadays in the NHS I am glad that the terms of my last will and testament, errrm, vary somewhat

[Defblade]

Building Society A/C books were found with an aggregate of £68,000 in them, set aside for a rainy day.

I was thinking more along the lines of that bloke who used to be on BBC2 IIRC on some money programme who used to say if at all possible put away 3-6 months wages in case of the worst happening.

I used to be very relaxed about this on the basis that I could pretty much always find a job in community pharmacy more or less at the drop of a hat; the way things are going at the moment I feel much less certain of that being true in the near-to-mid future.

[johnep]

I went for a career in industry with the comforting thought that I could always return to retail if necessary. Not so sure now.
I think the bath representing retail which has been half full for about 50 years is perilously close to running over. Too many taps (unis) have been turned full on for too long to stop it happening.
johnep

[Defblade]

I think the bath representing retail which has been half full for about 50 years is perilously close to running over. Too many taps (unis) have been turned full on for too long to stop it happening.
johnep

Whereas with hub-and-spoke and RS, I see the bath getting a lot shallower.

[cailleach]

Also,

I used to think that money unspent is pointless money.

I'm coming around to the idea that it might be nice to have a few grand tucked away for a rainy day though.

We had a family friend, a man always obsessively "careful" about money, who inherited two houses, worth an aggregate of about £1/4 Million in 1999. He was found, after an alert from neighbours, by the Police, naked and dead on the kitchen floor in one of those houses. He had had a stroke. A bailiff was instructed by the solicitors in charge of the will to "turn out" the houses and Building Society A/C books were found with an aggregate of £68,000 in them, set aside for a rainy day. Under the terms of the will the value of one house and any residue went to a local Cottage Hospital Trust. Looking at the way that money is spent nowadays in the NHS I am glad that the terms of my last will and testament, errrm, vary somewhat

A dear friend who was widowed very early with two young children(one now dead of brain tumour) has a saying "There's no luggage rack on a hearse".
I am not advocating profligacy but postponing enjoyment for the sake of amassing millions is daft.

Catherine

[Mr Nice]

I have been searching for an answer for a long time. So far I have uncovered a lot.

---

All fiat money is an illusion backed by nothing, but faith or more correctly, debt. Recently, Iceland, North Korea, Venezuela and now Greece are learning the hard way about fiat paper/digital "money". I believe more countries are to follow in the casualty list as the debt created, becomes untenable.

Be careful!

Economist John Kenneth Galbraith once famously observed that the process by which money is created is “so simple it repels the mind.”

http://www.countercurrents.org/korten070210.htm

I will post more later.

[Mr Nice]

The most powerful way to accumulate wealth, without much effort, is through wealth transfer.

Every 20 years or so, the natural human subconscious chooses an asset class. Wealth flows from one asset to another often blowing up in a euphoric manic bubble. Whether it is Tulips, Japanese stocks, Dot coms, Oil companies or Property. The herd, or as investing guru, James Dines writes, the “psychology of the mass” decides. Any individual can be caught up in mob behaviour, but afterwards he or she cannot explain why.

Over the last 100 years, stores of wealth transfer from paper assets, such as stocks, and bonds, TO hard assets such as land, and commodities. It is the cyclical relationship that represents the transfer of trust, from the break down in paper promises to hard tangible possessions of value.

This relationship can be seen by the DOW/Gold ratio, with gold, being the ultimate hard asset. The DOW is the US stock index. The FTSE (UK Stock index) follows the DOW.



The good thing is that you do not need a lot of gold to be rich at the 1-1 ratio DOW/Gold extreme, when it happens. The most powerful transfers of wealth occur in the last 10% of the move.

Roll back to the year 1999. The DOW made a peak 12,000pts. The world rejoiced to the dawn of a new millenium. The DOW to gold ratio was 40+ You need 40+ ounces of gold to buy one unit of the DOW.

If you had bought 5 units of the DOW, that’s 60,000pts, and thus you spend $60,000 on blue chip stocks. 5x12,000 = 60,000.

Look how the DOW/Gold ratio trend has turned. Since the year 2000, Western economies have loaded themselves up with huge debts. There have been huge promises made, which will have to be paid back later. Too many paper promises.

If you have just 5 ounces of gold when the DOW/Gold ratio goes 1-1 again, you would have the same purchasing power as someone with $60,000 in 1999 to spend on stocks. $60,000 was an awful lot of money back then too.

And that’s for the cheap price of $5500 today. [If you take 1oz = $1100].

[El-Loco]

Lemigethistraighthere. I can understand how land and (certain) commodities can be regarded a hard assets but in the event of a global disaster I don't understand how gold can be considered one. Is it that you all give up when things get really bad?

Having said that could you tell me (total numpty that I am) exactly HOW I buy gold in substantial amounts - there are T.V. adverts from companies wanting to buy it so I want to buy it even more.

I mean I have looked on e-bay and there really aren't that many bargains.

Wouldn't a basket of currencies, in the absence of a vast swathe of land - but then if things go belly up you just take the land so weapons come to the fore don't they, be a better option?