Money Talks!

In my career as a banker and chief financial officer, I have worked daily with millions of dollars, and occasionally even with billions. I have known some of the wealthiest people on this planet.

If there is one thing absolutely everyone talks about – it is money. And you can also say that Money Talks.

The marvelous Italian sports car and the immense private yacht are meant to impress us, and it works. Presidents and queens bow to money like to nothing else.

But I also know some of the poorest of the poor, such as the drug addict who sleeps in a garage, and the poor street children who can’t stop eating when they come to our house, because they don’t know when they will get another good meal. Money doesn’t work well for them.

I will write more later about how to earn money, to invest it, spend it, and how to use it wisely. You could say that I am kind of a money expert. But first I want to tell you about the essence of money; why it dominates our lives.

Money has replaced gold as the main measure of value. How much does he make? How much is she worth? Can they buy whatever they want?

Governments rise and fall by how well they distribute the wealth in social programs and how adeptly they rake it in through taxes. If the economy is booming, a government is powerful. But when recession strikes, we voters throw the government out!

Money is strangely not a real thing – that is why one single piece of paper can be worth either a single dollar, or a million dollars, depending solely on the words the paper contains.

Money is created by governments to facilitate buying and selling, working and saving and other financial transactions. It is a marker in the economic game entitling us to goods and services.

Money is really a social device to organize our whole society. It can be used unbelievably well, like by Mother Teresa, or selfishly and arrogantly.

How we get our money and how we use it tells the real story of who we are. It can never make us happy for long, but money often makes us very sad.

Money can be the goal of our lives that mostly disappoints us. It should however be only a useful tool, rather than our master.

Money is truly the measure of a man: not how much he has, but how he gets it and how he uses it.

Money talks – often far too loudly.