Money

 Money doesn’t buy happiness, but not having enough sure does buy you stress and grief. The real question is, how much is enough?

I grew up watching my hard-working parents stress and fret about money and, although we were happy, I saw the toll it took on them. I never wanted to add to that worry so as soon as I got paid for my first babysitting job at nine years old, I tried to pay for my own clothes and activities. I saw money as a tool and never spent enough that I didn’t have any left. That one little thing, spending less than I made, has made all the difference.

Money is a tool and if you recognize that you can use it to your advantage. If you see money as a goal you’ll never have enough. If you see money as a status you’ll never be satisfied.

I love my family and I am so grateful that we have enough money to have a modest home, vehicles, clothes, and food, and that there is some left over to do fun things and help others. My husband’s job provides for us all and he’s been promoted several times.

Each time my husband has been offered a promotion our first concern has been how it will affect his time. We have decided that we would rather have more of him than more money. When he gets a raise we look at ways to pay down our mortgage (our only debt) faster or put it toward a project. Our lifestyle has slowly adjusted to the higher wage, but we do our best to keep it in check because we never want to feel like we have to take the next promotion to support our habits.

The key to our success has been – and continues to be – knowing what success means to us. While my husband used to have a certain wage by a certain age that he was aiming for, he’s come to see that such arbitrary numbers mean a lot less than the happiness we feel in our family. And money can’t buy that.