Virtual Money

Many, many years ago, money consisted of coins made from gold or silver, and their value was determined according to their weight.

With the years, people became more advanced technologically and it became inconvenient to walk around with these heavy coins in our pockets, so paper money was developed. The paper itself had very little real value but the paper money's purchasing value was determined by what was printed on it and until recently, the gold bullion that was kept in the government vaults supporting it. The technology for printing money has advanced with the times in order to protect the integrity (and thus value) of the money that is printed. Money related technology continues to advance. You can't stop technology!

Today, very few people actually go with money in their pockets or wallets. Paper money has been replaced with a little piece of plastic – the credit card – very easy to carry around and too easy to use. Our money is in the bank and we pay against the money that we (or our employer) deposited and the credit line that we managed to build. Money has become a virtual concept – no one sees it or touches it – even the banks keep limited amounts at hand.

We buy food and clothing with the credit card. We pay our bills with the credit card. We even take loans from the credit card.

What fun! How easy!

Really?

It seems to me that our financial problems stem exactly from today's virtual nature of money.

In those days long gone when we were paid in cash – coins or printed tender, we knew exactly how much money we had and we could only spend what we had. No more money, no more purchases.

What happens today? Most people are not really aware of how much money they spend because no accounting really needs to be made. All payments can be made with a credit cards! Can we really know how much we spend in the day? A week? A month? A year?

And then, unexpectedly, the credit card doesn't work. The computer did not authorize the purchase. We passed our limit. We didn't pay attention. But even though our money is virtual, it still has a limit.

So what do we do? We whip out another credit cards from our pocket or run to the bank begging for more credit!

How do we get out of this virtual money trap?

Neomi