What is Your Money Relationship?

I read a great article in my local newspaper several years back.  It's message was so revelant that I cut it out.  The other day, I came across it, pinned inside a notebook.  Again, I loved its message and wanted to share a few of the points.  It is written by a woman named Nancy Goodman and it's called "Changing our Relationship with Money".  Here is some of what she had to say . . .

"Depending on the day, the economy is up, it's down, it's stable, it's a house of cards.  Money is a great source of stress, but does it need to be?  I wonder what would happen if the economy just face-planted and didn't get up.  What would happen to us regular folks? 
We would suffer.  We'd lose jobs, homes, retirements.  And lots of stuff, probably.  Fancy cell phones, digital cable packages, video games, plasma TV's.  But then what?  Might we slowly find true joy and spiritual perspective again?" 

I added emphasis to the word "stuff" because that's just what it is-stuff.  When Dave and I went through our own financial "depression", we learned to live on a lot less.  We learned to look at what we were spending our money on and evaluate whether it was necessary or not.  We eliminated the wants and focused only on our needs.  It was amazing to see where our money had been going.  I really feel that our financial challenges have "schooled us intensely in financial and spiritual matters."  I will forever view and use money differently because of what we have been through. 

So back to this article..  She goes on to say:
"One problem of the human condition is that we are way too easily manipulated.  We are manipulated to spend more than we have.  We are manipulated to crave things that are bad for us.  We are manipulated to believe that our family, friends and kids will hate us if we don't have hundreds of gifts under a Christmas tree.  The government and Big Retail hope you spend every last dime you have, and hundreds or thousands of dollars you don't have, during the next several months.  Never mind your house payment, never mind the instability of your job.  You still won't see a single ad that says 'save your money this holiday season, your kids will still be socially adjusted without the newest video game console.'"

Isn't that SO good!?  There is a lot in there.  And I especially think that the reminder that Christmas does not have to be a million presents to be memorable is pertinent.  Besides, none of that stuff matters anyway.