The Value of Money
What's a dollar worth?
What’s worth more - a $20 bill or a £20 note? Why? A pound is worth more than a dollar because people think it is. Here’s the funny thing - a dollar itself isn’t intrinsically worth anything. People attribute to dollars because they believe the government will do certain things to back it, but since 1971 you haven’t been able to exchange a US dollar for gold.
Even gold and other precious metals are only worth what people value it to be. For a brief period, in 2003, I had the ability to influence the price of platinum. On my first day on the job at the domestic finance desk at General Motors Treasurer’s office in NYC, I was told, “whatever you do, don’t call around and ask for too many prices or the price will go up”. I could move the platinum market. Why? At the time, as the largest car manufacturing the world, GM bought the most platinum in the world (the most expensive input to a car as part of the catalytic converter). Because I was buying platinum on behalf of GM, my actions were viewed as singlehandedly signalling demand. That day provided a first-hand lesson in the power of a few small but key players influence prices in markets. Now when I look at money and investments and prices, I see it as an energy exchange. Money is energy, money is worth whatever you think it is.
What is your relationship to money?
As you can see from this story, I’ve spent a lot of time around money in my over 20-year career in investment banking. However, I haven’t always had a healthy relationship around money. Instead, I hoarded it. I lived in a 250-square-foot studio apartment in Manhattan for years because it was cheap when I had the means to live in a much nicer place. On the other hand, I have friends and colleagues who grew up believing that money was bad, or that they didn’t deserve success, who often blew their money and lived pay check to pay check, even in high paying jobs. Both approaches restrict the flow of energy. Whether you are thinking about people or companies, the goal isn’t to hoard your resources or toss them away out of fear of having them taken away. Instead, you want to use those resources to create new things and opportunities, build additional value, and expand your options. I love the Abraham Hicks quote: “You cannot get sick enough to help sick people get better. You cannot get poor enough to help poor people thrive.It is only in your thriving that you have anything to offer anyone.”
“You cannot get sick enough to help sick people get better. You cannot get poor enough to help poor people thrive. It is only in your thriving that you have anything to offer anyone.”
How can you change your relationship to money?
In order to develop a healthy and balanced energy with money, you have to undo your limiting beliefs around money that hold you back. You have to believe it’s good, you deserve it and you should have it in order to see you bank balance grow.