April is the official National Financial Literacy Month. One money-managing attitude that has really helped me over the years is this: Money is money is money. It all spends the same. To help you embrace this attitude, do what I did and remove these terms from your financial vocabulary list. It really helped me clarify the concept.
Mad Money | Fun Money | Extra Money | Found Money | Bonus Money | Tax Refund Money
Money all spends the same. Or saves the same. Whatever your financial goals, your aim should be the same: spend less, save more. By keeping your expenses at the same level, even when your income increases, you’ll find yourself achieving your financial goals, sooner.
Did I miss any money terms? What terms does your money managing vocabulary include?
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I like that. It all spends the same.
A couple other “types” of money I’ve heard about:
“Spending money” I don’t use this term myself, but I could picture it being used to describe money given to a child going on a field trip or out to the movies. That money, I’m assuming, is never seen again. I guess this designator could be useful if it is a small subset of the overall money pool and the rest is the “saving money”.
“Walking Around Money” My husband likes to use this term to describe why we need to pull $40 out of the ATM. We use credit cards for everything (for the frequent flier miles – and then pay them off each month), but once in a while you want something that costs $1 or is from a place where credit cards aren’t accepted. I can keep a $20 bill in my wallet for months without needing it, so I tend to think of this as “emergency money”. When I was a child, my mom kept a “hidden 20″ in some obscure pocket in her wallet for that reason.
In my house, we have “garage sale money”. At the start of the Summer we (our whole cul-de-sac) has a garage sale. Profits go into a separate purse to spend for the rest of the year at other garage sales. Last year I didn’t get out to shop much, so this year I have a $30 carryover. That will be my “starting change” for this year’s garage sale.
Liana! Love it! I can’t believe I left out the term “walking around money” because my husband says that, too. Maybe our husbands are somehow related? Thanks for your comment.
Birthday money!
My birthday is next week (:
Happy Birthday, Michelle! I hope you’re turning it into a birthday week celebration.
My favorite money word is scrounged as in, “I scrounged the planter in my front yard from someone’s trash pile.” I LOVE making something useful and “new” out of discarded items, whether they be from my own packrat stash, from a thrift store, a garage sale, or from — that’s right — someone else’s trash. It doesn’t always work out, but worst case, stuff just ends up in my trash pile the next week. But I love it when I can make it happen.
Hi Kellie! I love making useful things out of discarded items also! These days, I need to stop scrounging myself and turn that trash into treasure – I have a back log in my “studio” otherwise known as the basement! Thanks for the comment.
Hi Sara, I just came over here from Today’s Creative Blog, and wanted to say how much I’ve enjoyed looking around your site. And I love the point about thinking about all money the same…it’s so tempting to waste the money once you’ve rationalized the need to spend it.
Hi Karen,
Thanks for leaving a comment and I completely agree with you. I love your site, too, by the way.