The first order of business is to give money the profound respect it deserves. That means understanding it. I suggest the following are elemental tenets of modern money:
1. Money is the most powerful and pervasive secular force on the planet.
2. Money skills are 21st century survival skills. It is impossible to function in 21st century America without some basic financial skills, even if they are only the skills of begging or working the various subsidy systems.
3. Money skills do not come naturally to human beings. We eat, drink, sleep and process without thought. Not so with money.
4. Money is humanity’s primary vehicle of mutual relationships and self-organization. It enables humans to arrange necessary functions, to work together freely and productively and to face each other (mostly) nonviolently.
5. The support of 7 billion people would be impossible without money. Imagine the world functioning without money.
6. Everybody is weird about money. Since money is spent by individuals—i.e., someone approves the checks—individual weirdness translates into social and political weirdness.
7. In free countries, the default policy must be for individuals to accept the possibilities and responsibilities of self-care. This means they must address money in the contexts of their whole lives, not just the immediate, foreseeable future.
8. Compassion is appropriate for those not capable of meeting money’s demands. A significant portion of the population is quite literally incapable of earning its own living. Children, the elderly, the mentally and physically incapacitated, and the like cannot earn as the rest of the population might prefer. That said, however, “compassion” is a mutable concept with significant political implications.
9. Money requires healthy notions of wealth and wealth building. That said, the financial planning profession, together with individuals and society at large, must come to understand that “money” does not equal wealth. “Wealth” is a state of being, sufficiency and mind. “Money” is just money.
10. Money’s nature with respect to individuals is not clearly understood. Macroeconomists generally describe money as having three essential social functions. There are no equivalents for individuals at this juncture. That’s our job.
11. There is nothing more intimate than money. Money reflects one’s authentic values with clarity and accuracy.
12. Money mutates constantly and dramatically. The money that we have today, fiat money, bears little resemblance to the money of ancient times—or even Depression-era money.
13. Intelligent money management requires future-think—namely, knowing facts about the future that are inherently unknowable. No other advisory profession must take this unknown and unknowable future into account as extensively as financial planners.
14. Money is the lifeblood of the body social.
15. Money is an ultimate form of sharing. The phrase “my money” is an oxymoron. Money requires contexts of reciprocity and exchange.
16. Money is value-rich, not value-neutral. “Where your treasure is, your heart shall also be.”
17. It is not in the nature of money to ever be “enough.” Enough said.
18. It is not in the nature of money to ever provide reliable security for individuals or social units. Likewise.
19. Money is key to the most important decisions of an individual’s life. Indeed.
20. Money is generally a peaceful means of human interaction. This is a profound concept.
21. Money is humanity’s most profound creation. Used appropriately, it garners unused energies to address unmet needs. It unlocks human wealth-building capacities unlike any other force.
