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Respect Your Cash

I am constantly reading, thinking and talking about money.  I talk about it with whoever wants to listen and, occasionally, with those who seek my advice.  People know that I have been a diligent college saver for many years, that I have Paid Ourselves First for the past several years, paid our credit cards off nearly every month for the past ten years or so and, generally, dispense wise counsel.

I also write about it, but only my immediate family knows that I write this blog. 

Of course, you can read people’s posts or Tweets or articles about money and listen to podcasts and watch videos from the time you wake up until the time you go to sleep every day of the year and you will still just barely scratch the surface of what's out there.

Many of these posts say the exact same thing, but in different words and I am Guilty As Charged of this too.

One of the many who I occasionally follow is Randy Gage.  When I write occasionally, I mean that I have listened to about five of his podcasts this past year, but I did like them and intend on listening to more.


When I saw that Episode 45 is titled “The Energy of Money,” it piqued my interest to say the least.  

With a mountain of bills and expenses that I struggle to keep up with, I have started to view money as a source of energy whose current flows from one point to another to another.

I view the energy that I expend during the week in an ongoing effort to build up the economy of the town where I work as a means of exchange for the energy of others, be it in exchange with auto manufacturers, music teachers, farmers and grocers, clothing manufacturers and even the energy-producing utilities.

Instead of lamenting that this August will see twelve grand or more leave our account while perhaps nine or ten enters it, I am going to think of it as us using 12 kW while we only generated ten. 

Gage says that everything at its ultimate level is energy.

This guy doesn’t believe in bullshit positive thinking.  He says that it is just science and real-world physics.

Energy can be attractive or repelling, and Gage says that, as energy, how you think and feel about money can determine whether you attract or repel it.

The next part of this podcast is what struck me.

He urges you to think about how the money is organized in your wallet, purse or personal space.
Are dollar bills crumpled up at the bottom of your purse or jacket pockets?  Do you have piles of currency and coins lying around all over the place?

I know several people who do this, and it drives me nuts.

You can walk into this one person’s home and there are unpaid bills, stacks of twenties in bank envelopes and piles of coins all over the place.  This person does not keep track of his or her retirement investments, bank statements, utility bills, credit card statements or anything in an orderly fashion.

When the bill marked “final notice” shows up, this person may open the bill and pay his or her electric bill or credit card balance, both with hefty late fees.

Gage said that if you look in your wallet or purse and your currency is lined up by denomination and facing the same way, then that shows your respect for money.  In this case, cash, since some of the wealthiest people that I know do not carry very much cash on them. 

This is me.

I stopped the podcast to take the following photo of what turned out to be $96 in my wallet.  The bills were organized, as I always have them, face up with the faces all in the same direction.  The dead Presidents’ faces on the two twenties, two tens, four fivers and sixteen singles were all lined up as Gage described them.


I have done this since I was a kid and have never heard it mentioned except for twice, and both times in a mocking fashion directed towards me.

I have a friend who could withdraw twenty hundred-dollar bills from the local branch of his bank without giving it much thought, and could spend it giving even less thought.  He makes a good living and both his income and expenses are far higher than ours are.

Using him as an example, if he purchased a lunch for his family for fifty-seven dollars and twenty-nine cents, he would take the resulting forty-two dollars and change and put it in his pocket or perhaps in the center console in his car.

He is better at attracting money than I am, but seemingly does not respect it as much as I do.

Gage concludes this podcast by giving a homework assignment for the listener to think about how you handle money.  There is a plug for his book, Why You’re Dumb Sick and Broke and How to Get Smart Healthy and Rich.

He says that if you believe that rich people are evil and must have become that way by exploiting others, that your attitude will repel money rather than attract it.

I can tell you here that I never have or will think that thought.  I know too many wealthy individuals who are very good people.  They may not work for charitable organizations or be social workers whose professional mission is to help others, but they are good people from head to toe and always will be.  They are mostly hard-working diligent savers and people who put their knowledge to work rather than hard labor.  They work smarter, not harder.

Everything, including money, is energy.  We can attract or repel it and we can respect it or disrespect it.

When it comes to my cash, I have nothing but the utmost respect.

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