by Valéria Meirelles

 How do you deal with money? – click here and reflect, but so deep

Money. A very interesting issue, but ambivalent. So, my intention here is “prepare your mind” to next themes. And I would like to invite you reflect about money in your life. After all, everybody knows and lives its importance.

Money is inseparable from day by day and is each more time present as function of technological development, communication´s advances and of course, of worldwide economy.

According to the English psychologists Lea, Tarpy and Webley, 1987, “We spent great part of our lives engaged with economic behaviors. We work, buy, save, give and so on”, wrapped in an economic world which determines our actions and that is also determined by them.

Therefore, be it on our day by day, in small shopping for the home, in services which we could or not afford to get comfort and life quality, in property we rent or buy to live in, money is part of our routine – independently on the social class – and it determines the material, psychological, affective, familiar, educational and personal health conditions.

The Master and PhD Vera Rita de Mello Ferreira, reference in Economic Psychology in Brazil, offers various money definitions.

“Stock value, accountability unit, in advance payment pattern and it has multiple symbolic dimensions, as: our self extension, power, talent, ability, beauty, health, intelligence and it offers that possibility for people to feel always special (…) Money has lots of uses such as: spending, saving, investing, giving, lending, inheriting and still affects directly people, their identity, self- steem, feelings of being in control and dependency, safety, feelings of being in debt and in men, the sexual potency”.

“In the capitalists´ societies, money is associated with safe, success, freedom, independency, smartness, bless of God, status, merit, well being, social comparison”

According to the anthropologist John Weatherford: “Since the beginning of the world´s history, money has created new institutions and ways of life, while eroded and replaced the last systems. Each technological and social change in money feature expanded even more its role in our lives. Throughout the centuries, money became a determinative variable not merely of the trade relations but more and more of about all kinds of religious, politics, sexual and familiar relationships”.

Besides all the definitions and functions above, Money is a symbol and as such, each person gives it their own meaning, usually interlaced with needs and values.

That way, it can also be a substitute, as I usually observe here in my Office, when many times Money occupied the place of any person or representative situation, being that by the absence of care, by loss, by temporary absence, by the presence or even as a reward for a conquest, among other situations.

The problem is that a substitute almost never satisfies the real need and it generates troubles. In the most cases, there will be financial imbalances that will cause problems in family´s relations, couples, affective relations, professional, social and of course, in the people´s emotional health.

So, when we act in all kinds of relations and to many reasons, we can observe the ambivalence, the multiple ways and meanings of money that will depend on its user.

People act too many times in the ‘automatic’ that are unable to perceive their mistakes and irrationalities when they manage money!

I want to encourage you to get out of this situation and reflect:

Ask yourself:

1) What and Who means Money in my life?

2) What are my attitudes towards Money?

3) Which models did I receive from my parents and my extended family about money? Do they help me or need to be revised?

4) In which way my economic behavior helps or makes it difficult to accomplish my goals/ dreams?

Before you answer, I will give you a suggestion: don´t only keep your first answers which come to your mind. Take a deeper look in your history and rescue any memory about money. It might be revealing!

According to your answers, you could get a better comprehension about some “how´s” and “for what” from your financial styles and money pathologies, which will be the themes for our next articles.
See you!

REFERENCES

FERREIRA, V.R.M (2008) Psicologia Econômica: Estudo do comportamento econômico e da tomada de decisão. Rio de Janeiro: Elsevier.
FURNHAM, A; ARGYLE, M (2007) The Psychology of Money. 3rd Reprinted. New York: Routledge.
LEA, S.E.G; TARPY, R.M; WEBLEY, P (1987) The individual in the Economy. London: Cambridge University Press.
MOREIRA, A (2000) Valores e dinheiros: um estudo transcultural das relações entre prioridades de valores e significado do dinheiro para indivíduos. Tese de Doutorado, Universidade de Brasília.
OSÓRIO, LC; VALLE, M.E.P (org) (2009) Manual de Terapia Familiar. Porto Alegre: Artmed
SIMMEL, G (2007) The Philosophy of Money. London and New York: Routledge
WEATHERFORD, J (2005) A História do Dinheiro. Rio de Janeiro: Elsevier