by Deb Longley

Created on: April 18, 2008

A couple of weeks ago I ordered a chocolate malt. It was a medium. I think the regular price was about two bucks. But I asked for extra malt, because in my opinion, one of the worst things that can happen in an ice cream shop is when they don't give you enough malt in your malt. I mean, what's the point? If you didn't want to taste the malt, you would have ordered a shake. And I didn't want a shake, I wanted a malt. So I always order extra, just to make sure I get the maximum level of enjoyment from the experience. In this case, it cost me an extra 30 cents.

My friend who was with me at the time is, well, let's just say she isn't struggling financially. In fact, she is very comfortable. She said she would not have spent the extra 30 cents. She felt they should have given it to me for nothing in order to build customer loyalty, or something like that.

It was reasonable, what she said. I didn't really argue. In fact, as a business person myself, I would have given it away for exactly that reason. But then when it comes right down to it, we are only talking about 30 cents. It was more important to me to get the extra malt, thereby insuring absolute enjoyment of my purchase, than to keep the 30 cents rattling around in my pocket and take the chance that the 10th-grader running the milkshake machine would short-scoop me and I would sip my unmalty malt in resentment and eventually die a bitter old woman.

But anyway, all that got me to thinking about money. So, as much as I can appreciate my friend's point of view, I don't agree with her. In fact, I disagree with her fundamentally. What I mean is, I couldn't disagree with her more. I realize that sounds a little extreme, but I'm not done yet. Here it comes.

What if the people who understand the most about money aren't the ones who have lots of it? What if it turns out the people who really get it about money are the ones who don't have much of it-or maybe don't have any?

"Money burns a hole in her pocket" my mother used to tell my father about me. My father, a banker for forty years, and conservative with his own money, never seemed too concerned. He understands about money. He, just like his not-so-conservative daughter, will always spend the extra 30 cents. Because spending it is the whole point. Money is supposed to flow. Not all of it, of course. But most of it.

Money has no intrinsic value, unless it is a rare coin or made of a precious metal. The value associated with money has to do with getting the things we need

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