# Chapter 219

Money is an expression of value, not values. Masterminds.

While yesterday we dealt with the very abstract idea that time is more valuable than money, money is far more concrete and so we will deal with that for the next few days. I think it ironic that while time is far more important and irreplaceable than money, we are going to talk about money more because, well we are a lot more involved emotionally with money than anything else.

Money has an agreed upon value of exchange, a medium where we pay $4 for a gallon of gasoline, or give $3 for a loaf of bread. It is a means of payment for goods or services. It represents an idea of value, that this piece of paper or these coins, represents this much value and that you can exchange it for these goods or services. In the modern world the value is only an idea, it is not backed up by gold or some other commodity as it was in the past.

But money is not an expression of our values. It is not one of the principles we live by. It is not the most important thing to us - that would be our excellence, quality, effort, family, relationships, and generosity. These are our values. Money gives us stuff to exchange for other stuff, but it cannot give us love or care or produce skills and qualities of character and generosity. Don’t get confused about this or you may start loving stuff instead of people.