Why do we work?
To utilize our talents? For health insurance? Because we’d be lousy hunter-gatherers?
Surely some of the reason we work is that we get paid for it. We work to put food on the table, to pay for OpenTable. So we can live indoors. But you, reader, why do you make money?
What lights you up?
Me, I rediscovered tennis this past year and have been feverishly putting money aside for weekly court rentals with Antoine, my somewhat-fatherly hitting partner. I also set money aside each month for non-splashy things like my 401k and paying for my kids’ future college tuition (in case I
can’t photoshop them onto the water polo team).
Someday I will probably get weary of having to divert tennis money far into the future, but for now, it makes me feel euphoric. I spent well over a decade dealing with serious health challenges and struggling to earn money. Retirement, college for my kids, a home with a washer, dryer, and dishwasher seemed an ocean away. (Definitely being melodramatic about the dishwasher.)
Sometimes it can feel like all your money is spoken for, reserved for “non-negotiables” like mortgage, rent, and food. Still, it’s good to ask the question anyway: why do I make money?
This simple question helps us remember that even in the regularity of our lives, there is wonder. Maybe we earn money for ourselves—enough to cover the rent for a tiny Brooklyn apartment with a skylight that lets snow into the kitchen during a blizzard. Maybe our money goes to others—a new water bottle for a six-year-old to sip on the rug at school (and which looks enormous in her hands).
Or maybe it’s for joys you’ve yet to discover. 🌄 If you don't exactly love how you spend right now, that's ok. Bringing money and life goals together is a journey that this newsletter will keep plugging away at. But (!) if you want to keep receiving
Loose Change after January, you'll need to 👉
subscribe.
