I'm rich, I'm rich!

I recently went to a family get-together where I was hanging out with one of my younger cousins. She is 7 and actually one of the smartest children I know, but she surprised me that day. I told her I would give her a dollar if she could do some sort of trick. She did her trick and I willingly gave her that dollar bill. Right after I handed it to her, she sprinted up my basement stairs, through my kitchen, out my back door and to my aunt. I found her screaming at the top of her lungs repeating, “I’m rich, I’m rich!”

Naturally, I let out a giggle. The smartest 7yr old I’d ever met thought she was rich because she had one dollar in her hand. I dollar doesn’t even buy you things at the dollar store anymore, but she didn’t know that. My aunt made her give the dollar back to me and she was crushed. But it was just a dollar, right?

I don’t really think about money much; national economic problems, yes, but my own money ordeals, no. I frequently ask friends to go out for coffee or ice-cream, and roughly spend $5 at each place. But those little expenditures add up, and before I know it, my allowance for the month is gone in the first two weeks.

I was giggling at the idea of a dollar meaning the world to my little cousin, but maybe she hasn’t lost her genius status just yet. A dollar, to most teenagers and adults, means nothing. But is this the right way of looking at a dollar? It’s like saying that a nickel means nothing, yet I’m one of the biggest advocates of saving change. Because before you know it, all your change is actually $35. So why haven’t I, or many others, put that perspective on a dollar which is worth way more than a nickel? If I wasn’t so willing to buy that cheap chocolate bar every day, I could have a few new shirts instead of wearing old t-shirts.

Children are lucky because everything is bigger, stronger, and not tainted by society. That dollar bill was worth that same to me as it was to her, but she respected its value. The more conscious we are, like children, the more we can save. And soon, I might be screaming “I’m rich, I’m rich!”