Yesterday's legacy question was:  As you've grown older, how has your attitude about money changed?

I've never been as concerned about money as many people I've observed.  That's both a blessing and a curse. A focus on money rarely obscured my vision of other values, but I've sometimes lost sight of financial stewardship entirely.  Okay, sometimes might be kidding myself-- maybe I've ignored finances quite a bit.

When I was younger, I had a fatalistic attitude about money.  When I needed it, it came.  When it didn't come, I found I didn't really need it.  Some would say that was the law of attraction at work.  But in a way that was letting money control me rather than my controlling money and my opportunities for money.  

I also came to recognize that somewhere in my upraising I had come to believe that accumulating wealth was immoral.  I absorbed a belief that the wealthy were different from everyone else.  And different meant worse.  I know I'm not alone, as our culture values people who are "salt of the earth" and "just plain folk."  We speak of "dirty money" and "love of money as the root of all evil."  Having too much money makes many assume that you value money above everything else.

At some point I realized that I was working so hard to show that money didn't matter that I was letting money matter.  For someone who said money didn't matter, I was spending a lot of time and energy on disdaining money.  When it comes to money, neither end of the love/hate spectrum is a healthy place to be. 

I also learned that money has value not just in how it's used to acquire goods and security, but in showing appreciation and value.  As an attorney, I don't have anything tangible to offer in my work.  Yet sometimes people don't put a value on it if you can't touch it.  Some people who would never dream of taking a candy bar from the store without paying for it take pride in not paying for legal advice.  I had to learn that insisting on receiving money for my services was really just asserting that my knowledge has worth. 

Note I said money is about showing that my knowledge has worth, not that I have worth.  I have trouble communicating with people who complain that they aren't receiving enough payment for their services because "I'm worth more than that."  I want to respond, "You as a person are worth more than money, but your services are worth what the market will pay for them."  The typewriter manufacturer's worth as a person doesn't diminish as the value of his product falls to the use of computers and cell phones.

So, now in my life's journey I put more value on money as a tool to accomplish other goals and as a means of showing appreciation and value.  I save more and borrow less because I no longer believe that money will just appear when it is needed.   I'm trying to show my children that having more money doesn't make you a better person, but the opposite isn't true either.  Having less money doesn't make you more worthy or moral than a wealthy person. 

I suspect my attitudes about money will continue to evolve.  After all, I think the evolution of attitudes is what leads to wisdom. 

For you, what wisdom about money have you acquired as your attitude has evolved?