Woahh Money woe!!

I know a witty commentary about our Christmas spending woes, the world economy and the financial strains that affect us in January is what one would hope to read about in a December article concerning money.

I've always been taught to ‘write what you know' and so I think a self deprecating article about the modern money woes of the twenty-somethings should be discussed.

My own personal journey towards poverty has been going on for a few years now. Well, since I declared myself financially independent from my parents, and emigrated to the far side of the world. I've been away from home for over a year now, and I'm staring down the barrel of another Christmas away from home, with barely a bean to my name. There is not a more terrifying word in my dictionary right now than ‘rent'. Rent is due on Friday, and luckily for me I have gained (albeit) limited employment. The worst thing about starting a new job, however is waiting for your first pay-check. So, as I wait for my first pay-check, I pass the days eating pasta, and wishing I had a bigger limit on my credit card, but also thanking god that I don't.

It came as no surprise, upon reflection, how much I actually think about money. There is nothing more selfish than a man obsessed with the quest for money. It can do horrible things to you. Friendships have been broken, lives destroyed or ended because of money, and it becomes an awful lot easier to see ones true colours when money is concerned.

For instance, have you ever bought a lotto ticket with your friends? I mean, actually be the one who purchases the ticket? The reason I ask is because, if you have indeed bought a lottery ticket for your friends, you inevitably think of ‘what if?'

What if we won? How much fun it would be dividing up the massive amount of money, and fulfilling every hedonistic fantasy you have ever conjured up on a lonely Sunday night. These thoughts are fantastic to indulge, but they quickly give way to the more selfish desire inherent in most of us(well, in me anyway) to keep all the money to ourselves. ‘What if?' turns into 'what if I kept the money if we won?' Maybe I could tell the lads we didn't win, and keep it a secret from them. From here the fantastic lies build on one another, and you imagine a whole web of deceit, which would include dead distant relatives, who bequeath millions to you, out of the blue!

I maintain that if we were being honest with each other, every one of us, has entertained this little mind trip at least once. Be it with raffle tickets, at the bookies or any number of public games of chance.

Something that we are told to believe is that ‘money can't buy happiness.' Of course this is true because happiness is by its very nature is ephemeral, and it is our attempts at being in a ‘happy' state of mind constantly that leads to consumerism in 21st century society. This idea is enough to write several books on, and there have been many I'm sure (there is a lot of profit in self-help, and obtaining happiness you see).

I don't care though.

I know it's stupid, and that I am walking where the great Shepard of capitalism wants the sheep to roam. Is it wrong for me to include in my aspirations fast cars, houses all over the world, and women hanging out of me in clubs?? I know how asinine this makes me, but I do not care. Money may not make me happy, but you have to ask yourself, how many homeless people in the world are delighted with their current state of affairs?

All I ask for is the chance to prove that money can't make me happy.