“Everybody wants money. That’s why they call it money!” – David Mamet
At Budgetbakers, we obviously spend a lot of time thinking about personal finance and money. Sometimes it’s good to take a few minutes and reflect on why that topic is so important to us. It’s different for everyone, but then again, for everyone it’s often very much the same. Money is great, terrible, fun, painful, exciting, boring. Money is a proxy for everything, it means everything to us, and it also has no real meaning at all. It’s a crazy basket of contradictions. In that spirit, here are 24 times sayings about money, and why we sort of love every one of them.
“Money often costs too much.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Why We Love It: While it’s often attributed to Emerson, there is not a lot of great evidence that he actually ever said it. It’s one of those things that sounds like something the author of Self-Reliance would have said. Still, we love it because it makes a crucial point about the nature of money and wealth: that they are not in fact the same thing. While money is useful, and we do like having it, understanding its cost in a social or historical context is always important. Our mission at Budgetbakers is to help you lead a richer life. But we’ve always maintained that a richer life isn’t just about money. It’s about a life that is filled with joy and fulfillment; the kinds of things money only helps us achieve.
“I love money. I love everything about it. I bought some pretty good stuff. Got me a $300 pair of socks. Got a fur sink. An electric dog polisher. A gasoline powered turtleneck sweater. And, of course, I bought some dumb stuff, too.” – Steve Martin
Why We Love It: Many of our younger users won’t know much about Steve Martin, the virtuoso musical comedian who was among the most successful late night comics in American tv history. Check him out! It’s good to enjoy your money, and it’s important to remember that ultimately, everything we think of as “worth something” is probably strange to someone else. Perspective is always good.
“The greatest use of a life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.” – William James
Why We Love It: While not strictly about money, it is about value. The legendary psychologist and philosopher William James spent his career attempting to create institutions and schools of thought in higher education, so that future generations of doctors and others could improve the world they inherited. We think that’s pretty great. Leading a rich life isn’t just about being rich. It’s about doing something with your life that transcends the here and now.
“Never spend your money before you have earned it.” – Thomas Jefferson
Why We Love It: To be honest, part of the attraction here is the irony of the source. An American founding father and 3rd US President, Jefferson was famously terrible with money. He died with at least $100,000 in debt… the equivalent of about $3.5m today, much of it spent on expensive wine and a generally lavish lifestyle. Jefferson started an American tradition not just of democracy, but also of public indebtedness that has never really gone away. The American government now routinely spends money that future generations are intended to repay. So if you’re ever feeling guilty about carrying a credit card balance, at least try and remember that you’re not alone.
“Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like.” – Will Rogers
Why We Love It: The term “lifestyle inflation” gets less attention than it deserves. It’s the idea that after a certain point, financial success isn’t about making yourself happier or even wealthier – it’s just about keeping up the habit of spending money. It’s always a good idea, particularly at the end of the year, to sit down and really ask yourself whether you need all the things you have, or if you’ll always want all the things you plan to get. Keeping up appearances is often the enemy of sound financial reasoning.
“The easiest way to double your money is to fold it over and put it in your pocket.” – Kin Hubbard
Why We Love It: This quote is a great reminder that sometimes, the best investment is not spending at all. The power to not spend every penny you have is under-appreciated.
“If you can afford to buy, you can afford to rent.” – My Dad
Why We Love It: This one comes from closer to home. It’s something my dad used to tell me when I’d ask why, on the way home from summer vacations in the Sierra Nevada, our family didn’t own a lake boat or jet skis. His logic was pretty sound: if you’re rich enough to invest in a set of jet skis, then you might as well save yourself the incredible headache of hauling them back and forth to the lake every summer, paying for repairs, insurance, and the hundred other things that inevitably come along with such expensive toys. If you have the money to buy jet skis, you should still probably just rent them. Sometimes in the effort to “save” money, we spend it on foolish things we never really need.
“Save money, and money will save you.” – Jamaican Proverb
Why We Love It: A beautiful, simple explanation of the power of an emergency fund. Saving is an act of self-care and building a safety net against the unexpected.
“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it… he who doesn’t… pays it.” – Albert Einstein
Why We Love It at Budgetbakers: It’s often underappreciated how much compound interest can contribute to your wealth. The more interest compounds, the better it gets. For example, suppose you inherited $50,000 at the age of 35. If you put this money into a bank account that pays 2% interest a year, by the time you retired at 65, it would be worth just $91,060. But if you invested it in a moderately risky growth fund instead, earning an average of about 8%, that same $50,000 would be worth nearly $550,000 by the time you were 65. If you managed to wait just 5 more years, that same $550,000 would be worth over $800,000! No matter where and when you start, compound interest just gets better and better.
“The quickest way to know a woman is to go shopping with her.” – Marcelene Cox
Why We Love It: Our financial habits are deeply revealing of our character, which is why tracking them is the first step to financial health. Understanding how people spend and think about money is a great to figure out if you’re compatible with them, either romantically, or as friends or business partners.
“Nobody Wants to Get Rich Slowly” – Warren Buffet
Why We Love It at Budgetbakers: The legendary investment guru Warren Buffett has often said that the key to success in finance is patience. When asked why others can’t seem to replicate his uniquely long and successful career as investor, he highlights that the greatest enemy of wealth is haste. Take your time. Do what you can. Don’t give up. If you manage patience, you can achieve financial independence.
“Don’t tell me where your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I’ll tell you.” – James W. Frick
Why We Love It: Talk is cheap. But what people really do, particularly when no one is looking, defines who they really are and what they really want. Are you the kind of person who sits down on a weekly or monthly basis to hammer out your priorities? Do you track your spending every day? Do you create budgets? If you do, then success, no matter your means, is always within reach. If you don’t, then it may not be, no matter how much you say you want it.
“Money can’t buy happiness, but it will let you be miserable in a much more comfortable way.” – Spike Milligan
Why We Love It at Budgetbakers: Sad, maybe. But still true! While money doesn’t solve everything, financial stability reduces a major source of stress, allowing you to focus on well-being.
“It’s expensive to be poor” – Folk saying
Why We Love It at Budgetbakers: In our line of work, we have a unique level of insight into the spending habits of all kinds of people. In our experience, the above quote is painfully true. Think about it: money not only allows you to buy nice things, it also allows you to make the best types of purchases and choices: choices that emphasize efficiency, durability, and sustainability. If you’re poor, you may have to make do with what’s available, and that might include having to buy the same items repeatedly, or having to pay late fees and interest on small debts, just because you can’t afford to pay all at once. It really is expensive to be poor.
“Debt is the worst poverty.” – Thomas Fuller
Why We Love It: Debt limits your choices and your future. Can you quit your job tomorrow, or go back to school? Can you afford an emergency? This is why we prioritize tools and strategies for users to conquer debt quickly and efficiently at Budgetbakers. Saving money for the future, or forgoing spending now in order to live a richer life tomorrow feels entirely different from giving up your hard earned money to pay interest on something you’ve already bought. Debt may be a great tool for the independently wealthy– in fact we can hardly live without it in today’s world –but it’s an albatross around the necks of the many people who can’t afford it.
“The chief value of money lies in the fact that one lives in a world in which it is overestimated.” – H.L. Mencken
Why We Love It at Budgetbakers: Money is a tool. At most a proxy for real world value and worth. But we absolutely live in a society where money is taken as the end-all-be-all of existence, and where having money is considered the pinnacle of achievement and professional credibility. Just look at a newspaper these days, and notice how much of the news is driven by the opinions of the super-wealthy, who often express strange opinions that don’t seem very connected with what’s happening in the real world. This is because of money’s extreme power to distort our reality when our society is so fixated on it. This quote is a reminder that while money is important, it is partly important because it is a shorthand for real world value. We should never forget that money only represents things we want. It is not in itself a good enough reason to exist, work, create, or live.
“Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that.” – Norman Vincent Peale
Why We Love It: This is about mindset over circumstances. Financial success starts with education and a positive, persistent attitude, which is more valuable than any starting capital. It’s true that inherited wealth and connections are one of the greatest determinants of future success, and that is a testament to the unfairness of the modern world. But a positive attitude, hard work, and persistence rarely fail to add up to success.
“No one who can rise before dawn 360 days a year fails to make his family rich.” – Chinese Proverb
Why We Love It: Another quote on the power of hard work and persistence. The truth is that no matter who you are or how hard your starting circumstances are, hard work tends to pay off. There is a phenomenon in statistics called “regression to the mean.” That is, over time, the once lucky tend to become unlucky, the unlucky get some luck. The only thing we can really control over the long term is how we apply our own energy and focus on our own problems. If we apply ourselves in a dedicated way over a long period, we can’t help but experience some good fortune.
“If money is your hope for independence, you will never have it. The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.” – Henry Ford
Why We Love It at Budgetbakers: It has become quote popular in our unstable world to imagine that wealth and power will save you from the consequences of the present in the future. But luxury survival bunkers, crypto-currencies, and stockpiles of food and weapons– in short the kind of wealth that people imagine is key to their independence and surviva l–are just things that can be taken away from us by someone who wants them more than we do. Those things that can’t be taken away: our experiences, our knowledge, and our good acts and kindnesses, are the things that have a truly enduring value.
“Wealth is not about having a lot of money; it’s about having a lot of options.” – Chris Rock
Why We Love It: We love this modern definition of wealth. Financial health isn’t about luxury; it’s about optionality—the ability to change jobs, take a break, or afford a medical emergency without stress. When people imagine financial independence, it’s surprising to discover that they seldom spend a great deal of time thinking about all the things they’d like to own and pay for. Rather, wealth is about the freedom to make our own choices, and most importantly, to refuse to do the things we don’t want to do. There is nothing more demoralizing in life than having no choice.
“Do not save what is left after spending, but spend what is left after saving.” – Warren Buffett
Why We Love It at Budgetbakers: In this post we’ve talked a lot about perspective and attitude. “Pay Yourself First,” is the cornerstone attitude of effective personal finance. It’s a simple shift in timing that makes a massive difference in outcome. Your most important expense in life is your savings. After that, anything you have left is what you should be spending on everything else. Lifestyle inflation thrives on the mistake of spending everything you have, or of spending more as you earn more. Breaking that habit frees you to really appreciate the value of your own money.
“Money talks, but all it ever says is ‘Goodbye.’” – Anonymous
Why We Love It at Budgetbakers: A hilarious and relatable observation. It highlights how fleeting money can be if you don’t keep track of it, which is the exact problem our tools exist to solve.
“If you think nobody cares if you’re alive, try missing a couple of car payments.” – Earl Wilson
Why We Love It at Budgetbakers: This quote underscores a crucial point: the unforgiving nature of financial obligations. At Budgetbakers, we help users set reminders and track due dates to keep creditors from calling. There’s nothing worse than feeling under siege because of a late payment.
“Know what you own, and know why you own it.” – Peter Lynch
- Why We Love It: This applies perfectly to both investing and budgeting. Every dollar and every asset should have a purpose. At Budgetbakers, we believe that understanding the purpose of your own money is the first key to gaining control over your finances, and over the rest of your life. It starts by understanding what you own, and why you own it.
