I kinda hate it when people say "it's just money".

It's a deadly, weird expression. First of all, it's always people with money that say "it's just money, you can always make it back".

Yeah. This is especially true if you already have MORE money set aside and you don't need to worry about what's gonna happen between NOW and the moment "you make it back".

Second, and this is a recurring theme with me, there's nothing on God's Green Earth I hate more than when people act like they live in a world that doesn't exist. Naivety isn't a crime, but it probably should be.

In the perfect world, everybody's happy and nobody needs anything and money is irrelevant. But in the world we live in, money is important.

To act like it isn't just because you wish it was that way isn't particularly useful. Or clever.

Money is what I needed to buy the tea I'm currently drinking and the food I'll be eating in about 10 minutes. Money is, unfortunately, what I'm gonna need to fix my teeth after the accident I had about three months ago.

Money is what bought the clothes I'm wearing, which were pretty cheap, by the way.

So no, it's never "just money".

My mentor, ie the guy who helped me a lot when I decided I wanted to write for a living, once told me this: "every time you spend money, remember how hard you had to work to make the sum you're about to spend."

He's right. The average hourly salary in the US ranges between $26 and $30 per hour (that, by the way, is more than some people in some EU countries make in a day, just saying) so is that $25 cocktail you buy in NYC worth an hour of your life? It may be, that's a personal decision and I have no opinion either way.

I like cocktails, but I like craft beer even more. There's a pub I always go to where I live, and a pint is around $3-4. So with my current salary, that's maybe 20 minutes worth of work for me. Is that worth it? Yes. But others might think it isn't.

But it's food for thought, isn't it?