Money Must Circulate

A third thing you should know about money is that it is valuable only as long as it is being used. Once it has been taken out of circulation, it becomes as worthless as the “old newspapers” or “empty beer cans” that have been stashed away in the attic. To understand the truth of this principle, consider the following story. On a bookshelf, in my home, I have a silver beer stein that was given to me as a gift for a speech I made.

Now, whenever I go into my house, I take all the change from my pockets and put it into the cup. Then, when the cup is almost filled, I give it to one of my children, or one of two young cousins. Each of them takes turns receiving the cup and of course they eagerly anticipate their turn. The point I want you to notice, however, is that while the cup is being filled, the money in it has absolutely no value whatsoever; it just sits there, serving no useful function and not even drawing any interest. However, as soon as the cup is filled and the money is turned over to one of the kids, it literally “flies into action.” For instance, just last week, T. Jay, one of my young cousins, received the money.

He immediately took it from my hand, rushed off to a golf school and purchased several golf lessons with his inheritance. Now, I can’t honestly say what the golf pro did with the money once he got it, but I do feel fairly safe in saying that he didn’t just return it to a cup on his book shelf! No, there really isn’t any dispute about it; money is not meant to be taken out of circulation—rather, it is meant to be used, enjoyed and circulated!

This brings me to an even more dramatic illustration of the same principle: namely, the story of “old Mr. Chapman.” Mr. Chapman was an elderly gentleman who lived a few doors down the street from our family when I was just a boy. Although there was a tremendous age difference between us, Mr. Chapman and I became fast friends and I often used to watch him pushing his small junk cart up and down the block. You see, Mr. Chapman worked as a junk dealer and he made his living by picking up the things other people had thrown away. As the years went by, however, Mr. Chapman became more and more stooped from his arduous labors and one day, shortly after World War II, he passed away. Since he lived alone and apparently had no close relatives living nearby, the police entered his house to take stock of his possessions. Not surprisingly, they found the house littered with many old furnishings and assorted memorabilia from Mr. Chapman’s past. However, much to their amazement, the police also discovered over one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) in old bills packed in boxes throughout the house! Quick to pick up on so unusual an occurrence, the Toronto Daily Star carried a front-page story the next day about Mr. Chapman, in which it asked the obvious question: why would an individual worth well over $100,000, choose to keep his money stashed away in old boxes strewn haphazardly throughout his house?

Although I was still quite young at the time, I asked myself a similar question: namely, why would a person like Mr. Chapman choose to live like a veritable pauper, when he had so much money at his disposal? He could have used his money for his own enjoyment. He could have invested it to earn a return for himself and to help create jobs for other people; or he could have just deposited it in the bank and earned interest on his money. But instead, he chose to put it in a “jar on the shelf,” and he thereby rendered it absolutely useless. No, my friends, there isn’t any doubt about it —money is not meant to be hoarded. Rather, it is meant to be used, enjoyed and circulated. So please, whatever you choose to do with your money, don’t make the same mistake that poor old Mr. Chapman did! Please note that when I suggest that money should be kept in circulation, I do not mean it should be squandered. There is a world of difference between those two concepts and if you haven’t found out what the difference is yet, I would suggest you find out as soon as possible.