Today is Tax Day in the United States, when we settle our tallies with the Federal and State governments. Some taxpayers will be getting refunds while others, like me, will be writing checks. I used a red marker to make a heart on the notes line of the check. I also said a quiet “thank you” as I slipped the envelop into the mailbox.

I believe that money is energy and I do all I can to keep its momentum flowing. I thank my mom for instilling a good belief and value system relating to money in me, even though she came from a humble background.

My mom grew up in Brooklyn during the depression and although her family was never hungry, they didn’t have much to call their own. They were in good company. Millions of people were unemployed in the 1930’s and bread lines were plentiful.

Things didn’t ease much after she married my father and became a stay at home mom with two children in the 1950’s until I came along eight years later to make it three. To their credit, we kids were unaware of their struggles to make ends meet. And they always found a way. My mom sewed our clothes in the early years and was an educated and discerning consumer. She even managed to save a nest egg for a down payment to buy their first house.

My father was 50-years-old at the time and I remember him lamenting that he would be 80 when the mortgage was finally paid off. I’m happy to say that my parents paid it off a number of years before the note was due and my father, who is now 97, just signed papers to sell that house, which has blessed him with not only loving memories, but equity that will take care of him for the rest of his life.

As I think back to an early memory I have of money, I remember looking in my mom’s wallet when I was about 6 or 7. All of the bills were in sequential order and facing the same way. My mother also always balanced her checkbook and paid her bills on time. I didn’t realize it back then, but she was teaching me to respect the money I would begin to earn as soon as I was old enough to work.

Those memories certainly play a part in my relationship with money today, but my own views have evolved over the years. When I was in my teens, twenties and thirties, money equaled freedom to me – giving me the ability to go where I wanted and do the things I loved when I was not working. I learned about giving and gratitude in my forties, being in a position to help others and thankful that it was so. And as I readied to leave the corporate world in my fifties to strike out on my own, I learned about trusting the universal flow of abundance.

I made the connection as I was writing this post that I still reconcile my checkbook each month, although from what I understand, that discipline has become passé. And if you open my wallet, you’ll find my bills in sequential order facing the same way. And yes, I make sure to pay my bills on time.

Idiosyncrasies aside, lately I find myself putting more emphasis on the trust aspect of my relationship with money. I believe in the unlimited universal flow of abundance, including time, life energy and love. My job is show up and wholeheartedly take action to do my part.

Journal Reflections: What is your earliest memory regarding money? How did it influence how you feel about money today? What’s one thing you can do to enhance your positive relationship with money?

The Energetics of Money