What does money mean to you?

[Bioture]

Just a general question... really no right or wrong answers but why does money mean to you? I'm now a senior in college and the job search process has taken a huge toll on me... but it also made me realize that money is very temporary.

I was accepted for the final round interviews with Merrill Lynch about two weeks ago, and they wanted me to go down to their NJ Hopewell campus to do the final round interviews. They flew me down to philadelphia, had a driver (who had a nice, luxury car but wasnt a limo) drive me from philly to my hotel in NJ, where I stayed in a king suite, and then had a driver that took me to dinner in this ridiculously overpriced restaurant. Went in exchanged business pleasantries with the other recruits and recruiters, came out, got into another car, went back to the hotel. Woke up, got a ride to campus, did the interviews, left for philly airport, and was back in state college within a day and a half.

I have the vouchers for the plane tickets and car rides here:
Round trip plane tickets: $750 (i know its a lot, dont ask me why - they were small planes)
Ride from Airport to Hotel in NJ: $130
Hotel (at ML discount rate): $127
Ride from hotel to dinner, with driver waiting 3 hrs: $197
Dinner at peacock inn: $60 without drinks
Ride to campus for interview: $25
Ride from campus to airport: $130

The transportation costs went over 1400 itself for a day and a half - are these guys NUTS? All they had to do was ASK me to drive down and then reimbuse me like 50 bucks for gas money and find a motel for me to sleep in... I felt like this whole thing, while nice, was a complete waste of money... but big companies don't care... why? I felt like the whole thing was to impress me about how much money they can throw around... which was both a turn on and a turn off.

[SpiderMage]

That's actually the whole point Bio, they have it, so they are going to use it like water. And your $60 Peacock Inn dinner is nothing compared to other companies. A coworker of mine back when he was working in businesses and such was part of a company that set people up at a restaurant that had people pay it $15,000 a year to eat there, plus pay for the meal, and it was like $100 or so per person, and his company payed for all of it.

[Eric is God]

I couldn't stand to work for a company that did things like that. Always seeing the world in terms of efficiency, it would drive me nuts to see my company waste money like that. I'm quite certain I'll end up being one of those people who has a lot of money just because I spend so little on myself. Whether that's a good or bad thing I don't know, just how I am.

To answer your question, I equate money to freedom. If I had enough of it I would have less worries and more freedom to do what I wanted in life. I used to think I would end up being some VP of Finance, but I no longer have that kind of raw ambition.

[Saturn V]

I got a $20 Chili's giftcard.

[Ephemeral]

The highest use of capital is not to make more money, but to make money do more for the betterment of life.

[Pressure Drop]

money=evil

[BleakFuture]

Money is evil. Money is also rent. If I could do nothing this year and still live away from home I would sit back, and not work. But work = money and money = living away from home, with more freedom.
Damn you money. Damn you to heck.

I really must look into this whole "independantly wealthy" thing...

[Superted]

Money is necessary to live in this day and age, to buy food and shelter. However, too much money corrupts a man and blinds him to what really matters in life.

[Jerome Scuggs]

aynrand nuffsaid

[Money]

I Mean The World To Me

[Dealt]

Money is necessary to live in this day and age, to buy food and shelter. However, too much money corrupts a man and blinds him to what really matters in life.

Money can work both ways, earn a living.. make sure yourself and family are comfortable and then live happily or earn money taste what it brings and let greed ensue and over power you.


I myself am very monetary focused, if a company was willing to look after me in the way they treated you I wouldnt think twice about it, just appeciate that they thing enough of you and you may actually deserve it?

[Tone]

people dont like to think of this because its unpleasant to them, but someone has to be a janitor, someone has to work at a store. not every one can sell real estate, otherwise how could society function? someone has to stock food and stuff. someone has to do lower paying jobs. they call this 'structural functionalism'

[Bioture]

I agree with tone for once. We don't think about it but we need people to mow lawns, be cashiers (I was a cashier once), take complaints, do tech support, etc. And what they do affects our standard of living... and quite frankly it's somewhat sickening when we don't acknowledge the importance of those people because we're so much "better."

[Saturn V]

Great book dealing with this stuff called Nickel and Dimed.

[Krusnik]

Round trip plane tickets: $750 (i know its a lot, dont ask me why - they were small planes)
Ride from Airport to Hotel in NJ: $130
Hotel (at ML discount rate): $127
Ride from hotel to dinner, with driver waiting 3 hrs: $197
Dinner at peacock inn: $60 without drinks
Ride to campus for interview: $25
Ride from campus to airport: $130

Realizing mastercard sucks: Priceless