Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

Money in Space!

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I had originally planned on taking today off from posting for Columbus Day.  But, then, I thought, what the heck.  It’s a day that we celebrate explorers.  Columbus in particular, but exploration in general, as well.

1909 VBD Lincoln PennyThere aren’t many explorers on a global scale anymore.  After all, it’s not like you can jump in a boat and go find new continents, right?  Even back in Columbus’ day, money went along.  Whether it was as a good luck piece, or just in case they came up on a 7-11 in the new world, they had money with.  Today’s explorers have to go a little bit farther afield in order to discover something new, but even so, there’s still a little money that goes along.  And I’m not just talking about the Billions that are spent to do the exploring. There’s actual money in space!

Take for example, the newest exploration endeavor, the Mars Curiosity Rover.  Back in August, the folks at the NASA JPL labs in California managed to drop the Curiosity, a small car sized rover, onto the surface of Mars.  If you stayed up late enough (or got up early enough, I suppose) that night, you were treated to live video of the command center at JPL.  It was pretty awe-inspiring. Since then, they’ve been running all kinds of tests, and sending back some pretty incredible images of the surface of Mars.

Part of the rover is it’s ability to send such awesome pictures.  And part of that ability is the ability to calibrate it’s cameras.  The calibration panel that it uses has some interesting bits for calibration of color and detail, but also something added for basic scale.  That item?  A 1909 Lincoln VBD Penny.  Much like the one in the image, here.  Why a penny?

The MAHLI calibration target includes a penny at the center of this image, plus color chips, a metric standardized bar graphic, and (just below the penny) a stair-step pattern for depth calibration.

The coin is from 1909. That was the first year Lincoln pennies were minted and the centennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. The penny is a nod to field geologists’ informal practice of placing a coin as a size reference in close-up photographs of rocks, and it gives the public a familiar object for perceiving size on Mars easily.

Pretty cool, huh?  Money is everywhere!  Even in space!

img credit: 1909℗ Lincoln Penny. 019 by Elmo H. Love, on Flickr

Is Free Money the Best Money?

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How many of you would turn down free money?  If someone just walked up to you in the middle of the street and offered you some money?  How about if the Publishers Clearinghouse van pulled up in front of your house, and they presented you with a big ol’ check with your name on it for $5000 a week for life!?  Would you turn it down and walk away?

Not many would.  Heck, I don’t know if anyone would actually say no.  I know I probably wouldn’t.  And, if I had to guess, I’d say you wouldn’t either.  The fact of the matter is that we all like stuff for free.  Free money is great (although rare), but we hunt down free products, free trips, and anything else that someone might be giving away for free.  Some of us spend entirely too much time hunting down free.  But, is free money (or items) really the best money?

What we obtain too cheap, we esteem to lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything it’s value.

-Thomas Paine

Paine was on to something, I think.  After all, how many stories have you heard about lottery winners spending all their millions only to end up on the docket at the local bankruptcy court?  The truth, should we really think about it, is that we do assess a portion (at least) of a things value based on how much effort it took to get it.  For you and I, a nice sandwich at the corner deli might not be something of great value simply because it can be easily attained.  An hour or so of work, and a short walk down the road and there you have it.  Those starving kids in Ethiopia that our mothers were always telling us about, on the other hand, would likely value that sandwich a little higher.  It’s not every day that they have the opportunity to eat bread or meat.  They may have to work for days in order to actually afford something like that.  If they can find work.

Don’t get so carried away in your search for free money that you forget the true value of the thing.  A dollar bill still has the same value no matter the method of getting.  Or, maybe spend some time assessing the value that you have for things, and making adjustments.  Maybe it’s not the thing you want, so much as the feeling it gives.  Freedom doesn’t have a price.  Freedom is free, but you have to be unchained from your debts and you desk in order to attain it.  It’s the long battle to unchain ourselves that gives freedom it’s value, even if it’s price is free.

Breaking Your Money Superstitions

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Did you know that when you were born, the only things you were afraid of were loud noises and falling?  It’s true.  Anything else is a learned fear.  Now, it may be true that you can learn a fear at a young enough age that you won’t actually remember where the fear originates, but it’s still a learned fear.

Stop and think about that for a minute.  What are some of your fears?  Each and every one of them is a learned fear.  And if something is learned, it can be unlearned.  Or, at least corrected with proper learned knowledge.  Take today for instance.  It’s Friday the 13th.  Well known as the day of bad luck.  Walking under a ladder today, or breaking a mirror today is double bad luck.  Isn’t it?  Well, it’s something like that, I’m sure.

Superstitions and fear have done their fair share of damage throughout the years.  The first good example that comes to mind would be the Salem witch trials.  All those innocent women burned at the stake.  It’s especially heinous when, after watching The Wizard of Oz, everyone knows that you pour water on a witch if you want to get rid of them.  Less mess too.

Merry Crisis and a Happy New Fear by Robinsoncaruso, on Flickr

Seriously, though.  Your superstitions about money, and fears about money are learned.  Somewhere along the way, you decided that the superstition or fear was a valid one to have.  Money superstitions are just as much hocus pocus as crazy Quaker witches.  Today, Friday the 13th of July, 2012, take a few moments to really think about the superstitions and fears that you apply to your money.  Then, do something small that goes against those fears.

Have a fear of losing it all?  Take a handful of change down to the river or lake and toss it in.  It’s not everything.  Just some random bits of metal in a circular shape.  Not only can you make more, but you’ll likely get along just fine without it.

What are your money fears and money superstitions?  Share them below, and let’s all compare and see how common some of them are?

And remember, there are babies all around the world being born today that have none of them, until we teach them to them.