Talking About Money

How to vote with your wallet

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One of the things I’m trying to define as I enter adulthood is my relationship with money. I want to build strong principles around it. I think this relationship is deeply personal. Everyone can have their own meaning of money. But it’s important to think about it beyond the simple question of how to get rich.

If I can bring to the origin of the idea of the economy, the core idea was never just accumulation. It comes from the Greek, oikonomos (οἰκονόμος), which is a compound of two words: Oiko (Oikos), meaning “house,” “household,” or “family”. Nomos (or Nemein): means “management,” “law,” “custom,” or “distribute.” Together, oikonomos refers to household management. And today, that “household” has grown to the size of entire countries.

The problem of infinite wants within a finite world.

In that sense, economics is fundamentally about distribution, judgment, and decision-making in a world where desires exceed resources. The real question is how we manage that imbalance.

So, there are many philosophies about how that household should be managed: capitalist, socialist, welfare economy, ecological economy, centralized or decentralized, and many others. Each system prioritizes a different set of values.

But strangely, modern economic systems often try to solve this by expanding production endlessly. Extract more from nature. Grow the economy continuously.

Also, when we look at modern financial education on social media, the conversation is much narrower, almost always revolves around how to become rich. Which investments are good right now? Which businesses will grow fastest? Which assets will multiply my savings?

Those things are useful. But they rarely invite people to think about the deeper foundations of economics itself.

With the idea that economics is basically household management, the most important part of having money is how you choose to use it and how you make decisions with it. What someone does with their money.

After basic needs and security are fulfilled, things like having enough food, a safe place to live, and bills paid, something else becomes more important. We start asking questions: Who am I? What values do I hold? How do I contribute to other people?

This is where the idea of “voting with your wallet” becomes interesting.

Voting with your wallet means using money to support the businesses and activities you value most. It’s basically economic logic, supply and demand, but practiced consciously as a consumer. The most important part of having money is the decision of how to use it. In that sense, money becomes a tool, almost like a vote, for supporting or refusing certain things.

One million in the hands of someone whose thinking is shaped mainly by advertising and external pressures will likely turn into impulsive consumption. The same amount of money in the hands of someone who prioritizes well-being, values agency, and thinks critically will lead to completely different decisions.

Money itself is neutral. What matters is the mind that directs it.

For instance, financial literacy education on social media often teaches people how to do budgeting. However, most of the time it simply means listing expenses and tracking where your money goes. I’ve been doing this for about two years, but I feel like this approach still needs some improvement.

Spending money on a dinner with family while sharing stories and make strong connection, and spending the same amount of money on a branded pair of shoes that found out doesn’t feel right on your feet are recorded the same way in a spreadsheet. Both simply appear as “expenses.”

A spreadsheet cannot capture human emotion when money is spent. Yet those emotions are deeply connected to well-being. Well-being is not just about income or consumption. It is about the ability to live according to values we consider important.

So the question is not just how to track spending, but how to make those tools (money) more meaningful. Perhaps a financial spreadsheet should not only record numbers, but also reflect values. A small checkmark beside each expense to show how aligned those expenses are with our values.

Many meaningful values in life actually come from simple activities. Things like self-sufficiency, healthy living, having psychological security, and appreciating other people’s work. And yes, money can enhance our capacity and the resources we can offer and use to support what we do in life.

So in the end, the real question becomes: what do you value most in your life? Write down those values first, and then start ‘managing your household’, which in this case means your life. The money you have can then be used to enhance your quality of life by supporting actions that align with your values.