I’ve read things in my lifetime. From Harry Potter (I’m not a fan) to Ibsen (also not a fan) to a bunch of books I really like in between. Whenever I feel stressed, I grab a book, because it allows my brain to just relax and … be.

Everything has a plot. People doing things and interacting with other people. They have money that’s never generally specified that comes from a job that exists to follow the plotline and is always enough for whatever the people in the book need – unless it is a specific plot point that there is not enough money – then it becomes part of the story.

But for most people, money is everything. I don’t mean the greedy kind of money-grubbing that most people go to in their brains when they thing about those people - the people who care about money more than anything. No one really wants to admit that money is a driving force in life. Admitting to focusing on money is some kind of strange societal sin.

The thing is, who among us is not focused – at least in the back burner of our minds – on bills, savings accounts and trying to make sure you and your spouse aren’t going to be existing on cat food when retirement time comes?

The plot of our lives is tangled with money just as much as eating or bathing or shopping or anything else. Even if we don’t want to think about it, pretending money isn’t part of our daily existence does not bode well for successful money management.

So maybe the first step to understanding economics is to understand how often you – or I – think about money. How often, what kinds of thoughts…just so you, too, can stand in a place of honesty and know where you’re starting from.

Oh, and in case you’re curious…I like Fitzgerald a lot. Also, most trashy crime novels. I like my entertainment lowbrow.

If you don’t know where you are, you can’t possibly know where you’re going.