I came out of the grocery store yesterday and walked right pass a nickel that was on the ground – a lucky nickel. A split second afterwards, I wanted to turn back to pick it up but it was in the middle of the street and there were cars everywhere so I continued my path to my car.
When I got home last night, I thought to myself some possible reasons of why my first reaction after seeing the nickel was to ignore it. It’s very tough to say if these are the reasons or not but it provides some food for thought so here they are.
1. I don’t care too much about a nickel anymore – As my income and net worth increases, any fix amount of money becomes less and less important on a relative basis (especially small amounts like a nickel). This is definitely one area I should look into because although I’m still quite frugal on small amounts of money in my daily purchases, I’m very lose about ups and downs of my taxable account (I wouldn’t notice any monetary change in my account for anything less than $100).
2. I didn’t process the fact that it was a lucky nickel quick enough – I was actually thinking about something else while I was walking to my car from the store. Perhaps by the time I realized I should have picked it up, I already went past it.
3. I wanted to leave it for someone else less fortunate –I’d like to think that this is actually one of the reasons because this sounds quite noble of me but I’m not sure if I will pass it up if it was a $5 or $10 dollar bill on the ground. (For those that think this never happens, I picked up a lucky $10 bill on the ground before when I was little)
4. Devaluation of the US dollar – The US currency is so low that nickels don’t mean anything anymore! (this is a joke, I had to put this in here for years of Canadian dollar jokes I had to withstand)
Whatever the reason was, I hope that the original owner finds his/her nickel. If not, at least someone who had a real need for it would pick it up!
Have you ever passed up on a lucky nickel (penny)? Do you think you would and do you think any of my possible reasons apply to you?
Promote or Save This Article
If you like this article, please consider bookmarking or helping us promote it!
Print Post | Email Post | Del.icio.us | Stumble it! | Reddit |
Related Posts
- October 2007 – Best Articles of Personal Finance with MoneyNing
- Work Hard, Play Harder but Remember to Link Around
- Sunday Roundups from Palm Springs, CA
- Free Photos at CVS Sunday Links
- Giveaway Starting, Back from Honeymoon Sunday Links
Subscribe! (and Get a Mini-Course with Free Registration)
Follow me on twitter! In addition, subscribe to grab free amazing content or take advantage of the newsletter to have content delivered to you. For starters, a 7-part mini course to help you spend less and be happy will be delivered to you when you subscribe!(Don't worry about spam, because we hate it as much as you do!)
Twitter
Facebook
Subscribe
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I think that people that pick up pennies and nickels are in fact giving an insight into their values. Obviously, a lifetime of picking up pennies will not amount to more than a few 10s of dollars. However, the kind of person who sees value in a penny on the ground, and exerts the effort to pick it up probably is careful and sees value in other aspects of their financial life.
For example, I pick up lucky pennies and nickels. I also pay attention to my assets and debts. I saw a story on the TV recently that most people did not actually know how much debt they were on the hook for!!! This is amazing, I bet these people do not pick up lucky pennies.
All in all, I think someone that picks up lucky pennies is more likely to understand the value of money and the difference between wealth and debt than someone who thinks pennies aren’t worth anything.
Good food for thought, Ning. Personally, I believe I’ve not picked up coins in the past as I was more concerned with the approval/opinions of others than my own satisfaction. I feared onlookers would look down on me, ascribing the action as that of a cheapskate or desparate person. Surely, my earlier years equated not having enough with a feeling of shame.
- BUT – That was then!
Today, I DELIGHT in finding any coins. As a result, I instantly feel very lucky and assured that life is good and right on target. That’s a lot of mileage from only a coin or two!
Jean
Carl: That is a very interesting theory that I very much agree with. Even though the pennies and nickels probably don’t mean much, it is often the small stuff that hurt you when added together.
Jean: I totally understand that feeling but I realized that I should stop worrying and just do what I feel is best
I always feel very lucky when I find coins. Even though I didn’t pick up that one, the fact that it gave me an opportunity to reflect upon this was great!
that was actually my nickel you saw there.
I actually threw out all of my change (about 37 cents worth) when I exited the grocery store. Since the dollar is devaluing everyday, i decided it wasn’t worth it to carry it around in my pocket. ;-O
Adventures: Haha
I hope you didn’t do that!!
What’s more interesting is why someone would pick up the pennies and not the nickel though since 37 cents means there were at least 2 pennies!
hello; to the person that said they threw away the .37 cents on oct.9th,2007 or anyone that think’s any amount of change isn’t worth anything.just pack it up & send it to me.because you must have a lot of money to throw it away! i’ll put it to good use.i don’t know about anyone else but any money i find is used to pay a bill or put food on my table. anyone that can throw away money doesn’t really need it no matter their reasoning.
thanks,jim