What A Ten Dollar Note Means

What difference does a ten dollar note mean? When I first migrated to Australia, that represented more than my budget for breakfast and lunch during a working day in the Big Smoke.  25 years later the same note has less meaning, has reduced value and is worth only a shadow of its former self....or is it?   In plastic form, the Australian ten dollar note looks more sprightly, feels better and is actually more durable than its paper version of many years ago.  I examine one again and notice more security features, better design and a more friendly feel.

When commuter trips have risen in price, coffee and tea with a biscuit can add to ten dollars in a fancy cafe setting you get to enjoy for under an hour. A simple potted plant comes up to more than this amount when you check out at the counter of a nursery. A freshly squeezed fruit or veg juice cup is creeping up to around that for large.   However when you purchase things in bulk, you get more out of this note. In wholesale markets, you can cart away a whole box of your favourite fruit at closing time.  You can travel further on public transport as a pensioner. A cocktail at a bar costs more than this, so with one fancy dish of modern Australian cuisine even at breakfast time.   A child can obtain perhaps three goldfish. You may fill up perhaps at least one-fifth of basic unleaded petrol in the tank of a car.  What was once seen as two dollars may now be five, what was once the power of five can now be only be bought for ten. How much wi-fi capacity you get depends on your provider and perhaps the time of day or night.

Ten dollars stretch better when buying on line for airfares, holiday accommodation and restaurant vouchers.  Ten dollars put aside each day can still accumulate to much in superannuation, loan repayments and a long term nest egg - unless wiped out by inflation, speculative values and health costs. Ten dollars saved can be put to a better use, like creating a smile on a  child's face, a puppy's jump and a grandmother's satisfaction. Ten dollars can be the difference between an unhealthy sugary stuff and a treat in better fruit or eggs.  Ten dollars contributed consistently to a superannuation or home saving deposit may mean nothing when you are 25 years old but offer a satisfying reflection on what you have done right looking back when you are 52.

Ten dollars mean much more when you are raising a child - or a few of them.  ten dollars can give much more satisfaction to teenager and a retiree than a middle aged person.  Financial value is relative but is better measured when it is translated in what it can do in things that money usually cannot buy.  It may represent the slight advantage in having a better performing sports shoe or having a safer option. It can transform the taste in our palate or the aroma in our nostrils.  It may mean a better hair style or a faster choice.  Ten dollars in the nick of time can springboard an individual to commence a different, more promising direction and path.  Ten dollars can bring to reality the fine distinction between carrying on an endless journey of poverty to one with better education and potential.  The same amount can also lead to eventual oblivion if spent on damaging activities and addictive consumption.

They do say the best things in life are free. I say perhaps they can be obtained for under ten dollars.
Entry paid to a reserve or national park.  Watching a movie in a dark hall which influences us for the rest of our lives.  Spending time with children for under ten dollars and teaching them indirectly on financial wisdom.  Ten dollars for a charity run. The measure we place on a barter item or exchange of currency is up to us.  It is not the number that we or society ascribes that is helpful all the time, but the quality of what we can do with less or with prudence.  Do try to conjure up with the best possible thing yourself with your own perceived or actual ten dollars! Then do it.