On see­ing this head­line, it would have im­me­di­ate­ly grabbed your at­ten­tion be­cause every­one wants to make the most out of their mon­ey. I have a very sim­ple and ef­fec­tive way to get the max­i­mum val­ue out of your mon­ey. Let me be­gin by say­ing the val­ue of a dol­lar dif­fers from per­son to per­son. This is some­thing we must all learn to un­der­stand and ap­pre­ci­ate. Fifty dol­lars to one per­son could be a two-hour movie; whilst to an­oth­er it could mean food for a week. If you want to get the max­i­mum val­ue out of your mon­ey, you need to spend some of it on those whom it will be worth the most. Spend­ing $20 on get­ting a meal for a starv­ing child will al­ways be worth so much more than spend­ing it on say a chiller for your­self.

Maybe in­stead of hit­ting the Av­enue this Fri­day night for drinks, you could chill home and watch a movie on DVD, take the mon­ey you saved, go to the gro­cery and get the old cou­ple down the street some­thing to cook for the week­end. Maybe you could skip that ex­tra trip to the restau­rant this month and use the mon­ey you would have spent to put to­geth­er a food bas­ket for an un­der­priv­i­leged fam­i­ly. Yes, you would have a night of en­joy­ment and def­i­nite­ly got­ten some val­ue out of the mon­ey in the restau­rant, but can you imag­ine what a food bas­ket will mean to a moth­er of three young chil­dren who have not eat­en in days?

In no way am I say­ing spend­ing your mon­ey on your­self brings no val­ue or no joy, but, as the head­line states, to get the max­i­mum val­ue out of your dol­lars, use it for the great­est good. Al­ways re­mem­ber: the more you give, the more you get.

Khaleel Mo­hammed

San Juan