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Why is money important to you (or not)? What are your goals in life? What brings you happiness? If you've never done it before, today would be a good moment to stop and reflect on your own self.

The Money Hack series will focus on easy and actionable actions you can take in your life to improve your financial situation. They can help you whether you're starting on your way to a healthier financial life, half-way there or living your best life. Some of these tips may require some practice before they become habits, but I assure you they're worth it.

If you've ever listened to your grand-parent talking about their youth, you may have been surprised to learn how cheap everything was. A bus ride would cost 5 cents, you'd get a bag of candies for pennies... and your take-home pay would be less than 300$ per month.

As we've seen in Dreams vs goals, it's important to set yourself a goal whenever you want to achieve something. I have my own reason for wanting to save, and it's important you find what's important to you in life as well. You may find it strange that I'm going in reverse here. After all, I'm trying to convince you that saving money is a goal you should have, rather than thinking about what goals you want based on your values. That's simply because I believe saving money is a goal everyone should have.

Money is often a taboo subject in Western societies such as Canada and the USA. If we were to have a casual conversation, it would be a cultural blunder for me to ask how much you make or how much you have saved. That can change between close friends depending on your friend group of course, but the default is still to keep quiet about it. There are many reasons for this, and everyone is different. But one common point, wether you think you're on the rich or poor side of the equation, is that most people don't want their relationship with others to change because of how much they make. If you make a lot more than your peers, you probably don't want to set the expectation that you'll pay for lunch just because "you can". Likewise, if you make less, you probably don't want others to take pity on you. While I'm going to list a couple of reasons I've seen from my own experience, this is in no way an exhaustive list. Hopefully not all of them will resonate with you, and you'll learn something new.