Fifty Shades of Green

Which one is yours?

Image created by the author for this story.

Shades of G̶r̶a̶y̶ Green

You’ve heard of the mega best-selling novel and movie, Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James, haven’t you?

Well, every time I hear or see a reference to that movie or book series, what immediately comes to my mind is that there are fifty shades of green, as well.

As in that green stuff that we strive so hard to accumulate and then use to pay for things. I acknowledge that many of us carry less of that green stuff around and both pay for things and get paid in many different ways.

The 7 Ways We Pay — And Get Paid

I suppose that one could break up income and wealth statistics into quartiles, percentiles, or whatever statistical breakdown is most convenient. Socioeconomic status is typically broken down into far fewer categories — for example, those who are poor all the way to the one percent and everyone in between.

But even in my day-to-day and week-to-week life, I encounter both those who struggle to make ends meet and pay their utility bills all the way up to a developer/investor…