Functions of Money you may not know

Money is an integral part of our daily lives. From buying groceries to paying bills, money is essential. But have you ever wondered what the actual functions of money are? In this article, we’ll explore the functions of money and why it’s important to understand them.

Functions of Money

The functions of money are essential for the smooth functioning of an economy. Without money, it would be much more difficult for people to trade with each other, save for the future, and make economic decisions. money mainly serves 4 functions-namely

1. A Medium of exchange
2. A Unit of Account
3. A Store of Value
4. A Standard of deferred payment

Medium of Exchange

The first and most obvious function of money is that it acts as a medium of exchange. Without money, individuals and businesses would need to rely on bartering – exchanging goods or services for other goods or services. This can be time-consuming and difficult, as it relies on two parties having something the other wants. Money, on the other hand, is universally accepted and can be used to buy any goods or services.

Money serves several functions, and one of its primary roles is functioning as a medium of exchange. Here are the key functions of money in its role as a medium of exchange:

1. Facilitates Transactions: Money serves as a universally accepted medium for exchanging goods and services. It eliminates the need for a barter system, where direct exchange of goods or services would require a double coincidence of wants. With money, individuals can easily trade what they have for what they desire, enabling a more efficient and flexible exchange of goods and services.
2. Enhances Efficiency: Money improves the efficiency of transactions by providing a standardized and widely accepted medium of exchange. It simplifies the process of buying and selling, as individuals can accept money in exchange for their goods or services, knowing that they can use it to acquire other goods or services in the future. This efficiency promotes specialization, division of labor, and the development of complex market economies.
3. Overcomes the Problem of Indivisibility: Money helps overcome the challenge of indivisibility that exists in barter systems. With barter, it may be difficult to exchange goods of different values or quantities. Money solves this problem by providing a divisible medium that can be used for transactions of varying sizes. It allows for precise pricing and enables transactions involving fractions or multiples of the currency unit.
4. Facilitates Trade Across Boundaries: Money acts as a universal medium of exchange that transcends geographic boundaries and simplifies international trade. It eliminates the need for direct barter between countries with different currencies and enables the exchange of goods and services across nations through currency conversion. Money enables global trade by providing a common medium for conducting international transactions.
5. Enables Future Transactions: Money’s function as a medium of exchange extends to future transactions. It allows for deferred payments and the establishment of credit arrangements. By accepting money as payment for goods or services, individuals and businesses can accumulate purchasing power that can be used for future transactions or settling outstanding debts. This promotes economic activity and supports the functioning of credit markets.
6. Provides Pricing Mechanism: Money serves as a pricing mechanism by assigning a monetary value to goods and services. Prices expressed in terms of money provide a standardized metric that helps individuals evaluate the relative worth of different goods and make informed decisions about their purchase or sale. Money enables efficient price discovery and promotes market transparency.
7. Supports Market Liquidity: Money enhances market liquidity by providing a readily acceptable medium of exchange. It ensures that there is a sufficient supply of fungible money that can be easily exchanged for goods or services, promoting the smooth functioning of markets. Market liquidity facilitated by money allows for swift and efficient transactions, reducing transaction costs and enhancing market efficiency.
8. Reduces Transaction Costs: Money reduces transaction costs associated with barter systems. In a barter economy, individuals would need to spend time and effort finding a suitable trading partner with mutually desired goods. Money simplifies this process by providing a universally accepted medium of exchange, eliminating the need for direct barter negotiations and reducing transaction costs.
9. Enables Specialization and Efficiency Gains: Money’s role as a medium of exchange encourages specialization and the division of labor. It allows individuals and businesses to focus on their core competencies, producing goods or services in which they have a comparative advantage. Specialization, made possible by money, leads to increased efficiency, productivity, and economic growth.
10. Promotes Economic Development: Money’s function as a medium of exchange plays a crucial role in promoting economic development. It encourages trade, investment, and the efficient allocation of resources within an economy. The availability of a stable and widely accepted medium of exchange is essential for fostering economic growth, attracting investment, and improving living standards.

Unit of Account

Money serves as a unit of account, meaning it is a way of measuring and comparing the value of goods and services. For instance, when you go to a grocery store, you look at the price tags to determine the value of each product. The store owner uses money as a unit of account to determine the value of the goods they sell.

Here are the functions of money as a store of value:

1. Wealth Preservation: Money acts as a store of value by allowing individuals to hold and preserve their wealth over time. Instead of immediately spending all their earnings, people can save money for future use, ensuring the preservation of their financial resources.
2. Future Purchasing Power: Money retains its value over time, allowing individuals to save for future needs and aspirations. By storing money, people can accumulate purchasing power and have the means to acquire goods, services, or assets at a later date.
3. Inflation Hedge: Money can serve as a hedge against inflation. Inflation refers to the general increase in prices over time, resulting in the erosion of purchasing power. By holding money, individuals can protect their wealth from the effects of inflation and maintain their ability to buy goods and services in the future.
4. Stability and Liquidity: Compared to other assets, money offers a high degree of stability and liquidity. It is readily accessible and can be easily converted into goods or other forms of assets when needed. This liquidity ensures that money can serve as a reliable store of value, providing individuals with financial flexibility.
5. Deferred Consumption: Money as a store of value enables individuals to defer consumption and postpone spending. By saving money, people can delay immediate gratification and allocate resources towards achieving long-term goals, such as purchasing a house, funding education, or planning for retirement.
6. Intermediary Function: Money as a store of value also facilitates various financial activities, such as investment and lending. It allows individuals and institutions to accumulate funds and deploy them for productive purposes, leading to economic growth and development.
7. Stability and Certainty: Money, particularly in the form of stable currencies, provides a sense of stability and certainty in financial transactions. By storing value in money, individuals can mitigate risks associated with fluctuations in the value of other assets, such as stocks, real estate, or commodities.

Store of Value

Money acts as a store of value, which means it can be stored away and used at a later date. For example, you can save money in a bank account or invest it in stocks or bonds. This way, your money retains its value and can be used in the future.

Here are the functions of money as a unit of account:

1. Standardized Measurement: Money serves as a common unit of account, providing a standardized measurement for valuing goods, services, and assets. It establishes a uniform system that enables individuals and businesses to compare and quantify the value of different items.
2. Pricing and Valuation: Money allows for the determination of prices and the valuation of goods and services in a consistent and easily understandable manner. By using a common unit of account, individuals can assess the relative worth of various products, making informed decisions about purchases, sales, and investments.
3. Comparability: Money facilitates the comparison of prices and costs across different goods and markets. It enables individuals to evaluate the relative value of similar products or services and make choices based on their preferences and budget constraints. The use of a unit of account enhances market transparency and efficiency.
4. Accounting and Financial Reporting: Money serves as the basis for financial accounting and reporting. It provides a standard unit for measuring revenues, expenses, assets, and liabilities in financial statements. This uniformity ensures consistency in financial records and enables meaningful comparisons over time.
5. Contracts and Agreements: Money as a unit of account is essential for drafting and enforcing contracts and agreements. It establishes a common reference point for specifying prices, payment terms, and financial obligations. Parties involved in transactions can rely on money as a reliable unit of measurement when formalizing their agreements.
6. Economic Analysis: Money facilitates economic analysis by allowing economists and policymakers to measure and track various economic indicators, such as GDP (Gross Domestic Product), inflation rates, and consumer spending. These indicators are expressed in monetary terms and provide insights into the state of the economy.
7. Decision Making: Money as a unit of account supports decision making at both individual and organizational levels. It enables individuals to assess the costs and benefits of different choices and make rational economic decisions. Similarly, businesses can use monetary units to evaluate profitability, set prices, and allocate resources effectively.

Standard of Deferred Payment

Money also serves as a standard of deferred payment, which means it can be used to pay off debts at a later time. For instance, if you take out a loan, you can pay it back over time using money as a standard of payment. Similarly, credit cards allow consumers to make purchases and pay them off later using money as a standard of payment.

Here are the functions of money as a standard of deferred payment:

1. Debt Settlement: Money serves as a standard of deferred payment by allowing individuals and businesses to settle debts and financial obligations over time. It provides a universally accepted medium for repayment, ensuring that creditors can expect to receive value for their goods or services in the future.
2. Borrowing and Lending: Money as a standard of deferred payment enables borrowing and lending activities. Individuals and businesses can borrow money and promise to repay it in the future, with interest, using money as the agreed-upon medium of exchange. Lenders accept money as a reliable means of deferring payment and expect to receive it back with added compensation.
3. Credit Transactions: Money facilitates credit transactions, wherein individuals or businesses purchase goods or services on credit, agreeing to make future payments. By accepting money as a standard of deferred payment, sellers are assured of receiving the agreed-upon value at a later date.
4. Long-term Contracts: Money serves as a reference point for long-term contracts that involve future payment obligations. For example, contracts for loans, mortgages, leases, or installment purchases specify the monetary amount to be paid over time. Money’s stability and acceptance make it a suitable standard for such deferred payment agreements.
5. Time Value of Money: Money as a standard of deferred payment takes into account the time value of money. It recognizes that a payment received or made in the future has different value than an equivalent payment made immediately. Money allows for the consideration of interest rates and the valuation of future cash flows, enabling individuals to make informed decisions regarding deferred payments.
6. Certainty and Stability: Money provides certainty and stability in deferred payment arrangements. It eliminates uncertainty associated with non-monetary forms of deferred payment, as the value and acceptance of money are generally predictable. Money’s stability as a medium of exchange ensures that the agreed-upon value will be preserved until the payment is due.
7. Legal Enforceability: Money as a standard of deferred payment benefits from legal enforceability. Governments and legal systems recognize money as a valid medium for settling debts and fulfilling contractual obligations. This recognition ensures that parties involved in deferred payment agreements can seek legal remedies if the payment terms are not honored.

Some other functions of money

1. Measure of Value and Price Stability: Money provides a consistent measure of value that allows for comparing the prices of goods and services over time. It helps in evaluating changes in purchasing power and tracking inflation or deflation. Stable prices, supported by a stable monetary system, allow for more accurate economic calculations, investment decisions, and efficient allocation of resources.
2. Medium of Distribution: Money serves as a medium for distributing income, wages, and profits. It enables the fair and efficient exchange of labor and capital for monetary compensation. Money’s function as a medium of distribution ensures that individuals are rewarded for their contributions to the economy and can participate in economic activities.
3. Facilitates Specialization and Division of Labor: Money facilitates specialization and the division of labor within an economy. By providing a medium of exchange, it allows individuals and businesses to focus on their respective areas of expertise and engage in specialized production. This leads to increased efficiency, productivity, and overall economic growth.
4. Encourages Economic Growth and Investment: Money plays a crucial role in promoting economic growth and investment. It provides the necessary capital for businesses to expand, innovate, and invest in new technologies. Access to money enables entrepreneurs to start new ventures, create job opportunities, and drive economic development.
5. Facilitates Economic Calculation: Money enables accurate economic calculations by providing a common metric for valuing resources, production costs, and profitability. It allows businesses and individuals to evaluate the costs and benefits of different choices, make informed decisions, and allocate resources efficiently.
6. Enables Economic Stability and Policy Implementation: Money, when effectively managed by central banks and monetary authorities, contributes to maintaining price stability, controlling inflation, and promoting overall economic stability. Monetary policy tools, such as interest rates and money supply management, are used to regulate the economy, address economic imbalances, and mitigate the impact of economic fluctuations.
7. Transfer of value: Money can be used to transfer value from one person to another. This is because money is a bearer instrument, meaning that it is not linked to any specific person or account.
8. Liquidity: Money is a liquid asset, meaning that it can easily be converted into other assets or used to purchase goods and services. This makes money a valuable asset for people who need to make quick payments or who want to be able to access their wealth quickly.

Conclusion

In conclusion, money has four primary functions – medium of exchange, unit of account, store of value, and standard of deferred payment. Understanding these functions is crucial to comprehending the importance of money in our daily lives and how it affects our economy as a whole.