If I could enroll in one class at Hogwarts, it would be Transfiguration, no question. I’d love the power to turn something irrelevant into something beautiful and useful. (Also, Professor McGonagall, duh.)

Sadly, I’m a Muggle, and stuff is not fungible. I can’t convert one of my several scarves into a warm pair of gloves.

Money, on the other hand, is fungible. The same dollar bill can go towards a new pair of mittens or a haircut or groceries or a holiday gift or our retirement savings.

We often overlook the magical versatility of a dollar bill and foolishly convert our money into impulse purchases aka future clutter.

When we feel we don’t have enough money, we can respond with compulsive purchasing. We think “I’d better get this now, or I else I might not have the chance to get it at all!”

It certainly doesn’t help that marketers exploit that fear ruthlessly, manufacturing urgency and FOMO with one-day sales, promo codes, BOGO deals, clearance racks, and coupons.

The irony of course is that we spend the magical money we do have on things we don’t need now (or at all), instead of saving those dollars to pay for our imminent needs and obligations. The result is less dollars in our accounts and more clutter in our homes: lose-lose.

Say what you will about money being the root of all evil, but money enables complete strangers to trust and trade with each other, takes up no space in our homes, doesn’t require dusting or batteries, and can become anything we need as long as we don’t squander it on junk. That’s pretty magical.