I am the new owner of a vibrant piece of African inspired original artwork. It has given my kitchen a whole new life which is most welcome because I spend a good deal of time in there engaged in my microenterprise.

Art work is definitely not in the budget these days so I didn’t purchase the piece but rather bartered for it. A neighbor/friend/artist nearing retirement needed financial coaching and we agreed that a trade for art would be mutually beneficial. We had a couple of meetings to work on a financial strategy for her and set a 6 month future check-in date. She took me on a tour of her apartment and allowed me to choose a piece of her work. She was happy not to spend money to make a money plan and I’m happy to receive something beautiful which I would not otherwise own.

This isn’t the first time I’ve bartered. In the past year I have bartered financial coaching for spiritual championing, and ESL tutoring in exchange for authentic Cuban food. I’ve traded financial coaching to the parents of a massage therapist whose massage in trade I gave to my wife as a way to contribute to our family financial community. We have a friend who is an architect which is handy since we are seriously contemplating designing and building a minihome. He is luckily in need of financial coaching as well so another beautiful barter relationship is in its infancy.

Bartering feels natural. It is more comfortable than exchanging money with friends and it’s MUCH more comfortable than accepting money from those that   don’t have much to spare, which are of course the people I most want to help. I do still have paying clients as well but not enough to support a family at the moment. Thankfully my wife makes some real money (from corporations) which combined with our portfolio income and frugal living keeps us sheltered and fed.   She, too, values the exchanges I am making and feels that providing financial support to our family community allows ‘œus’ to offer my services in trade where appropriate. This has taken a while for me to accept because our culture values people that make money and pull their own weight’¦but that’s a subject for another post.

Note: Bartered goods and services are taxable and must be included in your income tax filing.