Meaning and the purpose of money?

I have and i am sure almost everyone must have at some point of time met someone who said that they want to make money. And that's a perfectly good, sane thing to say. But what does money mean, i just wanted to figure that out. As usual i ran a Google and landed up on wiki, there were a few interesting words used there to describe the term that caught my attention. The most prominent of this was "medium of exchange". Reminded me of the barter system i read about ages ago in history classes. After all money in itself is of no value unless it can be bartered for another item which we may need, desire, want or be interested in. That brings us to the question of what makes us want something. After the basic necessities of food, shelter, etc. are fulfilled, which i am sure anyone reading this would not be worried about, the next thing on the line is comfort, for ourselves and the people we hold near and dear.

Coming back to the initial statement about making money, the statement is a result of a number of questions that preceded that. And it is not an end unto itself. The act of making money carries with if a desire to obtain something of value which can be accomplished only through an intermediate medium of exchange. The problem arises when we begin to work towards achieving the objective but fail to remember the questions and the deliberations that has led to it. A lot of pain in this world would be reduced if only people realise what is the purpose that they are working towards. The final aim. The purpose of life?(contd...).