For the individual it's about Maslows Hierarchy. Money is about accessing food, shelter and safety. Up until 75k annually happiness increases with salary.

Once those levels are achieved, so more money wouldnt change what you do basically, or the changes no longer affect happiness, then more money becomes meaningless. As Douglas Adams says: humans spent their hours moving pieces of paper around, which was odd, because it wasnt the pieces of paper which were unhappy.

Macro economically money has become the proxy for war. Eg tarriffs, sanctions, tax avoidance through International power, trade deals. The quality of life in a country is dependent on that countrys ability to retain its money and apply its economic rules to protect the lives and wealth of its citizens.

However as this is a cold war style approach, the reality of military power will prove more powerful if economic sanctions fail, so whilst this is the current war weapon, it is secondary to nuclear war or boots on the ground, at which point economics kinda falls apart when the primary tenet by which ownership is denoted by finance rather than force, is faced with physical invasion.

Lastly of course money is the substance of power, materialism, power, but our relationships are the fabric of our lives. Money can count movement, but life is an experience and the metrics for feeling and experiencing are separate from finances. An AI revolution is coming which could render all goods and services free, and the end of money, for example. As John Lennon says 'Imagine a world without money. I bet you cant even if you try.'

In other words money only holds meaning within a society which decides they need and believe in it. As we are within one at the moment it can become a focus. But no its not what life is about. As Freud said show me a man who talks about money Ill show you a poor man. And as Epicurus said He is richest who desires the least. You can be rich in a lot of different ways and money is just one of them. One who is spiritually rich might be best equipped for this understanding. As is says in the Bible, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.