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For the vast majority of the planet, it kind of is!
When I was little, I used to think time went by soooooo slow! Most, if not all, can relate. Now, “Life is short,” seems like the most relevant cliché of all time, as I marked my recent birthday with a transition into my forties.
I find that I even measure the value or importance of a thing now by how much time it will either take or give to me. Evidently, I’m not the only one, because as common a cliché as “Life is short,” is the equally common axiom, “time is money.”
But is it?
For the vast majority of the planet, it kind of is! I say “kind of,” because time is infinitely more valuable than money.
Not many would accept a million dollars in exchange for never having time with their kids again. However, most people do trade their efforts for money ... Efforts which they expend in time. For most people, this trade of time and money is the only way they acquire income.
Moreover, the value of the money we make is often measured in the time we get to spend doing the things that are most meaningful to us when our material needs are already met.
When you consider the value of money, it’s a function of time right? When you imagine achieving any goal, you first imagine how much effort or resources you can put into the goal daily or weekly. Then, you calculate how long it will take to achieve that goal based on the size of your own output. Bigger effort or resources equal smaller time.
In a similar way, you determine how big a goal needs to be by considering how much time a certain resource or dollar amount will be needed.
For example, if you want to help your 2 kids with education costs, you know that since they’re 3 years apart, that you’ll be paying some amount for at least 7 years. You also know that they’re 3 and 6, which gives you about 12 years to save money before distributions start. As you’re building a plan, you’ll know exactly how much you can put away each month, so you can then determine how much help you can give your kids, and how much they’ll have to help themselves.
However, what if there were a way to make our earnings create earnings and leverage our time to multiply time?
If your time wasn’t required to make an income, what would you do with that new-found resource? Is the vision of what you’d do with control over your time compelling enough to spend a few years getting out of the time-for-money exchange and into the leverage exchange?
If you feel like each year is bringing you less control of your time instead of more, I’d like to connect you to some resources that can help you turn the train around. As always, you can message me directly on social media to secure an invite to the next How Money Works Workshop!
Kelechukwu “Chu” Oparah is a Licensed Financial Professional Serving your Dayton Community. For more content, Chu is on Instagram @chuoparah.