Random musings: Time is money. Or is it?

"Time is money". We've all heard the saying before and in many ways it's true, but most of us look at the relationship between time and money all wrong!

The statement "time is money" means that if you waste time, you're wasting money. Or if you can save time, you can save money. But time and money aren't really equivalent, although most people treat them exactly the opposite of their relative value.

I think that time is more valuable than money. See my post from last week about time and money. We all know that time is a valuable commodity and that we shouldn't waste it, but most people are more willing to waste their time than waste their money. Which is totally backwards. Time is finite. Everybody has exactly 24 hours per day...no more, no less. Once that second, minute or hour is gone, you can never get it back. However, money is for all practical purposes infinite:

According to a report published by Credit Suisse in November of 2016, there was a total of $255,708 billion (USD) of worldwide household wealth, which seems like a lot (almost $256 trillion) but if you divide it evenly among all the adults in the world it comes to only $52,819 each. Although, if you just look at the wealth in North America and divide it by adults in North America, that total comes to $337,078 per adult! Even if all the wealth in the world was divided equally, it wouldn't stay that way. Some people will waste it. Some will horde it. Some will grow it. And the wealth distribution will eventually end up where it is today.

Since I'm in the United States, let's take a look at the US economy. To be in the top 1% in income varies by state. If you made $231,276 last year, you'd be in the top 1% of income earners in New Mexico. In California, where I live, you'd need to have earned $453,772 last year, while in Connecticut, you would have needed $659,979. A lot of money, but not entirely ridiculous. Click here to see where your state stands.

A lot of people say they don't care about money...they just want to spend more time with friends and family. But you need money to do that. No money, no time. So, some people think that money is time and they end up working massive hours in their job or business, ostensibly to be able to spend more time doing the things they love with the people they love. But they end up doing just the opposite and often driving away the people that they love!

One way to change the dynamic of time and money is to look at what you spend your money on in terms of how many hours you'll have to work to pay for it. I went out and celebrated Whisky Day on Saturday. I had a good time but spent more money than I should have. If I equate the money spent to the hours I have to work to pay for it, I'll have to spend the next five hours at work to pay for it. It was fun, but not worth 5 hours in the office. But if I look at it in terms of my business, I only need to sell one Personal Bundle!

So, remember that time is not money and money is not time. Having money means nothing if you don't have time to enjoy it doing what you want with whom you want: