FMF #23 - Time Versus Money: 6 Reasons Why Time Holds More Value

It's No Secret with Dr T.

How often have you heard a wealthy person say that time with the people you love is far more important than how much money you make or how much you have in the bank? We hear it all the time, and if this is TRUE, why do we keep trading our time for money each day?

Is it disbelief?

Are wealthy people telling us lies so they can keep all the money to themselves? Are they just being greedy? I don’t think so, but I do believe that hindsight is a beautiful thing, and it’s easy to point out errors in life after the fact, but much harder to do when you’re in the thick of it.

It’s also easy to see errors when you look at it from a different perspective, or an outsider looking in. It’s like watching the football match from the comfort of your warm lounge chair with the benefit of ten different camera angles, and you can see gaps all over the field, but the players can’t, and it frustrates you to death.

It's easy to get blinded in the heat of battle, and I think this is the message wealthy people are trying to share. And when I say wealthy, I’m not talking about people worth tens of millions of dollars, more so people who are financially free and more experienced.

Small Business Owner

I was recently talking with a small business owner, and he was telling me how busy he was, but he cannot take any time off because the business depends on him so much.

So each year he and his wife close their business and take two-weeks off over the Christmas break, and that’s it. They work 50-weeks a year to take 2-weeks off. I think that’s madness, yet so many people do it, and I have done this myself. In fact, I’d be lucky to get two weeks.

Without prying I asked if they make more money now than they did 10-years ago and he said yes, it’s almost triple the turnover and triple the profits, but he also said they had about three times as much time off as well back then.

Isn’t that interesting, they now make three times more and only a third of the time off.

So what happened?

It’s pretty obvious. As people make more money, they increase their lifestyle to match. Ten years ago they had a $250K house, and now it’s a $650K house. They drive better cars, eat out more, and when they do travel they spare no expense.

I’m not saying what they’re doing is wrong, but if they’re not happy with their current situation in work/life balance I think they must change their thinking towards how they perceive the value of time and the value of money.

So here are my top six reasons why I think time holds far more value than money:

1. Experience comes with time, not money. You cannot buy experience. Yes, you can buy experiences, but not experience.
2. You cannot put a value on your time. If you want to see how valuable time is, watch the movies Logan’s Run, In Time, or any other film that involves time and time travel. Time is priceless.
3. When someone is dying what would they like to have more, time or money? It’s not money.
4. If you have a lot of money and no time to enjoy it what is the point? But not to worry, if you don’t enjoy it your kids will, or that son-in-law you don’t like.
5. Running out of time is final. If you run out of money you can always make more, but you cannot make more time.
6. Good health is improved over time, not with money. Your health is as important as time, and if you don’t look after your health, you will be the wealthiest person in the cemetery.

So in summary, I’m not saying money is not essential, it is, but look at how much time you're working and how much time you are living and have you got the balance right?

Money is not the most important thing in life, but it’s reasonably close to oxygen on the ‘gotta-have-it’ scale. - ZIG ZIGLAR

I hope you get something from this and if you have any questions from this episode please email me at [e-mail]

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