Time is Money. How many times have we heard that?
Alternate: We all know this, right? Or at least we’ve heard it (time and time again). But what exactly does it mean? How are time and money similar?
Actually, there are a ton of parallels. Give some examples.
On top of the similarities, though, there’s a direct link between how we spend our time and how much money we have. There’s also a link between how much time we have for other stuff if we’re spending most of our time trying to stay afloat financially.
When you save time, you also save money.
For example:
Plan meals ahead of time. You’ll buy the ingredients so you have what you need and won’t need to make a last-minute trip to the store. Save time deciding what you’re going to eat. And you’re less likely to get takeout because you can’t think of what you want or don’t have the time or energy to prepare it. Save time and money.
Fewer clothes. Less time shopping. Less time deciding what to wear. Cheaper.
Work from home. Less time commuting and more time to work. Less money for gas, tolls, and car maintenance.
And when you save money, you also save time.
That’s because it takes time to earn money, so when we spend money, we’re spending the currency we receive for our time. Imagine if our money came in denominations of time, not money. We would have bills that said 10 minutes, 1 hour, 8 hours, etc. If we did, would we spend that money differently? Would we save more of it?
Some people trade time for money. That’s the worst way to do it.
Some people make money in their sleep (passive income). That’s the best way to do it.
In-between, you have the flexibility to work when you want, still trading time for money but on your schedule. You have sales or pay for performance, where you can make more money in a given amount of time. You have side hustles or your own business, where the hours may or may not be flexible. And you have the ability to work when you want and where you want. Show spectrum.
There is an important difference between time and money. You can always make more money, and, in fact, throughout our lives we should earn more and be more financially stable. But you can’t make more time, and as we age we have less of it. So, when we have the most energy and most physical ability to enjoy our time, we don’t have the money to do it. And once we’re older and have the money, and theoretically the freedom to do what we want, some of those activities are no longer feasible.
So the goal should be to earn money early enough to enjoy it.
Why is time related to money? Because it takes time to earn money to live and to do the things that we really want to do in life (our best use of our time). Because it takes time to deal with stuff again and again and it takes mental energy thinking about how we need to do something with our hoard. If we can free that mental energy, we can use it for more productive purposes.