Time is Money (and how to spend it)
If time is money, how would you spend your time when you have unlimited money?
What would you do if you won the lottery or your business took off and you became wealthy? How would you live your life after you inherit wealth? Many people answer these questions by describing the ways they would spend the money from their lottery winnings, good fortune, or inheritance. They describe things like buying a house, buying a boat, buying a cottage, giving money to their family, giving money to their church, and other ways they would spend their money.
With unlimited financial resources, the key question to ask ourselves is: how would you spend your time?
After all, when you have unlimited financial and material resources, your time remains limited. Time is always your most valuable resource. When we’re free from material constraints, what activities would fill our time?
Thinking about and then describing how we would spend our time without material constraints is a fun exercise and doing so reveals a lot about our core values and what’s most important to each of us.
After a few minutes of consideration, this is what I came up with for myself (in no particular order):
- Golfing in a men’s league
- Golfing with my friends
- Playing charity golf tournaments
- Running
- Yoga (at home and occasionally at a studio)
- Playing some video games
- Spending time with my family and friends
- Philanthropy and charity (with my foundation)
- Volunteering on fundraising committees
- Playing in a men’s hockey league
- Sitting by the fire or back porch and reading
- Working on my house and my gardens
- Working on my business and hiring part time students to help me
- Watching movies and sports
- Dining
- Travelling
I’m not sure how much time I currently spend on each of these activities, and I expect the way I spend my time will change as I age. But what stands out to me about this list is how financially cheap all these activities are. Most if not all of these activities cost almost nothing in terms of money! Even my travelling expenses are modest. It’s the time that is hard to make.
Do you have expensive hobbies? Would you buy a boat and sail it around? Would you maintain a staff of gardeners and maintenance people to maintain your home and cottage? Be careful what you wish for. Many wealthy people feel burdened by the “stuff” in their lives. All the toys that we might wish for are fun for a while, but you can’t buy happiness.
Another way to think about this topic is to imagine what will be said at your funeral. Do you want people to remember you for the great boat that you owned? Your best friend to stand up and describe how immaculately manicured your staff maintained your gardens? Or do you want your kids to talk about the great times you had together as a family and the wisdom you passed on to them?
Being wealthy is appealing not because you can buy a nice watch or necklace, but because wealth frees you of material constraints, so you can spend your time in the most meaningful and impactful ways.