What is the most important thing for you?
Much time is lost by not being aware of what the important things in our lives are, we have so much free time as youngsters that just passes by before we realize the true value of having free time. The minute we enter the “adult” life and obligations catch up with us suddenly. There is no more extra time because we trade it all for extra money that we need to pay our bills.
In today’s world, our attention is constantly scattered. In the history of mankind, it was never easier to be distracted. The number of hours we spend on social media and other modern devices is just through the roof. There are so many new things in the media that lead to constant impulse purchase behavior. Unless we step back and find the key differences that really give us quality of life and the level of happiness we are looking for, life will happen rather randomly.
Is it enough to work hard?
I have seen many folks, working hard every single day, taking long commute hours for a rather
meager take-home pay. They traded so much of their time, which is the ultimate finite resource,
for money, which is actually abundant, it can literally be printed as we have seen many times in
history.
A full-time job held over decades is widely considered a good idea, having a decent hourly rate like after going to medical school, those are the common two cents we get from the people who love and care for us. But does that ring true? Can we really earn our way to live life on our terms?
Currently in the United States, interest rates are at an historic low. Inflation is over average, and the future value of our cash is up for debate. An important role of being able to save is no longer there.
People that traded so much of their time for money are now seeing how the value of their money is disappearing and it is happening in a very subtle way. It is hard to realize, it slowly gets manufactured into all our living expenses.
The value of the money historically keeps going down. The value of your time as your life progresses goes up, surely someone in their 90s would give their fortune away just to be in their 20s or 30s again, while someone that young still has their entire life ahead and spending time to have enough money to live life on your own terms seems to be a good trade.
So how does one win?
To have true peace of mind, the best way is to start early and acquire new skills as they go.
Financial freedom comes from buying time back by making your money work for you, the earlier
you start the better. The period of time we have to compound is essential to building lasting
wealth.
Someone that starts in their 20s can literally hold any job and become a millionaire by retirement age if they have the discipline to split their income wisely. It will take a bit of time, but done the right way those extra hours of spare time invested into becoming financial literate is a big deal down the road.
Related: Financial Independence: What is the Valuable First Step?
The value of time paired with the right interest rate or investment strategy is the best way to make sure one has enough money in old age without having to worry about losing their mental health in the process.
When we know what we are saving for, it becomes easier to skip that new phone every year and stash that money into paying down student loans. The next time, money comes in it will be split in such a way that first the heavy debt load we might have from our education gets taken care of which is a vicious cycle in itself. We will spend so much additional time at any given day if we are not cautious about our spending behavior in our materialistic world.
How to become more valuable in the marketplace
Every week when you get your direct deposit from your job, you see your present value in the
marketplace. You might be worth more but for that company doing that task this is the value the
company gives you.
Can you become more valuable? Yes, you can. You can always educate yourself further and strive to have a better hourly pay, do a different task, learn how to do the same work in less time, never settle for the bare minimum of what is required. The opportunity cost of doing the bare minimum is so much greater. People do not realize how much better time can be invested if they settle for the minimum.
Value every hour of your time, identify your side hustle, start something that gives you greater happiness and see how over time you can spend fewer hours on your W2 than on what you love to do and the biggest leap will come with owning equity of a business, beckoning an investor and owner.
How to split your pay stub
When you get your pay stub, make sure that you invest as much as possible before you pay
bills or start paying for lifestyle expenses.
Obviously, we all have different lives and some have children and others have family they need to support, so try to max it for your circumstances.
My brother sometimes invests as much as 80% of his monthly income. He is dedicated in his own
way, trying to maximize the life hours he will have in a couple years when works becomes
optional to him.
Pay yourself and your dreams first, invest as much of your money as possible, and be disciplined.
Compounding is a slow process and initially it does not look to exciting but if you are not compounding for yourself, you are most likely part of the larger part of the U.S. population that is compounding the wealth of credit card companies.
Much money is made on people overspending for lifestyle, learn what the minimum can be for you, and invest heavily in assets where you don’t lose your money.
Steady wins the race
Don’t fall for get rich quick schemes. Those have been around since time memorial. The bottom
line is, steady wins the race.
The amount of time you will have to spend to educate yourself on how to maximize your earnings and how to split them into long term investments is time worth spending.
It will pay you multifold in the backend, give you peace of mind throughout your life that you can genuinely look forward to aging gracefully, next year and every year after. Take a look at your strategy and make sure you are on track for your personal goals.
The only way to make sure you are taken care of is defining the amount of money that it will take to cover living life on your terms, not trading your time for money anymore is possible for everyone. The question is, how fast do you want to reach that goal for yourself?
If you are a train conductor and you love the job, great, take some part of your paycheck and invest it every single week. If you have a job that you don’t like that much, maybe you can work some longer hours now and make sure to buy your time back in the future.
Recommended Video: Building Real Wealth – Living Life on Your Terms
The truth is money is abundant, time is scarce
You really want to evaluate how you spend your life time, with who you spend it, and if the social
connections you are making are fulfilling to you. Money can always be earned again, but time
spent is lost for good whichever way you might have spent it.
I encourage you to find something you love working on something that excites you to go to work. You might not even call it work anymore.
Do something where you do not count the hours and you will realize it is time well spend and it can greatly impact your ability to make money since you will actually pour your heart into it.
Related: Time and Money: 5 Proven Lessons to Remember
Investing early on in life gives people the freedom to live life on their own terms and
go out into the world sharing their passion with their community and the society at large. Every
person that does not have to worry where the next check for rent comes from will be a better
husband, brother, mother and friend.
I believe eventually we can all give more when we know our immediate circle is being taken care of, that is the freedom of investing early and steadily. Everyone can do it and I consider it everyone’s obligation to do so, your community deserves you to step up your game and become a giver, your family deserves so, too.
The world will be a better place when people educate themselves about finances and start valuing time over money.
If you want to learn more about wealth building without sacrificing much of your time, visit Wellthy Capital. You may start your financial literacy journey by tuning into our podcast The Path to Wellth with Hannes Hennche on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, and Youtube.