10 May Is Your Time Making Or Costing You Money?
I think we’ve all heard the phrase “Time is money” at some point in our lives. I feel like there’s always an uncle saying it on a regular basis for some reason. But like many cliche’s, there’s usually wisdom in those words. But in this one, there’s a hidden message if you look closer.
Time IS money but it doesn’t mean that it is money for you. Time could be costing you money! When was the last time, if ever, you evaluated how you spend your time in a normal week? Map out your usual routines. Work-school-hangout spots-gym-bars-extra curricular stuff-hobbies-home.
Once you have an idea of what a normal week looks like and where you spend your time, start checking your bank statement and figuring out how much you spend at each location. Even at home, we spend money to keep it livable and entertaining.
Cable, Netflix, Hulu, soon-to-be Disney Plus are regulars on the budget. Don’t forget Spotify, Apple Music, video games, meal plans like Blue Apron and more can really make your time spent at home pretty expensive.
Here’s a scenario…
Let’s look at an example of ways your time can COST you money. Most people only make money during their day jobs. That’s maybe 8 hours a day. That leaves us with another 16 hours to SPEND the money we made. And we do love to spend it!
If you make $12/hr at a job, after taxes its probably like $10/hr. You worked 8 hours that day and will bring home $80 in your paycheck for that day’s work. On the way home from work one Tuesday, you get gas in your car ($40/tank) and then you go inside and treat yorurself to a chilled 20oz soda and bag of salty potato chips ($5).
In that scenario, you just spent more than half the day’s wages you just earned. That 20oz soda and bag of chips cost you THIRTY MINUTES OF WORK at your job. Life = Time and Time = Money, therefore we could just say that Life = Time = Money. You trade your life for things. In this scenario, you decided 30 minutes was worth a soda and chips (things that are unhealthy and more likely to shorten life if consumed regularly). If you really take thinking like that to heart on a daily basis, it will change your life.
The most important time of your day is your 5-12
The difference between millionaires and everyone else usually happens during the hours of 5pm to 12am. As you look back at how your week usually goes, here’s a list of questions to ask yourself.
- Was any of my time spent expanding my network?
- How much time do I dedicate to building my existing skills or new ones?
- Do the things I do between 5pm and 12am help me make money?
- What can I cut out of my week during my 5pm-12am time frame to save money?
- Am I reading any books during this time frame?
- Is any portion of my 5pm-12am dedicated to building passive income?
I’m going to be real with you. You will NEVER get ahead if you don’t have affirmative answers to most of these questions. Forget retiring if the answer to these questions are mostly “no” and you don’t change that. You WILL work until the day you die unless the lotto or death of a rich, childless uncle chances upon you (it’d probably be the same uncle who kept saying “time is money”).
I’ll give you an example of my 5-12 strategy. I’m married with a child and needy dog so family time is a priority. For those of you that are not married, you have a HUGE time advantage over me and can do so much more.
- Family (5pm-8pm) – Play with kids, eat dinner, house chores, walk dog
- Free Time (8pm-9:30pm) – Read fiction, time with spouse, watch tv, relax a little
- Money Hours (9:30pm-12am) – Write blog, research/prep, startup work, tomorrow action items
Once I’m done with that, I do NOT look at my phone when I lay down in bed (it’s scientifically proven over and over that phone screens keep you awake and hurt deep sleep). Then I’m up again at 6am ready to conquer the day and do it all over again.
Now not every day and night works out to be exactly like that, but if its a regular day at work and at home, it usually runs like this.
Make your time useful
Too many things in life, including aspects of life itself nowadays can be without purpose. We are left drifting through the patterns and routines we fall into. Instead, we need to CREATE the patterns and routines that lead to our priorities and goals. I believe the lack of intentionality with our time is a source of depression for many people.
Humans need purpose and it starts with spending our time on something with meaning. A great way to do that is to make sure that your time is USEFUL. And I don’t mean that it’s only useful to you. It’s important much of your time, skillsets and energy are useful for others.
Once you figure out what that means for you, your personality and your skillsets, put it to good use! Here’s some examples of what I’m talking about.
- I love to play and that is useful in being a good dad.
- I love to find new ways to invest my money and that is useful to my future and my family’s security.
- I love to have friends over to my house or out to eat and that is useful for my network and overall happiness.
- I enjoy reading fiction and that is useful in training my language development, communication skills and creative centers of the brain used for problem solving.
There are many things that are useful, but they are put to poor use. Money would be a common example. My challenge to you is that whatever you do that you consider useful, always make sure that it contributes to atleast one of these three things:
- The happiness of others
- Increasing your net worth
- Your general well-being
If you do that, then hopefully you will look at the time you spend and see that the overall sum of your time ultimately brings you joy, money or both.
Personally, I can’t think of a better way to “spend” my life.