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Time is Not Money
Untangling the relationship between two scarce resources
When it comes to building a life you love, you’re going to find that you have three basic constraints: time, energy, and money.
The first two limitations have been shared by every human who has ever lived, the third has been shared by everyone living in a modern economy.
Energy is an important resource to learn how to manage, but it’s the most readily renewable. Simply get a full night’s rest and your tank will be refueled and ready to go when you wake up tomorrow.
Time and money on the other hand, start on opposite ends of the spectrum. When your born you’re blessed with as much time as you’ll ever have in front of you — but basically no money.
Of course, one thing that becomes apparent in an economy where workers can earn money at an hourly or yearly rate (wages and salaries, respectively), is that you can trade time for money. This is a sensible strategy because you have lots of time and little money.
As time passes however, the notion of trading time for money gets less and less appealing. Your appetite for more money may have continued to grow, but as you get older you start to gain an awareness of your time slipping away. And while you can always make more money, you can’t generate new…
