3/16/2018

Time, the ultimate currency!

Today, I am going to try to put things in a new perspective and hopefully will either motivate you to start your journey or re-motivate you to keep going. The topic is that everything about this journey is related to time.

In 2011 there was a movie call "In Time" staring Justin Timberlake, which is enough for some people to go see the movie. I watched the movie because I was drawn into the concept presented in the movie where the universal currency became the time you have left to live. There is some truth to the movie, because currency is ultimately related to time.

You spend time to build your knowledge and skills which then translate to either getting a job or running your own business. Both of those will consume more of your time but you get money in return for your time. Therefore this can be written out in a simple formula: Time x Skills/Knowledge = Money. There is an old saying that time is money, but lets flip that saying, so money is time.

The idea I want to present is simple, if you save money now you are gaining time in the future. Another way I look at it is, if I save a month of salary now then I am essentially gaining a month of retirement time. The mindset is simple, let say you use the good old 65 as the benchmark retirement age. Then for every month of salary you have save up that's a month less from 65 you'll be able to retire. Eventually you'll save enough to reduce that 65 to 55 or even 45.

For those that are having a hard time reducing their spending, here what you should consider the next time you want to buy that fancy new thing. Is this thing worth me having to delay my retirement for months or years. Every time you make a big purchase you are basically forcing yourself to work longer in the future.

A lot of people wish they have more time in their life, while here is how you can buy time by allowing yourself to retire early. Change that original formula from Time = Money to Time = Enjoyment/Fulfillment/Family/Postive Impact. One last point, when people say they want to retire early, what they really mean is that they want the freedom to not HAVE to work for money. The privileged of that choice is what a lot of people are truly after. Start buying that privilege today and you'll be free before you know it. 

No comments:

Post a Comment