Eight Questions

MONEY MAY SEEM important—and it is. But it isn’t nearly as important as we imagine. Want a little perspective on your money? First, think about your net worth or how much you earn. Then ask yourself these eight questions. How much would you give:

• To have your current life, but be 10 years younger?
• To have a deceased friend or family member back in your life?
• To avoid the parts of your job you dislike?
• To spare your spouse, partner or children from an incurable disease?
• To have your most embarrassing or hurtful behavior excised from everybody’s memory?
• To have your children, grandchildren or friends live closer?
• To halve the time you spend each day feeling worried or angry?
• To relive the weeks when you first met your spouse or partner?

When you ponder these questions, you realize that there are two things that are far more important than money: time and people. This is—when you say it out loud—pretty obvious.

And yet we regularly waste time on nonsense and lose our focus on the people we care about. Looking to make a belated New Year’s resolution? Perhaps making the most of your time—and making time for the people you love—should be on the list.

Follow Jonathan on Twitter @ClementsMoney and on Facebook. His most recent articles include Out of the Swamp, Working Late and House Rules. Jonathan’s latest book: From Here to Financial Happiness.

Want to receive our weekly newsletter? Sign up now. How about our daily alert about the site's latest posts? Join the list.

Subscribe

Log in withD

Login

Notify of

new follow-up commentsnew replies to my comments

Please log in to comment

2 Comments

Newest

Oldest Most Voted

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

Nick Politakis

3 years ago

This is excellent insight.

2

Kathleen Moore Rehl

5 years ago

Great insight!

1