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WHEN I WAS A TEENAGER, my father and I went to the local mall. I don’t recall why we went shopping together, but I do remember going into a Tandy craft store and buying a customizing kit for leather belts. Tandy Corp. would later become well known as the owner of RadioShack.
On the way home, my father and I were talking about the kit, and I made the comment, “It’ll be a good way to kill time.” My father shot back, “Never kill time.” Later that year, he died of a massive heart attack.
While I never forgot what my father said, I wish I could tell you I took it as inspiration and went on to accomplish great things, but I never did. I did use time well, but I also wasted time, killed time and have blanks in my memory where I’m not sure how I used my time.
But that’s changed. Today, I pay more attention to the ages at which people die. Suddenly, people my age and younger are dying of natural causes. Just yesterday, I went to the dentist for a checkup. As soon as I sat in the examination chair, he told me that his wife recently died, and yet previously she’d almost never been sick.
Such stories have changed my perspective on life and money. We can always make more money. But we can’t make more time, and we never know how much more we have. This makes time the more precious commodity. Still, we should carefully consider how we use both money and time.
Money can be saved, invested and spent. My wife and I aren’t great investors. But we’ve been good savers and thoughtful spenders.
My wife’s family were blue collar. When she was growing up, her family’s budgeting process consisted of separate envelopes marked for each expense, such as groceries and vacations. My family didn’t use this method. Instead, when I was growing up, my family just saved, with no particular plan for how to use the money. This is what I’ve also ended up doing.
My method makes my wife uncomfortable. She likes knowing there’s an envelope marked “vacation,” so she knows what kind of vacation we can have based on the amount in the envelope. My method doesn’t involve this mental focus. For me, money is just money. It’s “dry powder,” ready to be spent when and where needed. My wife’s preferred method involves more deliberate choices—a good thing—while my method offers more flexibility, which is also a good thing.
Whatever method we adopt, both money and time are there to be used, and preferably used without waste. We will, of course, make mistakes because we’re human. Still, if we’re thoughtful in our choices, we reduce the possibility that we’ll lie on our deathbed, regretting the things we could have done with our time and money.
“ We can always make more money. But we can’t make more time, and we never know how much more we have.”
We can trade off money for time. I could take public transit to work but I’d rather save an hour of time each way and go in my car which requires purchasing, gas, insurance, and maintenance. I can spend 1-3 hours a week on the yard or hire a company to take care of it. And so on…
Reminds me of it being wiser to spend money on experiences rather than things and to emphasize novel experiences because they slow time.
After reading the responses to this excellent article, one truth emerges…
It’s not WHAT budget system you use, it’s that you USE a budget system.
At 73 and recently retired, I am aware that time is more valuable than money. Having waited to retire and to claim my social security benefits (which I did at 70, to max out my benefits for my wife) our social security income is sufficient to cover 111% of our annual expenses. This will allow us to enjoy a $100K income for the rest of our lives, with $15-$20K a year in travel, without exceeding 2% withdrawals from our portfolio.
I will run out of time well before I run out of money, and isn’t that what we all want?
No, honestly, I’d prefer to have a little more money than time and enjoy the spending but after years of thrift and fear, it’s a challenging transition. If someone left you a few million dollars, would you know how to spend it?