Who’s getting your best time?
Humans are the only animals who get to decide how we spend our time (and still live). I’d be in big trouble if I had no option but to grow my own food, as evidenced by my tortured garden this year.
Instead, I can go to the store and buy food grown in all parts of the world. We can choose to be lazy and still live.
Imagine a bird deciding not to hunt today because it had a rough night. What if a fish wanted some “me” time and found a nice little pool to relax in all alone. The predators would enjoy it immensely.
Food is fairly cheap and accessible, housing is readily available, and we can outsource nearly every task. There’s only one requirement to all of it – money.
Money drives our economy and is required to enjoy our “freedom”. Not too long ago, there was a limit to how much utility all of the money in the world could bring you because we didn’t have access to so much.
I say not too long ago, but maybe more like a couple of hundred years ago when we could only fit so many stuffed polar bears in our castle. Now, the amount of money you can spend is nearly limitless.
Want to fly to the moon? It can happen soon, but it’ll run you between $60-$80 million.
One condition of this freedom is there are many voices in our heads telling us how to spend our money. Advertisers, engineers and behaviorists are all plotting to make their product or solution seem irresistible.
Just as with money, there’s also whole teams of people telling us how to spend our time. You know, all of the people telling us to “road trip” right now?
These two items are closely related as it’s hard to make money without sacrificing your time. Only when you get control of your spending and build a portfolio of investments to fund your lifestyle will your time truly become your own.
Back to the question posed, who’s getting your best time?
Are you satisfied with how you’re allocating your precious minutes, hours, and days? Are you putting your life energy into something you decide is meaningful, or are you sacrificing all of it just to make some more money doing something you didn’t choose?
Many people will never be in a position to ponder this question as they’re busy simply surviving, but if you make a lot of money, what’s your excuse for not deciding how to spend your time?
We live life backward as we don’t get to enjoy freedom until 65, the invented age of retirement. We spend around 45 years working, with a few weeks off when we try to make up for all of the time dedicated to working.
“Slowing down” is something only old people do when they’re ready to sit on the front porch rocker. Keep on that treadmill until you’re so tired all you want to do is rock.
Obviously, I don’t agree with that theory. That’s why we traveled the world at 30, quit our corporate jobs at 35, and later traveled North America in a vintage Airstream.
We don’t have all of the money in the world, but we saved and invested enough to allow us to reach financial independence and do what we want.
Our financial independence goal wasn’t one where we never had to work again, but instead one where we could do the work we were passionate about.
Since I quit my corporate job in 2016, I’ve had the ability to pursue many different interesting avenues, and it’s Adventure Wealth that I’m most excited about building, so I can help others reach their financial independence goals.
We wanted to decide how to spend our time and strategized to make it happen. No more 70 hours weeks and weekend work that actually gave me an anxiety attack.
Do you think you could do the same thing? There are many tricks along the way to help you reach your financial independence goal even faster, and that’s what I’ll help you with.
I’ll continue to write about strategies I’ve used, and feel free to ask me any specific questions that can help you.
