2-Truth Tuesday: Money And Time - You May Be In Danger Of Losing Your Life
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The Truth About Money (and Time)
Self Help Seminar 101: "Poor people think this way about money. Rich people think this way about money. If you pay me this amount of money, I will tell you the secret about money."
How many a self-help seminar is conducted. It's effective. I've witnessed dozens of grown men (and women) sprint to tables to give up their money to know the truth about money.
I digress. To you, dear reader. I ask for nothing in return for this truth. All I ask is for your time (haha). For this week, I will be focusing on a single truth. A truth baked with many truths.
This week, I will talk about the relationship between money and time. And how at the age off 22, I've changed my entire view of money (and time). What I will attempt to prove: Most people overvalue money, but you should overvalue your time. And I will also begin to show you how to break chains of commonly held money and time beliefs.
Lets begin with the fundamentals.
Money isn't real. Before you get mad at for for saying money isn’t real, let’s begin with the origin of money. (I've pulled much of this origin story from Sapiens. Specifically the chapter, "The Scent of Money." Highly recommend)
Taking a walk back through history, we'll find a time before money. For almost 2 million years (and up to about 10,000 years ago), hunter gatherers lived without money. They bartered. But bartering has it's limits. It's a system of trust that can easily be hacked.
Bartering flaw #1: You will 100% get played. AKA: It's not universal.
You can hopefully trust in your exchange of free assistance with a sister or neighbor. On the other hand, Bill, who lives in the mountains over yonder the river, doesn't give a f*ck and never reciprocates favors. In his mind, who doesn't love free things?
Bartering flaw #2: Not even Einstein could wrap his mind around all it's different values. AKA: It's not efficient: Say I'm trading apples for shoes. How do I know how many apples I should ask for my shoes? What about shoes to wood? And what about apples to wool, but I have to first trade my apples for wood because the man with sheep doesn't want apples?
As populations grew (and for them to continue growing), a new system was required. More trust was needed.
So, there was a mental revolution......
Money was created. Here's the truth about money:
Money is the greatest system of mutual trust ever created. It's both universal and efficient. IMPORTANT: People are willing to trade almost anything (materials, food, etc.) for money ONLY because they trust the figments of their collective imagination. They trust that everyone wants money because everyone else also wants money, which means you can exchange it for whatever you want and need.
The value of money is not what people typically think. Money is not coins and banknotes. Money has been cigarettes, shells, or wheat. Why banknotes? Notes are easily made universal (everyone can understand and have notes) and efficient (easy to store, carry, and create). Lets take this another step. Today, more than 90% of money exists on computer servers, as electronic data. Why? Once the system has been established, moving electronic data from one computer file to another in seconds is as easy as it gets. Hello, crypto. And finally, aliens. Aliens would have there own form of money. Why? They too would need to systematically represent the value of things for the purpose of exchanging goods and services (that's what money is).
This is what I mean by money isn't real. Money has no intrinsic value, its value is that of which we assign it (and thus inflation). The power of money lies in something non-tangible - trust.
And now that we recognize that value can be non-tangible, let's talk about time.
Most people today undervalue time (and thus their lives). The Stoic Philosopher Seneca sums up how most people value time perfectly:
"They demand and give up their time to others, just as if what is asked were nothing, what is given, nothing. For no one sets a value on time; all use it lavishly as if it cost nothing."
"No one is to be found who is willing to distribute his money, yet among how many does each one of us distribute his life! How many have robbed you of life when you were not aware of what you were losing!"
"Men do not suffer anyone to seize their estates, and they rush to stones and arms if there is even the slightest dispute about the limit of their lands, yet they allow others to trespass upon their life - they themselves even lead in those who who eventually posses it."
Why do we place a low value on our time?
Because everyone has it, and it's not tangible. Let’s refer to Seneca again:
"Men trifle with the most precious things in the world (time), but they are blind to it because it is not a tangible thing, because it does not come beneath the site of the eyes, and for this reason it is counted as very cheap - Nay, of almost no value at all."
Now that we've established some time and money fundamentals, lets talk about takeaways.
Hopefully I've opened your mind to (READ THIS):
The value of money lies in a belief - trust. Society sets this value. Most people assign the highest value to money because that's what society tells them. It's foundation is belief of the many (sheeeep). It's also renewable.
Time. Everyone has time, yet time has extreme value. Time isn't tangible, but don't be fooled by society (check the incentive - society is built on your time). The value of time is determined by the individual (the one), not the many. We can use it to do anything (make money, learn, build, etc.). We can also never get it back.
Because the readers of this newsletter are action takers, I'd encourage you to think these through:
Your definition of risk adverse. Should you define your risk in time, not money?
Create a $ value for your time. How much is your time worth per hour? I'd encourage you to come up with a number, and then 10x this number. Then use money to save your time at this threshold. Your time will never be worth more than what you think it is.
Put yourself outside of the control of money - What parts of you can money not buy? There is strength and nobility in what money cannot buy. For example - no matter what I am offered, I will not sell my body. Or my honesty. I aim to get to the point where, no matter what I'm offered, you won't be able to buy my time with money.
In the sake of not taking too much of your time on this week's edition, I'll wrap it up with that.
I do look forward to dissecting a lot of questionable and hypocritical beliefs I see people toting around in regards to money.
Maybe next week's edition.
Quote I'm pondering:
"Yet no one will bring back the years, no one will bestow you once more on yourself. Life will follow the path it started upon, and will neither reverse nor check its course; it will make no noise, it will not remind you of its swiftness.
Silent it will glide on; it will not prolong itself at the command of a king, or at the applause of the populace. Just as it was started on its first day, so it will run; nowhere will it turn aside, nowhere will it delay.
But see how these same people clasp the knees of physicians if they fall ill and the danger of death draws nearer, see how ready they are, if threatened with capital punishment, to spend all their possessions in order to live! So great is the inconsistency of their feelings.
Years pass, and the busy man never lives. And so most men die without ever having lived."
-Seneca (on the shortness of life)
