Money Is Time

Among other things that I have let get in the way of me blogging consistently is my son's math homework that I've been helping him with.  I'm not really a very good math teacher because I don't understand how other people don't understand it.  Luckily, he's the same way, so I usually just have to explain it once.

Somehow in my mental ramblings while he was working on a problem, I started thinking about how people often say "Time is money".  Which, thinking mathematically, means "time=money".  So according to the symmetric property of equality, "money=time".  Just as I don't "get" how others don't "get" math, I also fail to understand how people comprehend "Time is money" but ignore "Money is time".

The older I get and less time I have left on this earth, the more I see how money is time.  With money I can buy more time by doing things to improve my health and extend my life.  More importantly, with money I can upgrade the quality of the time that I have.  I can pay someone else to do chores I don't like to do so I can spend my time doing things I want to do.  For example, even though I know how to do it and could save a few dollars doing it my self, I don't change my own oil in my truck.  I buy time.  It's worth it.

Here's something to try when considering paying for a service:  if someone offered to do the task for free, would you let him or her do it for you?  If so, you should probably pay for the service.  Your time is almost always worth it.  Example, I pay for someone else to work on my car, but I do my own mechanical work on my bicycles.  Not because I can't afford a bike mechanic, but because I like doing it, and would do it myself even if someone offered to do it for free.

And yes, this does relate to insurance.  I almost always think "money = time" when working with retirement and life insurance issues.  That's what it's all about.  Having enough money that you control your time.  If you don't or can't do that, you aren't "retired", you are "unemployed".