You Can’t Commoditize Time

Time is money, and money is time.  Right?  At least that is what the financial independence community espouses as the main thrust of pursuing FI.  There is a mistaken belief that you can trade things for time.  But this idea is silly. Time passes no matter what you do.  It is inevitable.  And it can’t be traded, bargained, nor negotiated with.  There are only two things that constantly change in regards to this slippery phenomena.  There is our perception of time passing, and the activities in which we choose to participate in while time passes.  We cannot  exchange time, but we can do our best to dictate what activities we involve ourselves in.  You can trade a few hours at the office for a leisurely day at the pool.  Maybe cash in on early retirement and travel the world.  You can commoditize activities.  You can commoditize services. But  you can’t commoditize time.

Losing Time

There is this idea that every hour spent working is an hour that is lost.  It is time lost.  Yet nothing could be further from the truth.  The hour passes no matter how you choose to amuse yourself.  Sleep an hour…it’s gone.  Floss your teeth for an hour…disappeared.   Sit on the beach in Cancun for an hour…you get the idea.

Ultimately, we are not trading hours or minutes.  We are trading activities.  As mentioned before, money is an intermediary.  I choose to work as a doctor to accrue this intermediary in order to pay the person who cleans my house.  Although I could work less and exchange some of the hours  to go home and clean the toilet,  I prefer listening to hearts and lungs.  Call me crazy.

Time Perception

We can’t artificially create or destroy time, and we certainly can’t commoditize it.  There is one lever available, however,  that for all intents and purposes changes our relationship to this ephemeral concept.  Perception.  We perceive time differently at different stages in our life.  When we are young, the days and years seem to pass incredibly slowly.  We feel as if we have nothing but time.  Yet, as we get older, the seasons zoom by.    When we are engaged in something difficult, time seems to grind to a halt.  When we are having fun, time flies.  The saying about bringing up children is especially apt here.

The days are long but the years are short.  

So What?

Since you can’t commoditize time, the only form of control we have over our lives is which activities we choose to engage in, and how we perceive time passing.

Ok.  Are you ready for this.  Now I am going to bring this full circle.

Thus, you should front-load the sacrifice.  

That’s right.  We are back here.

When you are young, you perceive that you have your whole life ahead of you.  Time feels infinite and old age is a far cry away.  You cannot trade time, but you can trade the activity of work to build up enough of your money intermediary.  So why not work hard?  Why not grind it out?

This intermediary will grow and compound over the years.  Money is the potential energy in which all those traded work activities reside in.

When You’re Old Like Me

Your perception of time is much different.  Time speeds past you faster than you can whip your head around to see it.  This time, in a sense, is much more precious and valuable than the time of your youth (which felt endless).  Because you front loaded the sacrifice, your store of intermediary (money) can now be used to allow you to only engage in those activities you enjoy.

You have enough potential energy stored up to pay for your needs for a lifetime.

Final Thoughts

Work hard when you are young and your perception of time is infinite and slow.  Save enough money to create a perpetual money machine.  Since you can’t commoditize time, commoditize activities by front loading the sacrifice and spending a lot of time working in your twenties.

You may not believe me now, but your older self will thank you.

You’ll feel like you did some thing quite magical.

Bought a little extra time.