Issue #123: On Time and On the Money
May 18, 2007
THRIVE! Talkin'!Don't just read the newsletter, live it!Jump into the THRIVE! forum and get set for success!  On Time and On the MoneyMatthew Poepsel, LeftBrain/Co-FounderWe've all heard the old adage "time is money". It's easy to see why - the two seem pretty interchangeable, really. We spend our time, and we spend our money. Unfortunately, we sometimes waste time and we also waste money. ("Best of the Bangles"? What was I thinking?) We can save time, and we can save money. Yep, there definitely seems to be a tight relationship between the two. So here's a question. Many financial experts make a living trying to tell us how we should invest our money. So, can we invest our time? Does the comparison still hold up? To test the limits of applying financial concepts to those temporal ones, I dusted off the old book learnin'. I had the pleasure of studying investment principles while I was in grad school. As an MBA candidate at Boston University, I learned some basic principles of Finance. I have to admit that the coursework was challenging for me. (Math is hard, Barbie.) Still, I enjoyed the course overall. I'll always remember being particularly impressed by a Finance concept known as the "time value of money". The principle essentially says that $100 today is worth more than that a promise of that same $100 at some point in the future. By acting now, you could earn interest on that $100 and have something more to show for it if you invested it. (Enough for a Bangles album, for example.) It stands to reason that if time is money, then there must be a "time value of time". Time is certainly a precious commodity. We can choose to spend it or to invest it in an effort to earn a respectable return. We don't always stop and think about where our time goes, but here's a great chance to do exactly that. Take a moment and classify the following time expenditures. Which of these reflect time spent and which are time invested?
Think about the long term benefits of the time you're spending today. Get in the habit of treating your time with the same care that you treat your money. What specific future outcomes and benefits will you derive from today's actions? If you can't answer the question with close to 100% clarity, you may be spending more time than you're investing. If you're a real Finance nerd, a key formula is FV = PV(1+r)^n. If you're not exactly an investment guru, there's an even simpler theorem: once your time is gone, it's gone forever. Be sure to make the most of it. Considering how important every minute really is, I sincerely thank you for spending a few of yours here today. |
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Coaching Quickie: On Time and On the MoneyHow well are you investing your time?Follow the link above to vote for your response. While you're there lend us your feedback, or share some goals with fellow readers. Check back next week for results! Last Week's ResultsCoaching Quickie: Success Shines Through |
