Your Time is Your Greatest Wealth
You know how everyone is constantly talking about the importance of building your wealth, aiming to get a good-paying job, getting on the property ladder and so on?
Well, there’s nothing bad about those things per se, and there’s no denying that you do need money to get by.
But what I have a problem with is the obsession with money and the delirious/mental mindset where a certain set of things are absolute musts for everyone for a decent life worth living, and anything below it is somehow a sign of failure and misery.
One great example of this is the way people talk about housing. Having roommates is only acceptable to college students, and while living in a studio apartment is alright for someone in their 20s, you should upgrade pretty quickly to a bigger apartment (owned, not rented of course), and the ultimate victory in the housing game is a spacious detached house in a coveted area.
Does this make much sense? Let’s think about that.
What really matters is your happiness and quality of life
It’s very easy to imagine your life being drastically better if you lived in a fancy house, ate in expensive restaurants, and had an impressive job with a lot of responsibility.
And all of that can be true. But you absolutely need to ask yourself if it really applies to you.
Some achievements in life only give you pleasure because you know that people give you points for them – like for having an expensive car.
That’s why you need to be able tell whether having a more demanding job or that big house is something you yourself truly desire, or is it simply something you’ve been taught to want.
At the end of the day, nothing matters more than your own happiness and quality of life. If you wake up happy and spend your time mostly in ways that feel good to you, going to sleep in an IKEA bed in a small houseshare on the edge of town isn’t a bad thing at all.
Everything comes with an opportunity cost
One thing you always need to keep in mind in life is that everything comes with an opportunity cost.
People often admire successful people who have impressive jobs and can afford all the luxuries in life. But if all that comes with the cost of working round the clock and having little time in the evening for anything else but getting ready for the next day, it might not make sense, especially
So, you always want to think about the opportunity cost: if you didn’t do this, what could you do instead?
Generally speaking, you always have to sacrifice something, whether it’s the money, the free time, or something else. The question is: what do you want to prioritize and what are you willing to sacrifice?
With extra free time, you can get more sleep, start a new side hustle, or do all those things you’ve always wanted to do, whether it’s learning to paint or go to museums more often.
On the other hand, you might want to work round the clock for a few years to build a better future for yourself.
Drop societal pressure
One thing you absolutely shouldn’t let guide you is societal pressure. You need to drop this, otherwise you will be working countless extra hours just so that when other people spend a couple of seconds thinking about you, they’ll give you points for checking a couple of items on the checklist society has given you. It’s no worth it.
It’ll take time to learn to figure out what you yourself really want and what are the things that you just feel like you should do, but you don’t actually care about.
Learn to spend your money better
One thing that is very apparent to me is that most people are rather bad at spending money. And if you have bad spending habits, you obviously risk ending up in a situation where you have to work long hours (possibly in a job you hate) just to get by, having very few hours for much else.
When I lived in Germany, I had an office job that paid roughly minimum wage. I had rented a small room in a house share, so I had plenty of money left after paying rent (roughly half of money salary went to savings).
What did my coworkers complain about though? Money, of course. Most of them were living in comfortable one bedroom apartments near city center, had pets, and regularly went partying. How they struggled with money even though most of them had partners, I’ll never know.
Was I unhappy in my not-so-impressive living situation? Absolutely not. I lived in a beautiful, green neighborhood, and had everything I needed. So again, you have to be mindful of how you spend your money.
Commute included, my work days were quite long though, so I decided to reduce my hours from eight to six. The pay cut wasn’t huge given that I was probably making around 1500 euros when I was working full-time. But I can tell you, it was well worth the extra free time and the boost in life quality that came with it.
Spend your time wisely
I’m not saying that you should prioritize your free time above all else and not make any money. If you want to level up your life primarily in ways that require extra money, by all means work hard and make that coin.
But I want you to make your own decisions about your life and ignore the norms, pressure, and the opinions of others. This is your life and you get to live it exactly the way you want.
If you love your career, by all means prioritize it. If you dream of lazy and stressfree days, perhaps you should get a part-time job.
But your time still is your greatest wealth and you need to think about how you spend it. If you love painting, make sure that you make time for it in your daily life. If you dream of traveling abroad months at a time, do it now and don’t wait till retirement.
I can honestly say that taking a good hard look at the contrast between my idea of a good life and the society’s idea of a good life took a huge weight of my shoulders. I feel much more free now and can confidently spend my time in the ways I want to.
I hope this post gave you courage to make some changes in your life. If you want to keep pondering what the best kind of life for you is, I recommend you take a look at this post next: Who Is Your Dream Self? (+ Free Printable Workbook)
Let me know what you think about this post and make sure to share it if you found it useful!
