Spending, Saving, and Investing

 

Don’t turn that dial!  This isn’t what you think it is.

No, I’m not here to give anyone financial advice, I promise.  If I was, you’d all end up crying every month as you tally your spending on hay and feed.  I’ll spare you that agony ;).

When I speak of spending, saving, and investing, I’m speaking of time, not money.

Yes, I know we just talked about time and how it is a gift that we should put to great use, and I’m not here to discredit any of that.  I’m simply here to expand on the subject.

I remember the days of my youth when my birthday would come around.  Boy, those were some exciting times that still bring back so many wonderful memories.  The birthday cards would come rolling in, one ofter the other, each one with a check written in perfect cursive handwriting by a cherished loved one.  My grandparents, uncles and aunts, my dad, all would send a check my way and I am grateful that I can sit here and think back on how fortunate I was to be thought of by so many on my birthdays.

Yes, it was just money, but this money was different somehow. It was mine to spend however I saw fit and, in may case, it was spent on toys.  I can still see the aisles of Toys R Us, stacked deep with G.I. Joe, Transformers, Hot Wheels, Legos, and so many other toys of my generation.  I remember walking down those aisles feeling like I had just won the lottery.  I’d fill the basket, we’d check out, and it was back to the house to revel in all of my new purchases.  Man oh man, what a time it was.

Looking back, my choice to spend all of my birthday money on toys was a poor one.  It doesn’t come as a complete surprise to me as my comment above on hay and feed spending might offer a glimpse into some of the financial habits I’ve developed along the way ;).  I mean, I don’t have any of those toys anymore and, if I did, I doubt they’d be worth much money.  However, when I look back and remember how those toys made me feel, I can’t say I’d do it any different if I had the chance to revisit those decisions.  Sadly, I can’t say the same about the decisions I’ve made regarding how I’ve spent my time.

The more I think about time, the more I realize that time itself is a currency.  Although none of us know just how much time we have, we all have a stake in it.  We each have our own piece of the pie, so to speak, and it is up to us and only us to spend our time however we see fit.

I don’t think I’m alone when I say that I haven’t spent my time on this earth so far very wisely.  Don’t get me wrong, there have been times where I think I made wise investments, but I’ve spent countless precious hours just wasting so much of it away.

Worry and fear have been the two biggest culprits when it comes to wasting my time.  I’ve lost count of the years that I’ve spent either worrying about things that I have zero control over, or in constant fear that I’ll repeat the failures that have cost me so much.  The worst part if it all, is I let worry and fear drive me to commit the biggest time fraud of all times… quitting.

That’s right.  I gave up.  They say that failure only truly happens when you give up, and that’s exactly what I’ve done one too many times.  I gave in and decided to sit and wallow in self pity rather than taking a step back, regrouping, and getting back on my feet.  Considering time as a currency, what I decided to do was to throw hour after hour, day after day, year after year into a trash can and light it on fire.  I sat as I watched time burn away right before my very eyes.

Thankfully, I have been fortunate enough to see that enough is enough, and I’ve started to regain control of my time.  Worry and fear have been consumed by light and love, and I have made a vow to embrace the finality of precious time.

As a young adult, this was my motto. In fact, I wrote a song years ago when I was a member of a band called Clearfield (shoutout to my brother Jeff!). One of the main lines of the chorus was “Live out every day as if it was your last.”  Granted, part of this was me being young and naive as we have to consider the future in so many of our decisions on how we’ll spend our time, but, the overall theme holds great power when put to use.

I was fortunate to have spent yesterday evening with my brother Jeff and his family (Dave, we missed ya!).  At one point, he and I were talking about playing music again and how we should finally stop talking about it and start doing it.  He mentioned that he, as do I, always finds himself saying “one day” yet that day never seems to come.

This rings true for most of us.  Those words… “one day”.  It’s as if they’re a way out for us.  They provide the excuse that makes us feel justified for never making it happen.  These words are often followed with “I’d love to, but I just don’t have the time”.  It becomes a vicious cycle and we continue to let life get in the way.

So, how do we change?  How do we move forward on a different foot?

Unfortunately, I don’t have a one size fits all answer.  I’m not sure I even have the answers for myself.  What I do have is the determination to stop letting time dictate how I live my life.  Instead, I will dictate how I spend my time via the life that I want to live.

Let me dig deeper into this for you.

In the title above, there’s three words… spending, saving, and investing.  Let’s look at these in depth, starting with Investing and working our way back.

When we invest money, we do so with the expectation that the value of the entity we invest our money into will gain value, therefore providing us a return on said investment that typically comes in the form of, you guessed it, more money.  Investing our time is similar but there is a key difference.

Our time is finite.  At some point, each of us will run out of time, at least in this part of our spiritual journey.  Investing our time won’t change how much time we do or don’t have.  What it will change is the value of our time.  

There are many ways we can increase the value of the time that we have.  On a personal level, we can invest time in ourselves.  Daily exercise, prayer, meditation, journaling, are just a few ways to achieve this.  When we invest this time in ourselves, the rest of our time has so much more value as we are able to spend it as a better version of ourself.  With an able body, a strong mind, and an enriched spirit, we experience time on a higher level of existence, creating an exponential return in value.

Second, there’s saving time.  

This one is a bit simpler but it plays a vital role in time management.  Again, we can’t buy time, so when we save time, we aren’t adding those savings to the end of our timeline.  Instead, we take the time that is typically seen as wasted time and we turn it into time that has meaning and purpose.  This can be something as simple as deciding to spend less time doom scrolling on our phone or tablet, or something a bit heavier like ending a toxic relationship with someone.

When we eliminate or, at a minimum, reduce the time we spend on things that invite darkness into our lives, that time is set aside, or saved, to be spent on the things that welcome light and love into our lives.

Last, and definitely not least, is our spending of time.

This one, just like spending money, is the hardest.  This is the one that we all like to think that we are doing well, but most of us aren’t even close.  When we take a step back and truly look at how we are deciding to spend our time each day, I’m willing to bet that every one of us are falling well short of our Spending, Saving, and Investing goals.  

How many times has the death of a loved one sparked this internal monologue?..  “Man, I need to spend more time with my family and friends.”  We all say it, yet we hardly do it.  We miss out on time well spent.

How many times do you find yourself wanting out of a relationship or a career that does nothing to enrich your purpose in life and keeps you from following your true desires in life?  We continue to waste time rather than save it.

How often do you find yourself feeling sluggish, hungover, or uninspired because you’ve again chosen the bad habits over the good?  We go all in on the investments that produce no return.

I get it, this can become quite overwhelming as we take stock of our lives.  After all, we’re not going to conquer this overnight.  What we can do, though, is start with something.  What something do I speak of?  Anything.

We all have that list of low hanging fruit that we know we can start with.  

Feeling sluggish?  Take a five minute walk each morning.  Start there.  Just five minutes.  Pretty soon, you’ll look down at your watch and realize you’ve been walking for half an hour.  It’ll feel great, and the momentum will build.

Tired of having such a negative outlook on the world today?  Silence your phone and put it in another room.  Do something you enjoy instead.  Make a snack, do some doodling, or simply sit in silence and enjoy the peaceful moment.  Pretty soon, you’ll find yourself doing this without even having to try.  It’ll become a habit.  A good habit.

Missing your family and friends?  Give them a call.  Sure, you’re busy, and so are they.  But each of you can carve out five minutes for a phone call to catch up.  Before you know it, the phone calls have become a regular thing and you find yourself planning a get together this upcoming weekend.  Talk about a great way to spend some time :).

I don’t quite know why time has become such a prevalent thought as of lately, but I’m glad it has.  As I continue to make better decisions regarding my time, I have greatly increased its value and I have become quite the savvy broker of time.  As my respect for time grows even deeper, I set my sights higher each time with the intent to cherish not only my time, but the time of and with others, hour by hour, minute by minute.

I encourage you to do the same.  Don’t let time get away from you.  Stop saying and start doing.  Whether you take baby steps or go all in, just do it and do it now.  Like so many have said before… You can say “one day”, or today could be “day one”.

Time is a currency… Spend it wisely.