We all know the saying, “A penny saved is a penny earned.” But is it just the penny that is earned? Or are we earning more time for ourselves?
A great book to read is “Your Money Or Your Life” by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. In it you will find a wealth of knowledge in how money is not only a currency to buy things but it can be traded for time as well. They do an excellent job of laying out a step by step process to help you figure out how much money you’re ACTUALLY earning and how you can adjust your lifestyle to have more time and freedom (two things that I greatly value!). It’s a book about simplicity that you will find, if you read it yourself, challenges the general mindset about finances and gives you a lot of great ideas to chew on. I highly recommend it!
We all need to make purchases now and again. And life would be tough if we couldn’t spend money on the occasional non-necessity (at least for me anyway). But I have found that when we DO make those less than necessary purchases we need to be VERY sure of our decision to cough up the dough. Because the worst feeling is when you spend some of your hard earned cash on something that has no real benefit to your life. What you did, then, was waste some of the time you had cashed in to earn that money. This is not only counter productive when it comes to reaching our goals in life but it can be just plain frustrating as well!
So what is a non-necessary purchase that is possibly worth the trade of our money earning time? Well, I’ll use my MacBook as an example. I’m using it right now to right this blog post. Did I need to pay the premium price for an Apple product to have a computer to write in my blog? No. But I know computers and I know the quality of Macs compared to most PC products. And I know that for the next three or four years I will be much more satisfied with a Mac than a PC (THIS IS NOT A MAC VS PC POST, I LIKE BOTH). So for a couple hundred dolars, divided up over the time I will own the laptop I felt it was a small price to pay for that extra satisfaction. So, in my opinion, this was a non-necessary purchase that will positively affect my life. But that really neat thing-a-ma-jigger that I just had to have…NOT SO MUCH!
So I just want to encourage you to REALLY think about your purchases before you make them. Ask yourself, “Is this going to have a positive affect on my life? Is it worth the time I am about to trade for it?” And if you’re not sure, sleep on it and see how you feel in a day or two.