This is NOT another normal article on how money, compounding interest, and the value of time creates wealth. Trust me, this article is different. It has two aliens in it named, Albert and Cliff.
TIME is a fascinating dimension to explore. Philosophers have theorized that TIME is our fourth dimension of life here on earth. Considering that our minds spend the majority of our lives processing the information flowing out of the three dimensions of space, I thought it would be a great investment of time to explore this fourth dimension of TIME. Let’s really learn and explore how the value of time impacts our minds, attitudes, and ability to create wealth.
I’d like to ask you question before we travel deeper into this story:
“How does a wealthy and a poor mind see the value of time differently?”
As you think about that, I am going to tell a story that travels further into this fourth dimension of time.
I have spent large chunks of my life immersed in both rich and poor cultures. I have had ample opportunities to examine the drastically different thinking patterns that exist between both poor and rich minds. The way they choose to think is drastically different. One of the biggest differences between them is how differently they interact with the dimension and value of time.
Now, let’s travel further into this story. I am going to introduce two characters who are actually aliens who live in outer space on another planet.
The planet we are going to visit is named, Planet Desporia. It is populated with a society that is half poor aliens, and half wealthy aliens.
On planet Desporia, lives an alien named Cliff. Cliff is a poor alien and volunteered to speak to us how the poor half of their culture thinks.
“Good morning and welcome to Planet Desporia. My name is Cliff, and I have been living here all my life. The majority of our resources here on Planet Desporia have been consumed by us so the majority of our society is poor because there are few resources to go around.”
“On a normal day I wake up and I feel a mixture of helplessness and depression in my soul about why my life is the way it is. These feelings cause me to feel a wrath of anger at the aliens who have made us poor. I never asked to be created into this mess. It’s almost like the universe chose this way of life for me. I feel stuck in this fate that I cannot change.
I really don’t believe it’s my fault that I am poor. It’s really everyone else’s fault. If the rich aliens who govern my planet would have done a better job caring for our resources, and making life better for all of us, then I think my life could be better.
Most of my life I usually already feel tired and worn down. I figure what’s the use of trying to change my situation? The chances of me ever becoming rich are so slim that it’s not even worth the effort to try. I just find it easier to turn my brain off most of the time. What’s the point of trying for a better life if it’s unlikely I get it, right?
On planet Desporia, we have this invention called VMT. VMT stands for virtual media transmissions. It’s a media streaming service that never ends, and you can get all the entertainment you ever want without ever having to think an original thought on your own. I spend most of my time just watching that. It’s a lot easier and less depressing to be entertained than to try.
When I am not watching VMT, I sit on a rock outside of my home, and I look out at the universe beyond our planet. I get a feeling that there should be more to life than this. But I can’t put my finger on what it is, so I just keep going with the flow of life here in Desporia.
If everything else changed around me, then maybe I’d finally have a shot at being a wealthy member of our society. But until then, there really is no hope or opportunities for my life to change at all.
Ok, I have also lined up an interview with another alien who lives on Planet Desporia named, Albert. Albert is the wealthiest alien currently alive on the planet.
“Hello, my name is Albert. Even though I am the wealthiest alien alive on this planet, money isn’t my most valuable possession. I know many more things far more interesting to talk about than how much money I have.
TIME is my most valuable possession. Because no matter how wealthy I am, TIME is the only thing I can’t buy more of. That’s why I treat my time so preciously. I will only be alive for a finite period of time and I want to spend as much time as I can exploring who I am and this awesome planet around me.
I became the wealthiest alien on this planet after I had a revelation one day. I realized that how I spend my time will determine how much wealth I have in my life. I believe this is the key to wealth no matter what planet you live on.
Go ahead and ask yourself: How do you spend your time?
If you waste your time, then you will be poor. But if you choose to reach into the dimension of time and create value with your time, then you will find yourself on your way to wealth.
How do I define value?
Value is a substance that benefits everyone’s life. Value is wisdom. It’s an experience. It’s an invention, or product, that improves the quality of life for everyone who experiences it. Value, is ultimately found in anything that makes people’s lives better and more fulfilling.
As I get older, I realize more and more that how I choose to spend my time determines the amount of wealth in my life. I believe anyone’s future is ultimately up to them. If you want to be wealthy, simply spend your time creating value with your time. The more value you create with your time, the wealthier you will become.
That is the greatest skill that all wealthy individuals in the universe have: They take their time, and they turn it into wisdom and experience that they can share with others to improve the quality of life of those who live around them.
Ok, now let’s discuss my final thoughts on the value of time, and how time impacts wealth.
Ask yourself right now, what do you do with your time?
Do you waste it? Or do you create things that have value?
The way I see it, poor aliens like Cliff consume their time and do nothing with it.
But wealthy aliens use their time to create things of value, which can be sold and shared to increase the quality of life for everyone who lives on their planets.
Turning time into things of value is the path to wealth.
STUFF WE LOVE:
Personal Capital is a net-worth calculating tool that turns your finances into a puzzle that’s fun to solve. It’s free and makes monitoring your money easy.
Bluehost is how we started this blog. Launch yourself onto the internet. Your friends are out there. It’s an easy to start your blog today.
Sometimes you need to really think about whether time or money is more valuable to you. It sucks because many money-saving strategies are more time-intensive but save you money (but when you save money and retire early you have waaay more time in the long run).
Thanks Mrs Picky Pincher. Like you said, Time is such an important thing to think about. It’s value changes depending on what stage of life we’re in. Saving money is a way to get more time. But if you’re spending an hour of your life to save $5, it’s important to look at the opportunity cost of making that $5. Yes, you saved $5. But could you have created more value in your life with that hour of time if you had focused it on something else?
I believe time is the greatest thing of value because it’s irreplaceable, but we also need money to enjoy our time alive, so money is almost equally important. That’s why I chose to write about it. Wealth, time and meaning, purpose, and value are all part of the puzzle that make up a fulfilling wealthy life. I think it’s really important to think about how they all fit together to structure our own individual lives that are do unique.
Great topic to discuss! It’s all about finding balance between senseless spending to “live your life as fully as possible,” and setting aside your resources to ensure that you have freedom and choice, today and in the future. For me, as you touched upon in the article, we need to find our values, and what truly makes us happy, by learning and growing as human beings. And the way we learn and grow is by taking time to breathe, learn about the world by doing and participating and enjoying, which can largely be done without the need to spend insane amounts of money.
I think a truly important step towards achieving anything financially, is by realising that just spending money won’t make you happy. And once you realise that, you will be able to find the time, and the resources, to do what really matters to you, whatever that might be.
Hey thanks Lars for stopping in. You are so right. Time is a great subject and dimension to explore. It’s why I decided to write 1,300 words on it. The entire life experience is really learning how to balance what we need and want, compared to how much time we have to sacrifice, so that we can experience it.
It’s all about balancing the time we’re sacrificing, for the money we need, to live the life we want. The way to wealth is by simply reducing all of the things you really don’t need or care about (for happiness), and focusing on building a lifestyle that naturally accumulates the things that do increase your happiness.
Thanks for reading this experimental piece and finding value in the point I was trying to communicate.
Amen! And I implore you to experiment further in this direction, because I think it’s something that’s not only difficult to express eloquently and understandably; it’s a message that’s difficult to receive and process as well.
Great thoughts here! Value is definitely way more than money!
Hey, Thanks Daniel! I absolutely loved your summary when you retweeted this article on twitter. I am going to quote you right here:
“Value is wisdom. It’s an experience.”
Man, that’s exactly what I was trying to say! If you can use your time to create value (wisdom and experience) that you can share with the world. That is the true path to wealth! I’ll be honest it was a hard article to write. I mean that’s not a subject that is fun to lecture to people in a boring article. So I tried to liven it up with out of this world characters (literally). We always try to write each article like it can reach at least one person. I can see you got it, which means it was worth writing.
This is a great article. That is true as far as how you spend your time and gaining value or wealth. All people that are poor don’t always waste time, some people have disabilities and things that hinder how successful they are able to be. But sadly the majority of people that are poor do waste time, even if it was instead of studying they did something else, so no college, or you leave work early or don’t learn that new skill so you don’t advance in your job. People who use their time on things like a trade, a skill, an education, networking, etc. come out ahead…not always, some ppl have bad luck. Wasted time compounds. Again great article!
Hey thanks Drsan for commenting. I think you’re totally right on. You know, if I was ever going to turn this post into a full book, I’d really flesh out the idea, and show that the poor don’t always waste time. There are underlying reasons why all of us are the way we are. Some of these reasons go much deeper than just how we spend our time. But since I was only turning this into a 1000 word post, I just wanted to make a thought-provoking article on the subject and dimension of time. I do think the way we utilize our time is a huge indicator of out potential to build wealth, but it isn’t the end all answer. That’s another reason why I made the characters aliens. The reason us human beings are the way we are is just such a complex issue I don’t think you can sum up in 1000 words. But with aliens, I was able to paint my one view on time with them. Either way it was a hard, complex issue to write about, and I am glad you were entertained with the article at least, and hopefully it made you think a little bit about how the dimension of time relates to your own journey of living your vision of a successful life. Keep coming back friend, I love to talk with open minded, creative people like you who love to explore new and creative ideas to make our own lives better.
As I get older I feel like I am really understanding the concept of how important time really is. I really enjoy the show Shark Tank and it’s something that Mark Cuban would talk about all the time. It wasn’t until recently that it’s all really sunk in.
I was talking to my boss the other day about trading time for money and how, I’m getting tired of spending my time on things that I’m not passionate about. So hopefully in 2017 I can start to align some of my passions with the time that I spend.
Hey Mustard Seed Money. I totally understand your views as I have reached a similar stage in my life. I don’t have ALL the money I need yet to totally let go and pursue my passion projects full time yet, but I am alot better off than I was last month. Over the last five years, at lest, it has really dawned on me that we really only get to experience life once. So that’s why I am desperately trying to find a way to live my dreams in this life. I am trying to will my dream life into existence because, what to I have to lose anyway? I am going to die eventually, and I’d much rather spend my time doing what I love to do and that’s teaching, helping, creating, leading, and being free to explore this magical place on earth. Don’t get me wrong. I love to work. But I just love to work on the projects that I think I can use to make the world a better place. I write about money and wealth here at wealth well done. But really I am writing about the path to happiness, faith, realness, purpose, and finding yourself and exploring what God has blessed you with. That is our definition of the wealth we are trying to build. In the next few weeks I am going to publish a new “start page” that really outlines out mission. Our dream life is to turn Wealth Well Done into it’s own full time ministry where we can just help people find the path to a better life. Keep stopping back in, and look for that when I finally publish it. Thanks MSM.
It’s to bad your character had to work all the time at his job that pay minimum wage. Perhaps he should spend their time getting further educated to get a better job to make more money? Or perhaps he should invent a rock swivel chair? Either way you cut it, take care of your time AND health so you can make and spend and live off that wealth.
Thanks Todd for commenting! Yes, that is too bad that that character chose to blame, find excuses, and work at a low paying job rather than getting up and finding their skills, talents, and the purpose God created them for. I think that was ultimately the point I was trying to make. Rather than saying, how can I be better, and make my life better? That character just chose to let life make that decision for them. That’s how the poor mind thinks, where the wealthy mind thinks, Ok, I have a finite time to be alive, so I’m going to make the best out of this possible time that I have to experience life. Since it’s just a short article I didn’t have all the time I wanted to really explain the differences between the two minds, but I think I got my point across. I just hope it entertained you, and made you think a little deeper about the time we all have alive, and the value we can create with it if we choose to have the right mindset. Thanks Todd and I’d love to see you stop back from time to time. We publish on Thursdays.
The alien interview angle was a great way to present this topic, and it made it seem relevant without being accusatory of any one people group, which I’m sure would have happened if you’d just talked about Earthlings, haha! It sounds like the point you were trying to get at is that everyone can choose to live a more fulfilled, less wasted life, regardless of their income, and that choosing to create valuable moments over and over again will most often lead to at least some level of material wealth as a side benefit. On the other hand, choosing to exclusively consume and be entertained without creating anything in return will lead to poverty. Did I get that right?
Thanks for the Awesome comment, Kyle! I would have replied sooner, but I just found this comment in the spam folder. Now I know to check my spam folder occasionally through the week.
Man, Kyle, If you got all of that from that article, then I did my job, as those were the exact points I was trying to communicate!!!!!! And yes, you’re totally right on your earthlings take. On my first draft I wrote it about rich and poor human minds, but then when I re-read it, I didn’t want to sound judgmental because that’s not the type of person I am. I didn’t want to feel all high and mighty and lecture about how a “poor mind” is less superior than a “wealthy mind.” Nobody learns when you’re speaking from the voice of arrogance or pride. So I scrapped the first draft and decided to have fun with some alien characters who would allow everyone to have some fun and an open mind and explore new thoughts without feeling like any human way was being judged or ragged on.
Very Vonnegut-esque! Time is finite, money may or may not be. It’s a hard balance, and this is a really neat way to think about it.
Ha! Thanks Penny! When I wrote the original article I got stumped by how I was going to best tell the story. I was struggling, and that’s not a place any creative person wants to be! So I dug deep into my favorite artists who have influenced me, and I remember how Kurt Vonnegut would use aliens to tell his stories. So I thought, why not? Maybe that’s the way this story is supposed to be told. I can see from your comments that you got the point I was trying to make. Who cares if it was aliens or humans in the story… it’s all about learning and becoming a better person after reading great writing. That I was able to communicate a very difficult subject clearly makes me very happy.
What a great thought provoking topic! I bounce back and forth between the two alien’s thoughts. I get into learning mode and creation mode and then go overboard and after spending a bit of time creating, I go back into consumption mode to recharge. I think both sides are good to use from time to time as long as they are used in the right way.
I know that I can’t always be creating value 100% of the time. I turn and consume to learn and grow more and that allows me to create more value going forward! Kind of like reading and writing blog posts. I read to get creativity going and then go create something. After creating, I go back to more reading to get inspired once again!
Thanks so much for the comment @myfamilyonabudget. You know one way my wife and I have learned how to stay in creation mode is by using physical activity and adventures to replace our “consumption time.” After lots of work, and feeling drained, we have learned that we love to go for long walks, bike rides, hikes, skiing, to recharge ourselves. We’re in the consumption mindset because we’re consuming nature, but luckily nature is free, inspiring, and life-giving. And then even when we’re outdoors consuming nature, we’re actually still in creation mode because we’re creating special unique life moments and physical exercise that is making us healthier, and we enjoy that time together. Our outdoor adventure life is a huge part of our daily happiness, because we can still create wealth in our lives, even when our brains are “turned off.” Good luck as you find what works for you. We’re doing our best to completely cut out the consumption mindset, and find ways to trick our minds to still be creating even when we’re consuming. Like Tony Robbins said, “The way to massive success, is through massive determined action.” THe more creating you can discipline yourself to do, the more success and happiness you can find. Peace, friend.