Imagine having a machine that could make an old man young.
I’m fifty-four. That’s not exactly ancient. But if you said, “Give me all your money. I’ll make you thirty-one years old.” If you could really do that, my cash transfer would make Snapchat look slow.
My bones don’t creak when I get out of bed. My back doesn’t ache. At least, not yet. I’m bald. I have wrinkles. But I’m doing OK…for now.
I can still run 10km in less than 40 minutes; complete 30 strict pull-ups; and do about 100 push-ups.
Impressed? Don’t be. I’m a mid-afternoon sun.
How many years of healthy mobility do I have left?
I don’t know.
What I do know, is that if I woke up looking 23 years younger, it would scare some people and magnetise me for others. Kim Kardashian, for one, might stalk me day and night.
“WHO IS YOUR SURGEON? I NEED TO KNOW!”
Unlike Kim, I care less about how I look. Instead, for me, it’s all about time.
Time.
It’s the only non-renewable resource. If we waste an hour, a day or a year, we can’t get it back.
If we’re wise with time, we can love more. We can learn more. We can forgive more. We can experience more.
But our clocks are relentless. Tick tock. Tick tock.
You might not want another 23 years of life, especially if you’re hounded by Kim and her big eye-lashed posse. But are you exchanging time for stuff that doesn’t matter?
Think about that.
In high-paced lives, many people do it. We blur lines between wants and needs. That wastes time. And wasted time is a wasted life.
Let’s cut to the research on life satisfaction. Daniel Kahneman won a Nobel Prize in Behavioural Economics. The late psychologist says we rarely know what will make us happy.
Like monkeys to shiny objects, we’re blinded by consumption.
Here are the facts:
Peer-reviewed studies reveal people who drive expensive cars don’t enjoy their driving experiences any more than those who drive mid-range cars.
Those who dine in fancy restaurants every week enjoy those experiences less than people who dine out less frequently.
People who take 5-star holidays don’t enjoy their vacations any more than people who choose more modest paths.
Those who upgrade their homes or buy big, fancy new ones, don’t enjoy their homes any more than those who live in modest digs.
And no, you aren’t different.
So, let’s turn this around. If “stuff” and expensive lifestyles don’t boost life satisfaction, then what does? That answer is time, if you allocate it right.
And you can buy time, if you don’t dance barefoot on coals of consumption.
For example, the true cost of buying an expensive car, just once, is more than $1 million. Don’t believe me? Assume you paid $170,000 for a new Range Rover. I pay $30,000 for a used, 4 door Toyota. We sell those cars a few years later. Yours depreciates a lot. Mine doesn’t.
After receiving proceeds from our sales, assume your car cost $100,000 more than mine.
If my $100,000 savings were invested for 30 years, earning an 8 percent return, it would have grown to $1 million.
That’s just one car…once.
A high-income earner who refuses to dance on hot coals could end up with a net worth that exceeds her contemporaries by more than $10 million. Remember, buying a new, luxury car, just once, is a $1 million loss.
And if, along the way, she buys time with that extra money, she could live a far better life.
Time.
Because she doesn’t fall for material traps, she could afford to take a year off in her 30s, 40s and 50s. She could travel the world, experience new things. She could pivot towards jobs that fill her soul, rather than sweating over pay.
She could retire early, dial back to work part-time, spend more time with her children. She could laugh more with loved ones. She could smell more roses and not feel the stress of running with Mr. and Mrs. Jones.
In the eyes of others, she would soon become Jones.
Such choices represent an enlightened life, and not an exhausting hamster track.
So, while no nifty invention can add decades to your life, you can master time.
Spend less. Invest more. Be wise with your money and live your best life.
Andrew Hallam is the best-selling author of Millionaire Expat (3rd edition), Balance, and Millionaire Teacher.
