Tine > Money.

Free Time > Almost Everything.

Time is, without a doubt, the single most valuable finite resource humans deal with.

As every second ticks by, you're never getting it back.

Don't fuck around, it'll whizz past and be gone before you know it.

Both are, it’s a tightrope walk, until the end, a balancing act, that I must balance until I’m in the casket.

Time. Now that I am in my 60s, I am acutely aware of time winding down.

You never get your time back.....

It’s not one or the other. People in prison have plenty of time, but what they don’t have is freedom to do the things they necessarily want to do with that time. And freedom to do what we want is ultimately dependent on money to do it. The homeless people we see on the streets have plenty of time as well, but even though they’re not locked up, what do they do with their time? Play golf? Hold BBQ parties for their friends? Check out the newest Broadway show? Putter around the yard or garden? Work up loads for their newest rifle to get ready for the mountain sheep hunt?

As a personal example, during an early assignment to the Washington, DC, area in the Army my basic living expenses were so high that I couldn’t afford the gasoline to do much more than commute to work and run essential errands. I wasn’t required to work weekends and evenings during that assignment, but what could I do with that spare time? My activities were pretty restricted because I didn’t have the freedom that money gives. It may not be necessary to have more money than we can spend to be content, but it’s necessary to have enough of it.

Depends on the activity; a good example is cutting firewood. I’ll spend an entire day felling a big tree, bucking it up, splitting it, and stacking it. Depending on the type of tree, location, weather, ease of the operation, I might get around a half a cord of wood. A full day of work, or pay $75-100 for the wood...easy choice for me. I’ll do the work and save the money.

30 years ago > Money

Today > Time

I've figured out lots of ways to make money. I still haven't come up with a method to create time.

My Spanish isn't that great, but I remember a toast that I heard when I lived both in Puerto Rico and in Spain.

English translation: "Health, wealth, and love, and the time to enjoy them."

L'chaim, lo L'kesef.

I recently had a talk with the wife about this very issue!

Her family is very into Dave Ramsey. They paid for us to go through the class and want us to be militant money savers as well. I made some tough choices and sold a very expensive truck that I enjoyed quite a bit for a much less expensive vehicle (still have payments, but about a third of what they were). I was out running and listening to Ramsey's podcast and got sick of his arrogance. I am sick of obsession over money.

I decided that as for me and my family, we will spend our time serving the Lord. We will remain conservative with spending and only borrow as a last resort. I dont want to spend hours budgeting, be obsessive about saving, or focus on money more than I focus on Faith.

So for me, its time. As long as I can work, I can provide for my family without too much thought.

As long as I have enough money to meet my financial obligations, beyond that time wins. I made a move 2200 miles across country a couple years ago and while there were multiple factors involved, what put me over the edge was attending the funerals of five friends or coworkers all who died before the age of 55, some pretty financially set. I bet they all had plans to go do x,y or z with family or friends and never got the chance. I also often think of the troops I served with who were killed at 20. I think about living my life to the fullest as I got lucky. As another poster said no says from a death bed, I wish I had made more money

It's over simplification to say if I have no money I really don't need personal time. I really don't enjoy sitting in front of a section 8 housing complex sipping a 40 of Old English. So money is damned important. Eating Ramen focuses ones priorities, or it should.

Now that I've approached a time when I have enough money to enjoy time off, the time has become important. I am at an income level where I can have one or the other, time or money, but not both at the same time.