Career highs & nighs vs Time value of money
What’s your poison?
It’s okay to turn back when you realize you’ve been running 10 miles in the wrong direction. It saves you TIME…It’s okay to say no to a job that unreasonably eats into your time. You may (or may never) get the money back, but the time? Never. Sounds counterintuitive coming from an investment professional, huh? What happens to the highly revered ‘power of compounding’ or ‘time value of money’ anthems?
Time and money. It’s hard to have both. A middle-ground writer may tell you that you need a balance of both. But that’s a gray area and sitting on the fence is not my favorite seat. I like my colors in black or white. Either trade in time for money or money for time. Whatever choice you make depends on what you value and is a reflection of what feeds your soul, and most importantly your age.
Time is the currency of your youth; its value appreciates with ‘time’ and it doesn’t lose value to inflation. Guess what does? Your comfortable month-end paycheck. Yes, money indeed begets money. Money is what allows you to honor your values and have proper (financial) mental health. It may be true that most mental health issues are money issues. I don’t mean quit your job mindlessly to wallow in a quagmire of bills and anxieties as I’ve done before.
Don’t let the fear of bills stop you from pursuing other potentially successful paths. It’s called the ‘fear of the unknown’ or a more familiar term- ‘the career hamster wheel’. You’re worried about losing your job when God forbid, if you did, you’d barely survive 3 months. In fact, according to Bankrate, only 48% of adults in the United States have an emergency fund. And guess how much runway that equates to? Only three months’ worth of expense! This is the United States, the bedrock of the financial industry and one with the highest level of financial literacy! I don’t know what the numbers look like in emerging markets like Africa, but they’re most likely in the trenches.
Check in with your co-workers, if you can honestly speak about money or investment matters. No one who truly wants to leave can do that because of the bills trauma- pending mortgages, tuition fees, student debt, rising fuel costs- unless they have another offer or are lucky enough to have a supportive family or partner.
It’s good to know when you’re truly wasting away your life in the pursuit of money. Choosing time over money can be the best bet you make during your younger years; it could mean trying out new business ideas, starting your own company, or job-hopping to find what truly works for you.
I worked in the Venture Capital Industry in 2022; almost 90% of the founders I interacted with were 35 and below. Trust me, each time I dropped off a call, I’d ask myself ‘What do they have that I don’t?’
This article confirms that most Y-Combinator founders fall within the 24–34 years age range. Yet there you are waiting for a sign from the galaxy or for your mentor to magically hand you the latest get-rich-quick dog coin manual.
Yes, you could be missing out on the ‘power of compounding’ from your early working years, but that doesn’t compare to the regret you might have when you’re 50/60yrs+ for never trying anything in the first place. Trust me, you have more bandwidth and resilience than you’d think!
Case in point; I joined Medium as a subscribed member in 2018. I knew I always wanted to write. Instead, I waited 5 long years to finally hit that ‘Write’ button. I don’t know what I was waiting for. The final coming of Jesus? A job that would validate my writing skills? Enough money?
Time tells us what words cannot. It reveals who we are. We can look back and smile at the ignorant personalities we wore with naïve confidence. I can look in the mirror and either shy away or smile at the woman I have become, or at least, the person I want to be.
Time is patient; once you realize its value, it allows you to complete the puzzle at a steady state, at your own pace. For me, it’s slowly unpacking who I am, gently and gracefully. Taking the time to reconnect and painfully and slothfully tie together all the pieces of my story. It’s realizing that time is my friend; the earlier I address and reveal my true self, the earlier I arrive at becoming my future, better self.
I’m learning to slow down, to be more patient with people, with myself, and with my choices, decisions, and goals. With time, my story will make sense. I reckon that it’s supposed to be a slow journey, that’s the fastest and only way I can get there. It’s a hard and unconventional personality to have in a world that glorifies instant gratification and quick fixes, but I’m willing to bet on myself. Time will tell.
Slow down to speed up.
I am Valentine and this is my first Medium article. It may have the don’ts of a first article- a short read/maybe lacking in depth/breadth/with no grammar editing tools...but the first draft of everything is crap. A crappy first draft is better than no draft.
