Truth #8 — The True Cost of Something Is the Amount of Life You Exchange For It
Everything we decide to do in our lives requires an exchange of time.
Let’s imagine you want to learn a language, and so you sign up for a language class. There’s the cost of the class to consider, but there’s also the “time” you’ll need to invest in it.
That’s time you’ll spend, and never get back.
It’s the same when we buy things with the money we have earned.
Just like the sun’s energy is stored up in fossil fuels (oil, gas, etc) and released when we burn them, in a way, your effort and energy expended are “stored up” in the dollar bills that you exchange when you buy something.
So, if you want to buy a new 50k car, there’s the monetary value of the car to consider, but there’s also the “cost/value” of the time you spent working to acquire the money to buy the car.
So the question becomes, what is the true cost of something?
A non-renewable resource
You can always earn more money, but you can’t earn more time.
That makes it the most precious resource.
Think about it: How much money would a failing 80-year-old billionaire pay you for 5 of your healthy years? He’d probably give you everything he had.
When you start to think of your time as a resource, it changes what you want to do with your time, and what you decide to spend your money on.
It should also change how you live your life.
For example, what's the right figure you’d need to earn for you to invest 5 years working in a job you hate? — even if the money is great, you’ll never get those years back.
Everyone's answer might be different, but thinking of your time as a resource should lead you to ask these types of questions — and hopefully make better decisions.
At the end of the day, money comes and goes, but time just goes.
The average person only gets 4000 weeks. Each one is valuable.
It’s therefore important to remember that the true cost of something is the amount of your life you exchange for it.
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