Time, the Most Expensive Currency | Tales of an Excessive Spender
“Time is money.”
It’s such a popular phrase.
If you ask me what’s my most expensive currency, I would tell you with no doubt it is time. Our time is finite, and yes, in the universal sense, our time on this Earth is limited, and one day we will have to part our ways. But, I mean though, my time is limited, limited right now.
I was once in the hair salon and overheard a lady sitting next to me, saying that we go through three phases in which,
- When we are young, we have time, energy and no money,
- When we are working, we have energy, and money, and no time, and
- When we retire, we have time and money, and no energy.
I fall into the second category, and while also, a very demanding job, it doesn’t make it any better from the ‘time’ perspective.
Time is impacting my spending habits, and it definitely has a direct correlation with not conforming with some of the most common advice given to “save money”.
Take, for example, going to work using the metro. It is much cheaper than taking my car because I have to pay for 1. gas, 2. tolls, 3. parking, 4. any fines that come along, and 5. not to mention car service and maintenance.
I tried taking the metro once, and it was just that one time. Do you want to know why?
It took me 60 minutes to go to work! 10–15 minutes to walk to the station, 30 minutes to take the trip and another 10–15 minutes to walk to the office.
If I take my car, it’s 20 minutes to reach to my parking spot, then another 10 minutes to walk to the office. That is exactly 50% of my time cut down.
So, if I take the metro, I spend 2 hours of my day commuting, if I take the car, I spend 1 hour of my day commuting, but then that comes with a price tag. I haven’t even mentioned the “social currency” that comes with driving a cute car.
I have also seen this with partners who I work with. The “social currency” though is of no factor at all to impact their transportation decisions. In fact, the take uber instead of their car because they don’t want to waste their time finding a parking spot, parking and then going to their meeting. They’d rather just take an uber, get dropped off, and not worry about a thing. If you do have a private chauffeur though, then the same uber benefits come with an elevated “social currency”. Again, comes with another price tag.
