The Greatest Tragedy: Time vs Money

Photo of Gala Darling

Editor’s Note I recently read a gem of a book called “The Millionaire Fastlane”. Despite feeling skeptical by its title, its phenomenal content surprised and delighted me. I’ll say more about the book at the end of this article. Until then, enjoy this article from the book’s author, sharing an important message for us all.

Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now. There are only so many tomorrows.~Michael Landon
Today I am confessing something big.
Not many men would disclose this information, but I will.
My two favorite movies are Titanic and The Notebook — yes, two perennial favorites among the ladies and unmentionable by my male counterparts.

How does a guy like me (who like any typical man, likes fast cars, horsepower, beer, sports, and pretty women) come to a conclusion that these movies deserve a spot in the DVD cabinet next to the usual suspects like The Shawshank Redemption and The Godfather?
While the love story in both is tearful, these movies highlight something that we tend to neglect in our lives … and, I believe, is the greatest tragedy of all humanity.
That tragedy?
The illusion that our time is richly abundant when in fact, it is deathly scarce.
In both plots, our protagonists come to this reality as life’s death clock ticks away. In The Notebook, our lovers would do anything for 5 sentient minutes together. Just 5 minutes and when they get it, they beg for time to stop.
In The Titanic, as the ship sinks and few lifeboats remain, Caledon Hockley, a wealthy steel industrialist bargains for his life with a ship’s officer and offers cash for a lifeboat seat only to be rebuked with a stiff certainty: “Your money can’t save you anymore that it can save me.”
Think about that statement for a moment. Your money can’t save you.
Think about how we tend to treat MONEY as more scare than our TIME.
Trust me, it isn’t and I don’t care how rich or poor you are.
On any given day, over $300 trillion dollars are exchanged in the world currency markets — that is $300,000,000,000,000. To give that perspective, you’d have to spend $1 million a day for 8,000 years to spend ONE DAY’S worth of trading value. Nearly 900 life spans!
And yet, the great theft of all humanity remains: People blissfully trade away their time (and their life) for money.
People camp-out on sidewalks for days at Wal-Mart hoping to get a $199 HDTV.
People stand in line for hours hoping to get a free bucket of chicken.
People drive hours to save pennies.
And of course, the worst soul-sucking exchange of them all … your job.
Yes, the good old selling of Monday through Friday for the paycheck of Saturday and Sunday. If you are working a job just to pay the bills (and NOT investing in a business system capable of spawning both free time and money) your return on investment (ROI) is a negative 60%.
That’s right.
A big minus 60%!
In other words, you give 5 days of bondage (doing things you wouldn’t normally do) in exchange for 2 days of freedom (however you spend your weekend.)
Give this exchange some perspective.
Suppose a friend approached you with this great new investment. You give your friend $5 on Monday and on Friday evening, he will give you $2 back. Again, that’s a negative 60% return on investment. Great deal? Of course not!
Then why-o-why in the world do people have no problem trading their time at the same exact dismal rate of return when in fact, it’s our time that is the scarce resource and not money? Time is like a primordial fuel — when it runs dry, no amount of cash can save you from the end. And sorry, there are no fill-up stations.
One of the many facts I drive home in my book, The Millionaire Fastlane is that you can always make more money and yet, you can’t really create more time beyond the confines of your own healthy mortality.
However the good news is this: You can manipulate your TIME ratio because your lifespan consists of two types of time: Indentured time (time earning money) and free time (time spend doing whatever your please). Since your mortality makes your total time finite, the only option to defy time is to transfer indentured time to free time.
In other words, wouldn’t it be great to have MORE FREE TIME and less INDENTURED TIME? So when it comes to our careers, our life, and our time, wouldn’t it be wise to invest in something that had the ability to create both MONEY and FREE TIME?
Such things exist in what I call “The Fastlane“, but it doesn’t come from 40 years of mindless frugality, jobs, 401(k)s, and other traditional guru-speak dictum. If you want to be wealthy in both free time and money, stop being indoctrinated by the mainstream financial gurus who treat time abundantly — a foolish lifetime trade that will more likely make you bankrupt in time, rather than rich in money.
Because in the end when your deathbed arrives, your dying wish won’t be for more money, it will be for more time…

Editor’s Note:

I (Tina) recently and accidentally came upon MJ’s book “The Millionaire Fastlane”. Despite my initial skepticism, I decided to give the book a chance, after seeing all the 5-star reviews on amazon. The result? I absolutely fell in love with the author’s unconventional message and unique perspective. I don’t say this lightly.
The book doesn’t teach you how to get-rich-quick, it doesn’t talk about how to save. It’s a highly practical book on mindset and contains a ton of wisdom and much needed peep talk. This will be one book that I’ll be giving my son, when he’s old enough, to learn about money and business.
If you (like me) want to expand or better understand financial consciousness—regardless of how much money you currently have— I highly recommend this book. If you want to transition from a corporate job to entrepreneurship, I highly recommend this book.
At Think Simple Now, (you know that) I am committed to finding and sharing the best messages and ideas I can find on living a phenomenal life. While making money isn’t the path to lasting peace and happiness; it is on everyone’s mind. As such, I feel that this book is a must read.

Stop Chasing & Start Living

Photo by Kai Z Feng for Numéro magazine

The day I got the news that I had won the good mood blogger contest, felt like winning the lottery. Two months of built-up excitement, anxiety, and hard-earned daily marketing efforts had finally come to an end.
I remember the moment it happened, I felt a sense of relief and elation wash over my body, and I finally took a deep breath—for the first time in a few months, it seemed.
That same day, just a few hours later, I was running around doing last minute preparations for Ryan’s birthday party, and dealing with other personal drama. Suffice it to say that I was no longer in this bubble of joy and elation.
Even with over two months of built up anticipation and hard work, in a matter of hours, my mind was already racing for the next moment, seeking some other problem to hold on to.

By the time the next day rolled around, I was feeling normal again—as if nothing particular had happened recently.
This observation brought up an interesting point: We live our lives jumping from event to event; constantly chasing the next moment.
We work tirelessly, day and night, over some goal. And when the goal is reached or comes to a particular happy ending, we experience joy for a very short amount of time, before moving on to chase the next thing—that next goal.
The experience of an event is never quite the same as the image anticipated in our imagination, and the joy we actually experience never lasts as long as we originally thought.
In other words, what we imagine and anticipate in advance, always seems better and sweeter then when we actually experience it in reality. It’s never quite the same.
Many of us will try to cover our disappointment, caused by the clash between that which we’ve anticipated and that of reality, with some logical explanation. We might try to hide it, by pretending, or by seeking some other goal to chase after, so we don’t have to deal with the silent disappointment from this moment.
On some level, perhaps you can relate to what I’m saying. Here are some examples of where I’ve seen this show up:

• Spending a fortune on a wedding. Months of planning and anxiety all leads up to one simple day consisting of a few nerve-racking hours. Many brides and grooms can probably recall being exhausted, not relaxing, or not having eaten anything all day. The day rushes by and you don’t remember enjoying yourself.
• Working your butt off to create a business. When the business reaches a particular goal, even though you felt temporarily elation, once the excitement wears off, you’re left feeling a little empty.
• Spending 4 years in school so you can get a dream job. And then you get the job. Once you get the job, it’s not quite as sweet as you imagined.
• Wanting badly to be with someone romantically and then finally “getting” them. The reality isn’t the fairy tale you had imagined.
• Wanting a physical possession and finally gathering enough resources to acquire it, and then taking it for granted once we acquire it. Examples: house, gadget, car, clothing.
• Dreaming about traveling to some destination, and finally making a trip to that place. It’s never quite the same image as the one crafted by our imagination prior to the trip.

Recall the last time you worked hard towards the achievement of a goal or had much anticipation towards a desired ending. When the goal was met, when the desires were fulfilled, how long did the excitement last before you moved on to another target?
… a day? Maybe a few hours? Not very long right?
This is the power of our mind. This is our unbound, never-ending chase towards the next desire.
I’ve once heard a clever quote by Sri Ramana Maharishi that said: “As long as you desire something, its like getting a mountain; the minute you get it, it becomes a mustard seed!” Isn’t that so true?
And so, here we are, reminded once again to be present.
We are reminded once again to enjoy the fullness of this moment, regardless of what we are doing.
It is through the focused attention of doing in the now, where lasting happiness lies. The goal itself is just a superficial target, disguised as the source of happiness.
What goals are you striving towards right now? What desires do you have? Take a moment to reflect. Take a moment to consciously see that even if you’ve reached that desired accomplishment, it may not bring the kinds of lasting fulfillment that you might be seeking.
So, remember to slow down in your race towards the next moment. Start living in this moment.
This moment is just as important as the next. It is up to us to choose to fully experience the now, and in doing so experience lasting Joy. As Scott Dinsmore said, “Happiness not spent today does not equal more happiness tomorrow.”
Regardless of what you are doing today, remember to enjoy the doing of it. It is in these seemingly insignificant moments that Life happens. And if we don’t take advantage of these moments, life will happen anyway… without our awareness of it.
For today, remember to live a little, or to live A LOT!
Try your best to fully embrace the gift of life. Do something simple, but doing so in a magnificent way.
Take a few minutes to fully enjoy a cup of coffee or a cool glass of water. Get up from your desk and stretch out your body, and take some deep breaths. Go for a walk, enjoy the fresh air, and notice all the wonderful details along the street. Write your thoughts down in a journal. Go grocery shopping, and notice how blessed we are to have so much variety to choose from.