DAY 16: TIME IS MONEY

Credit: community.tradeking.com

Huh? What did you say? Someone told you ‘Time is not money’? Yeah, who was that?

Me?!

Oh, yesterday? Well, I am not changing my mind today but listen to this.

Someone once said that we should imagine every second of the day as $1. That is, if every second of your life was $1 dollar, will you still spend it the way you have been spending it?

He said that we all wake up with ‘$86400’- 86400 seconds, everyday in our time account. How we spend it determines whether we will be successful and rich, or not.

Today’s tip is: look at time, your time, as if it is money. Write out ALL the things you do that make you spend more, or save less, and note them. Actually, what is more important is to keep doing the one thing you wrote down yesterday that always puts money in your pocket. When you continually find out ways of doing that and you stick to those ways, by the law of use and disuse, you will discover that you have less time for the ones that take away money from your pocket.

This is so important for you to attain your financial goals as at when due. For example, many women find out that they can’t control how much they spend on call credit/prepaid recharge cards. They always seem to rationalize their need to call and talk on phone. Some engage in impulsive spending when they go window shopping.

For me, I can’t but be connected to the internet. Sometimes, I spend more than N10,000 monthly on buying data plans from MTN and Airtel, majorly. Lately I tried out Etisalat and Glo. I am still looking for the cheapest alternative (I will share it with you when I find and confirm it). I also used to spend a lot on recharge cards. So I discovered long ago that I have been giving too much of my money to the telecoms.

So I had to come up with ideas on how to reduce my expenses and save more. There is no way I can be rich if I am spending up all my savings, and living from pay check to pay check –and likewise you too.

The key to living financially free is to be a faithful diligent steward of your money and know what you do with your time that makes you lose money every time, and note it. Then double your focus on the opposite- those things that you do that helps you make money/puts money in your pocket directly or indirectly, so as to reduce the time you spend on the other group. Is it reading about your profession to be an up-to-date expert in it? Is it seeing and talking to your patients/clients/customers and making them comfortable around you? Is it the times you spent/spend with a particular friend or mentor or leader who always seem to inspire you and bring out the best in you? Is it time devoted to your family- wife and kids, helping them become more and more like you?

Today's tip is to help you identify valuable-time thieves, wasters and killers, so that you can avoid them.

Overall, don't forget that the more you track your expenses and know where/what you are spending too much on, the faster you can know what activities you do with your time that is costing you more dearly, and which ones you should keep doing to in order to avoid the debt-incurring ones.