Free Time Can Be Costly
During your working years, you have your job to take up most of your week. The weekend is viewed as “free time”. And we view our free time as the time we get to do what we want to do, not just what we must do. Of course, if you have a house with a yard, there is a lot of must-dos on the weekends.
As I attempt to help you develop a better mindset for money, I want you to consider how your free time can be costly. When you have free time to go shopping or travel, I hope you remember to consider your financial condition, such as the perspective on how well your income covers your living expenses.
The Expense of Living
What creates the expense in your living? Mostly you do. Your choices about where to live, your type of housing, how to use utilities, how you communicate (phones, internet, etc.), what you eat, where you eat, what you use for transportation, how you protect your assets, and where you work.
You have more control over your choices than you think. If you intend to accumulate assets over your lifetime, you must pay attention to your choices by learning about your options.
Learning Your Options
I know there are a lot of demands and distractions with friends and family vying for your free time. So, I know that taking the time to learn about your options with any of your major decisions can seem unreasonable.
And, yes, there is no reason to be concerned about learning your options if there was no potential cost for not learning. For instance, when you consider that the cost will vary for most anything you choose to buy, depending on the source or location or timing, there are savings available if you choose to look for them.
Work on Your Time Habits
It is very easy to lose track of your time or allow others to use up your time. I only say that as a warning to reduce your chances of having regrets, like regrets over not pursuing an interest or a dream.
We all form habits by observation or by doing routines that become automatic. Most of those habits are an unconscious behavior. It will be important for you to review your habits and the habits of those around you that can affect your free time or productive time, depending on what you value.
And what you value will become the basis for looking at what habits you would like to change to add more value to your free time.
Both Good and Bad Habits Accumulate
Whether it is time or money, your habits related to both will accumulate to your benefit or not. There are some good books to read in your free time that you may find very valuable as they relate to this topic. Among the ones that I have read are:
- Rich Habits, Poor Habits, by Tom Corley and Michael Yardney.
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey.
- The Richest Man in Babylon, by George S. Clason.
Your Habits Will Affect Your Retirement
When you retire, with no set schedules, you can lose track of what day of the week it is.
Therefore, after you have taken a break, you can transition from a hectic work schedule to your new retirement schedule. That is, if you have thought about what your retirement schedule will be. Please think about that! Make the time to think about what you would like to do in retirement. Having plans will make it more of an adventure!
If you worked on your habits and the options to help you have more control of your free time and your available money, you will be able to reap a better retirement than most.
Part of our human nature is to enjoy the moment, the food in front of us, the fun we can have instead of work, etc. We will delay disciplines that will help us accumulate to our benefit.
Make time to read. Make time to learn about your options to save on your living expenses or to add to your income, to add to your savings for the future.
Then, those savings can experience the miracle of compounding to grow on their own. You can read up on that, if you make the time.
But for the Grace of God
There is a well-known observation, “But for the Grace of God, there go I.” This refers to seeing a desperate person, homeless and hopeless, and realizing how blessed you are. Events may have dealt a heavy blow to that person. But their choices along the way left them ill-prepared to react to that event.
How great it would be if you were blessed enough to help them with their basic needs. That is another reason to learn about your options to save and invest to be able to be a blessing to others and your family.
Use the Time You Have
A recent study shows a growing number of people are living to be 100 years old. I have an insurance policy that expires when I turn 120 years old. I hope to outlive that policy!
However, my grandfather on my dad’s side of the family died at 51 and my dad died at 58 years old. I am well beyond that, now. My mom lived to be almost 89. But there are no guarantees.
I know that some reading this are feeling so bewildered with life that they wish it would end tomorrow. But do not give up. There is hope!
A lot of the disappointments in life gain relevance to our future by how we react to them. Choose to not let situations and the actions of others rule your future. Work through, work around, work with what you have and how to learn better ways to react to difficult situations. Do not give up!
You can learn to live longer and better by making time to learn your options to save, to earn, to invest, to be able to react positively to the negative events in your life.
Make Your Free Time Valuable
While there is a lot to learn over your lifetime, your habits in using time will determine how much you try to learn. Some will read a lot. Some will learn by talking to or listening to those who read a lot.
An important thing to remember is to learn about your options to earn and to save. While learning that we have more options when we make our choices, those choices will begin to have more value, helping us get to where we want to go.
Two to five years is long enough to make some big improvements in your situation. The question is will you make the effort to change things? The choice is up to you. In which direction do you wish to go? Where do you hope to arrive?
How will you invest if you do not learn how to invest? How will you invest if you do not learn how to save? How can you earn enough money to save if you do not learn your work options and what skills you need to learn? And how will you be able to react more confidently and positively to life’s events if you do not learn more about how others have learned to react to difficulties and the fact that God does help those who work to help themselves improve?
Make your free time more valuable in your habits related to reading, studying your options for better decision making. Adding knowledge will add to your value and your ability to make good use of your time, making it more valuable and purposeful.
You will add to your options to earn, to save, and to make your savings grow. Then you will have more options with all that free time in retirement!