Finding Balance – Time vs. Money

I grew up on a dairy farm. My parents ran that business from the time I was six until about a month after I graduated high school, and the barn burnt down. Twice a day, every day, the cows needed milked. It didn’t matter if it was Christmas, vacation, I had a huge football game or someone goes to the hospital, the cows needed milked. For the first 5-6 years, us kids were still too incompetent to handle the chores, so my dad never had a morning or evening off. Once a year, they would hire some neighbor to do the chores so we could visit his family for Thanksgiving. But other than that, we were stuck on the farm. Never did my parents see me play a game of football, never did we go camping as a whole family.

Being a part of this when we were little caused me and my siblings to realize the importance of having free time. My brothers and sister all chose occupations that allowed time for vacation, and try to make the most of their free time when they have it. I chose to go into engineering, as it enables my wife to stay home with the kids, and I have the free time once I decide to come home.

Money is Necessary, but Excessive Money is Not.  

I understand very well that we need money to have a decent life. We need the necessities of life, plus some extra to do what we want. We all want the comforts of life. At what point however, are the comforts of life taking priority of having a life? You may need to ask yourself if the overtime you are putting in is worth it. 

Covetousness or “keeping up with the Joneses” is a terrible way to spend our lives. This is so common, and so detrimental, that it is listed among the first Ten Commandments given to Moses for distribution. Covetousness will drive us to work the long hours, to decrease the number of children we have, and to have our wives work thereby destroying our familial roles. Doing so will enable us to buy the newer car, take the fancier vacations, or buy the bigger house, but at what cost? 

There are ways we can stretch the money we do create to our maximum potential.

I shared the personal finance series, which is a regurgitation of a class my church puts out.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/manual/personal-finances-for-self-reliance?lang=eng

A funny thing about the money/time dichotomy is that the amount of money a person makes is quite variable. I know some people who make ten times what the average person makes, never have I met someone who has lived ten times as long as the average person lives. Our time on earth is relatively fixed. As such, we need to be more conscious about using our time wisely. 

Free time is Necessary, Excessive Free Time is Not

As you are living life, try to not become a wage slave, or let any of your other commitments tie you down to the point that you are not enjoying life anymore. Be wary of time suckers, things that keep you distracted from the more enjoyable parts of life. If you are hanging out and watching TV for more than an hour per evening, but can't find the time to do the active things in life, you are doing it wrong.

Prioritize your time by planning ahead. Plan those vacations, those evenings out, and those things you really want to do. Plan those big jobs you need to do during the week. Friday morning, I need to swap out the radio in the van and see the dentist, but then I am going to take the family on a drive up this canyon and go sledding. If I neglect the radio in the morning just because I would rather sleep in, I will have to skip the sledding trip and do the radio then.

Health is an important of time. Say you let yourself balloon up to 350 pounds. You may have the time in theory, but you can no longer take your kid on that 50 mile backpack trip you were planning in your mind during your college years. You may have retirement time, but watching Wheel of Fortune is not the same as traveling across the nation like you wanted.

Weekly, my family will have a meeting and discuss upcoming obligations and then bring up ideas for things we can do. Be intentional with your time. If you spend too much time freely, I have found the the quality of that free time goes down. Sure, a Star Trek marathon may be enjoyable, but spending a whole weekend like that surely is not worth a road trip with friends/family that you could have done.