Time Is Money?

“Time is money.”

I’m sure you’ve heard that famous little line before.

The phrase has been going around for a long time. In fact, it dates all the way back to the days of Ben Franklin.

Time is money. Time is money. Time is money.

So what does this even mean? How is time money?

Are the two words really interchangeable?

Well, the phrase “time is money” has a lot of value to it. In a sense, time really is money.

But literally speaking, it’s not. And it’s important to recognize the distinction. I’ll get to that in a little bit.

So anyways, let’s talk about it.

More time can earn you more money

With more time, you can make more money. Simple enough, right?

Time is a value resource

If you have more time, you can use that time to earn more money. In theory at least.

Say you cut your commute time 30 minutes each way. So you now have one more hour in the day.

You can use that hour to make money, if you choose. Maybe that’s working overtime at your job. Or taking online surveys. Or working on your side hustle.

Whether you use your extra time in this way is up to you. The point is you can. More time can mean more money in your pocket.

Opportunity cost

Now let’s look at this another way.

Ben Franklin is credited with coining the phrase “time is money.”

In a 1748 essay called Advice to a Young Tradesman, Franklin wrote the following.

“Remember that time is money. He that can earn ten shillings a day by his labour, and goes abroad, or sits idle one half of that day, though he spends but sixpence during his diversion or idleness, it ought not to be reckoned the only expence; he hath really spent or thrown away five shillings besides.”

If you’ve studied economics before, you know this as an opportunity cost.

If you skip half a day of work, you lose half a day of wages.

Pretty simple, right?

If you run your own business and make $50,000 a year, that’s great. But what if you could have easily made $60,000 as a manager of the restaurant across the street?

Then you didn’t really make $50,000. You lost $10,000. You could have earned $10,000 if you spent your time differently.

That’s opportunity cost. When you think about money, you have to think about time. Time has a price attached to it.

Time in investments

More time means more money for your investments.

Say you have $10,000 to invest in the stock market. You earn a 7 percent annual return.

If you leave your money in the market for 10 years, you have X. If you leave your money in the market for 30 years, you have Y.

So when it comes to investments, time is money!

This one is time in a bit of a different sense, because you don’t really have to spend your time to make money in investments. It’s passive income. You can just invest it and let it be if you want. The simple passage of time itself earns you money in the long run.

More money can earn you more time

Now let’s flip this. Does more money mean more time? Yes, in a sense.

More money, more freedom

If you have more money, you can afford things that save you time.

You can order delivery instead of going to pick up your food.

You can hop on an airplane instead of driving ten hours to go back home.

And if you’re as rich as Mark Cuban, you can buy a private jet.

Cuban said that buying a private jet was his “all-time goal” because “the asset [he values] the most is time, and that bought [him] time.”

Yeah, if you have a private jet, you save lots of time. No long TSA lines. No long rides to the airport. No long layovers.

Sounds nice right?

More money, more time on Earth?

So yeah, money can buy you time. So far, I’ve been talking about time as the ability to do what you want. “Time” meant “freedom” to do things you enjoy or are passionate about.

But what about time as the literal amount you have to live on Earth?

Can money buy that?

I mean, sort of. But not really.

Money can buy you access to the best quality healthcare. It can buy you safety and seclusion when necessary. It can buy you the attention of people looking out for you.

That will help you live longer, on average. But it only goes so far. There’s a limit to money’s influence on how much time you have.

There’s only so much control you can really have over how long you live. So money can’t really buy you time in this way.

Now, what is Time?

Okay. Maybe it’s a weird time to be asking this question. But it’s dawned upon me as I’ve been writing this article.

What in the world is time anyway? It’s such an odd concept. How do you even define it?

Time is an intangible, man-made concept. It’s the movement of existence from the past to the future.

Okay, whatever. You know that much.

Honestly, I thought about going deeper here. And I started to, but it got way too philosophical and made my brain hurt.

So I’ll save you the headache.

I think it’s just worth noting that when I talk about time in this article, I talk about it as relative to the individual.

Time exists beyond just you. But you only care about it as it pertains to you. So when I say time, I’m talking about your time.

Beyond that, as I suggested above, there’s time in two different senses. Time in the sense of the actual amount you have to live. And time in the sense of our freedom to do the things that you want to do.

When Time is Not Money

Of course, time is not literally money. And money is not literally time.

They are individual concepts which are strongly related.

As I’ve explained, the phrase “time is money” has value. But it’s also important to make the distinction. Let’s see why time is not money.

Time is finite

Time is a finite resource. You only have so much of it.

So when I’ve heard people argue why time is not money, I’ve heard this: time is finite and money is infinite.

The finiteness of time is clear. But what about money?

In theory, money could be infinite. There’s virtually no limit to how much you can make.

Okay, well technically there’s a limit. There’s only so much money in the world. Like $80 trillion or something.

And there are constraints that make earning a lot of money really, really hard and really, really unlikely. And those constraints vary upon your personal background or situation.

So technically, money is finite too.

But the point here is not about technicalities. It’s this: you can (pretty much) always get more money, but you often can’t get more time.

Once your time is gone, it’s gone. You only have what’s ahead of you. You have relatively little control of how much time on this planet you have.

But as for money? You can get it back. You can earn more. You can save more. You have much more control over what you have.

Money isn’t the end goal

This is the other caution that comes with the saying “time is money.” Money isn’t the end goal.

When you think money is the end goal, you may want to use all of your time to make as much money as you can.

But in reality, it’s not about money. It’s about happiness - for you and those you care about.

If you use your time only to work, there’s a chance you overlook your true potential to achieve happiness.

What’s more important to you than money? Probably your health, your family, your friends, and any other people or causes that are dear to you.

So sure, time is money.

But it’s not just money.

It’s also things that are far more important.

Time is precious moments with those you love. Time is the opportunity to do things which you enjoy and have passion for. Time is the freedom to relax, sit on the couch and watch a movie.

Time is all of those things. And money is not the ultimate goal.

So what should you do?

So, yeah. Time is money in a way.

This post has been a bit theoretical and abstract, which is not my typical kind of article.

So let’s get more concrete. You might be wondering: what does this mean for me? What should I do?

Invest

Perhaps the clearest lesson here is to invest your money. And do it now. Because when it comes to investing, time is money.

Say you have $10,000 to invest at a 7 percent annual return. You are 30 years old and plan to withdraw the money when you are 60.

If you invest that $10,000 today, you will have a whopping $76,000 by the time you are 60.

But what if you don’t do it today? Instead you wait 10 years, then invest the $10,000. You will have less than $39,000 when you turn 60.

You’ll lose out on almost half the return just by waiting 10 extra years.

More time is more money. If you can, start investing now.

Consider your opportunity costs

Time is a valuable resource that can be used to generate money.

When you use your time to make money, don’t just consider the money you’re making. Consider the money you could be making.

Say you spend an hour taking online surveys and make $10. That’s awesome. But you could have spent that hour freelance writing, which would have earned you $15.

So you didn’t really earn $10 in that hour. You lost $5.

That’s the idea of opportunity costs. You can’t get back your time. So use it wisely.

Assess your priorities: time versus money

Time is a valuable resource. Money is a valuable resource. They are not the same, but they are highly interconnected.

So it’s worth thinking about them separately.

Which is more important: time or money?

I’m sure that time has its place and money has its place.

It’s easy sometimes to focus on money and overlook the value of time.

What if you make seven figures but work 80 hours a week to do so? Is all that money worth the time you spend?

Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. That’s only for you to answer.

But time is a finite resource. You can’t go back, you can only go forward. So it’s greatly important to consider your time as you make decisions throughout your life.