Some things are naturally enjoyable – think a sunset, seeing the Grand Canyon, a good donut, a child sleeping, trying the last of the expired milk and finding out its still good – the obvious things. Learning about money is likely not one of those things for most of us. So we have to convince ourselves about why we should learn about money because we’re not going to want to inherently do it because it is just so much fun.
So how do we convince ourselves to spend time learning about money?
Here is a fancy equation that helps me:
Time > Money
Time is needed to do those things we find enjoyable and important to a greater extent than money.
But wait, spending time to learn about money is using up that very thing (time) that is most important to us?
True, so we only learn about money when the benefit will enable us to have more time than the time spent learning it.
So then how can learning about money increase my time available to do what is enjoyable and important?
It is when we can reduce our need for money that needs to be earned from exchanging our time for it. This is what jobs are for most people – we agree to give our time to an employer or customers in exchange for money. There are other benefits from working but the money aspect of it is a primary reason that we spend so much time working. So we are trading our time for money in our jobs.
How many of us are completely happy with this trade-off most days?
Learning about money can improve this trade-off for us in two main ways:
- Saving and investing can generate money for us so that we need less money to be earned from our jobs
- Improving our spending may mean we need less money to be earned from our jobs
Needing less money from our jobs => less of our time is needed in exchange for it => less time working in a job means additional time for the more important things we value in our lives.
So when I get frustrated or tired or unmotivated with dealing with money and I start to find reasons to do anything else (like working in the yard, cleaning the house or getting the mail, is when I know I’ve reached peak avoidance), I remember that by dealing with money, I get more time to do things that I think are important and valuable and that lead to a life of meaning and purpose.
To summarize with another fancy equation:
Getting better with money = more time = getting more of the life we really want
