In addition to the summer holidays being a great time to wind down and relax with family and friends, it can also provide the opportunity to consciously reflect upon how you are spending your time. The longer people live and the longer they work, the more they appreciate that time is our most valuable resource and we never seem to have enough of it to do the things we want to do.
There are only 168 hours in the week no matter what your age, how much money you have, how smart you are or how attractive you are – no exceptions. Your quality of life is a direct function of how you choose to spend that time. To improve your quality of life it is necessary to change what you do with your time.
I had a conversation with a close friend of mine who had a major health scare recently. I asked him what is one thing that he learned in the past few years that he wished he had learned earlier in his career? His answer was TIME. A few years ago, he had a life-threatening illness that could have very easily killed him. But he actually survived it and he is doing fine now. He mentioned that earlier in his career, he didn’t place as much value on his time and wasn’t really intentional on how he was using it. He said his illness just really taught him the importance of valuing his time.
Author Wayne Dyer is famous for writing about his work with people who have terminal illnesses. Perhaps his most quotable remark has been that none of those people, confronted with their limited time left on earth, wished they’d spent more time in the office. It’s also hard to imagine that any of these people wished they had spent more time reading the financial press, surfing the internet for investment strategy ideas or getting anxious over daily movements in their portfolio balances. Dyer’s point was that if you wouldn’t choose to squander your last week, why would you throw away any of your time?
In the grand scheme of things, money is not that important. It’s important only to the extent that it allows you the time and resources to enjoy what is most important to you.
Most people want to have some kind of a balance in their life. Everyone wants a properly balanced investment portfolio but what is even more important is a properly balanced life portfolio.
So instead of asking yourself if you have enough money, or if you will run out of money, ask yourself some better questions:
• Are we managing our money in a way that’s improving our life?
• What can we do with our money right now to get more time?
At Calibre Private Wealth Advisers we don’t want you just to “have enough money.” We want you to regain that balance and live the best life possible with the money you have.
If there’s one thing that l absolutely want to convey in this article, it is that if spending time on your finances is creating an unhealthy level of anxiety whilst at the same time drawing you away from what is most important in your life, seek help.
Calibre Private Wealth Advisers is a boutique, fee-based practice that helps co-ordinate the financial affairs for a relatively small community of successful professionals, business owners and their families. We facilitate a unique process that helps our clients free up their limited spare time to focus on the things in their life that are more important than money.
Feel free to contact us to discuss your particular situation and see how we can help you get on a faster path to achieving your life’s aspirations.
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