Time, money, happiness – we want them all, but no matter how hard we work for them, the simple connection that holds them together brings dilemmas at any age and financial status.
Are we dancing on a long-term tightrope in terms of money, time, and happiness, or do we need knee pads and elbow pads when we can’t keep our balance? Do we still “hurt” ourselves from time to time in all our attempts towards a financial education that gives value to time and brings long-term happiness?
What is that secret link and how do these 3 factors of long-term well-being relate? Do small financial decisions make a difference?
Let’s see how things are with time, money, and happiness!
Time, money, happiness…and what else?
Time and money are limited and precious resources. People face the stress of not having enough time and worry about how much ‘’not enough money’’ means.
According to researchers, the compromises people make between having more time or more money, and the extent to which people focus on each resource, can have a significant impact on happiness.
Consider well-being as a combination of high positive affect, low negative affect, and high feelings of life satisfaction. It remains to be explored why time and money influence happiness, its timing, and duration.
However, there are many questions about the relationships between time, money, and happiness. One of them –is the meaning that each resource assumes in people’s everyday experiences and their long-term lives.
Does time mean money?
Benjamin Franklin encouraged people to equate time and money in the saying, “Time is money.” Research still shows that people think about time and money in very different ways. Moreover, how people believe these resources can have consequences for their day-to-day and overall happiness are very diverse.
In particular, MONEY is easily exchanged and can be saved and borrowed over a certain period. This is not true when we are talking about TIME.
In 2010, Kahneman and Deaton’s study examined the link between income, emotional well-being, and overall life evaluation. It was based on a survey of 450,000 responses to questions about emotional well-being, life satisfaction, and reported family income. The bottom line? Happiness remains virtually unchanged once household income exceeds $75,000 at that time. Although overall life evaluation continued to improve, incomes above $75,000 bought life satisfaction but not happiness.
It matters how you spend your money!
There are so many ways to spend, save and invest money. Thus, a question always raised by experts is “How much does it matter, how people spend their money?”. I recommend “If Money Doesn’t Make You Happy Then You Probably Aren’t Spending It Right”.
There is some proof that mentions pro-social spending (ex, spending money for the benefit of others) as having a happiness-enhancing effect on the spender. In one experiment, participants were given money and then randomly told to spend it on themselves or others. As it turns out, those who spent the money on others reported higher levels of happiness at the end of the study.
Without misunderstanding that we have to spend large amounts of money with a major impact on our budget, the energy of money exists and flows just as time can turn into happiness, given to yourself and others.
Money as a safety deposit
Otherwise, time is money and money is time. We are commonly taught that money is a kind of “safety deposit”. But what does “safety deposit’’ actually mean? It is a deposit of past effort that can be applied to future purchases. Indeed, money is a time store, a store of time that must remain productive.
Time is a limited resource that must be managed carefully
Time is linear. After a minute or a day has passed, it is beyond repair. You can’t get it back. If you lose an hour, it’s gone forever. If you lose a small amount of money it is always possible to win it back. Time marches forward…we try to manage it, but money has a “direction” if we educate them financially as correctly as possible and if we tell them what to do for our well-being.
It all starts with financial education! Start right here and let’s see together how we value time. We put money to work for us and get happy moments together.
A summer full of financial well-being!
With love for great savings,
Mihai Constantinescu