Your life is currency: a radical way to see how you spend it

Have you ever thought that you buy things with your life and not necessarily with money or in other words, you buy things with the hours you spend in your life? I understand that it’s a radical notion to think that when you make a purchase, let’s say something really big like an 82″ flat screen TV, what you’re really doing is exchanging a part of your life for it.

Before you dismiss my statement, listen to me.

Assuming you work by the hour and don’t receive royalties or any kind of passive or residual income, ask yourself the following question: If you stopped doing what you currently do for a living, would you also stop receiving your salary? For most people, the answer to this would be yes because, in essence, you are exchanging time for money, which is a topic I discuss in my article “Pajama Money: Earn Passive Residual Income and Live the Lifestyle You Really Want.” “. but i digress. By exchanging time for money, this brings me back to my initial statement of “you for the things with the hours you spend in your life.” You may be wondering how I came to this conclusion, so let’s get down to the facts.

According to Wikipedia, the median American household income in January 2019 was $63,688. In an effort not to get into complex formulas, I will use the simplest numbers possible and refrain from using taxes and interest in my equations. So for the sake of this conversation, I’m going to use conservative numbers rounding down to balance this number at $63,000 which would be $1,211.54 per week and $30.29 per hour.

Now, let’s say you want to buy the TV mentioned above. After doing a quick search for “average price of an 82-inch TV in the US today,” I found the price to be over $4,000. So how much would it cost you in hours worked?

Samsung 82″ Flat Panel TV ($4,000) = 132 hours of work or 5.5 days

So let’s say you and I work together and one day you came into work and heard me talking to another colleague and saying, “Hey Jim, guess what? For the next five and a half days, I’m going to be working 132 countdowns.” hours just so I can buy my new 82″ flat screen TV. Isn’t that exciting?!!”

Forgive me, I know that was a bit hyperbolic, but it makes my point more clearly and I don’t know about you, but doesn’t that statement sound weird? Regardless, by taking this approach, you can help put things into perspective, or at least start to increase your awareness. Of course you don’t have to change your lifestyle or habits if you don’t want to, however it is good advice to be more mindful, that’s all.

Let’s take a quick moment now to look at some other common purchases:

Large Starbucks Cappuccino ($4.00) = 0.13 hours of work or 8 minutes

Apple iPhone 11 ($700) = 23 hours of work or 1380 minutes

New Ford F-150 Pickup ($28,000) = 3,864 hours of work or 5.3 months

Median US home listing price ($226,800) = 31,536 hours of work or 3.6 years

Remember, these numbers reflect the time spent earning the amount needed to make the purchase where daily expenses and the like have not been considered. And with this new perspective, I’d also like you to consider that over time, as inflation rises and prices continue to rise, your “sweat capital” begins to buy less, which means the value of your time decreases. . When you consider that prices on average have risen nearly 50% in the last two decades, it becomes easy to understand why so many people are struggling with mountains of debt ranging from financing loans and credit cards to mortgages over 30 years.

It’s amazing to see the actual numbers, but I’ve put together a short report called “Inflation: The Hidden Fiscal Agenda That Quietly Steals and Confiscates Your Wealth!” that highlight 3 agendas that deplete your money’s worth without you even realizing it.

If you want to learn more and even learn how you can protect yourself against inflation, check out my free report by clicking here.