Time = Money? And Health is Wealth?

I'm sure many of us have heard about this paradox in life that is encapsulated in the diagram above:

• When we are young, we have a lot of time, but have no money.

• When we finally start working, we try to exchange all our time for money (sometimes at the expense of health). 

• And finally when we get old, we exchange all our money to try to buy back our health (time)

Why did I start to think about this? Just yesterday, I had a rather bad stiff neck and I had no choice but to go to a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) physician to get my stiff neck sorted out, after enduring it for one night. As I laid there, I had no choice but to be "Guai" (be a good kid) and listen to the physician as she went about her work.

"Your body seems too heaty, Have you taken enough water/vegetables/fruits?"

"Oh you used to work shift work? Your body constitution seems rather weak and not too suitable for that now."

"Have you been exercising? It seems that your body's immunity is rather low at this point."

At this juncture, all I could think of was just "Just take my money and patch me up, please." Indeed, two years of shift work has taken its toll and I had exchanged the bulk of my time for money and a shot at career. Was it worth it? Possibly, I had no choice at that point in time. It also led me to my current work which I have worked for almost a year, is now 8-5pm and I start to have a bit more of a work/life balance.

But the damage it seems has already been done with those 16 hours a day work.

It seems that it is perhaps time to start planning to live more healthier, because what good would it do, if we gained all the money we could, and couldn't enjoy it because we traded all our time and health for it?

If you followed my story, you would know that my Dad suffered from lung cancer. He had worked hard as a bus driver over the course of 28 years. And it was shift work. Long term chronic fatigue and unhealthy habits must have taken its toll over time. And it was difficult to journey with him to his final days. Perhaps, this is a good wake up call.

Luckily, I still have a bit of time on my side although time is limited for everyone. 

I am trying to change that top picture to this bottom picture:

What if our life spheres could be changed to look like this?

• With some of the time used to exchange for money, some of the money is poured back into assets that generate income over time. 

• These assets should generate money while we are not actively using time to exchange for money. The overall effect is that the money sphere gets bigger over time (compounding effect) and we spend less time having to earn money.

• Our time may be freed up for the things that are more important in life: family, health and maybe some fulfillment in life.

We would still end up having to pay for our health in our later years but we would have grown our money sphere bigger. It also means lesser worries at our older ages where we have no more strength like when we are young to exchange our time and health for money.

I do, hope that time is still on my side and with prudent planning, it can still be done.

Okay, okay, maybe it is time to pay a bit more attention to health 😭

Until next time,

K.C.


If you like this post, you might like our facebook page as well.

Related topics:
1. About K.C. What is my story?
2. My 3Cs to money/investing
3. My goals and portfolio update

SHARES

Share

Tweet

Share

Share

Buffer