re: What do you value more, time or money?

When I was poor, money.

Now that I have money, time.

Time, but money can provide you with more freedom to choose what you do with your time.

I'm 38 and at the point that I could step away from the business a bit, but I struggle with letting go

It is especially nice to have an ample supply of both…

When I was about 23 years old my tool buddy and I were working on a Sunday morning at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant. Double-time day. Early May. He and I walked up onto the reactor building roof and the sun was just starting to come up over the Tennessee River. We had been working 7-12s for several months with very few days off...making that bank. As we stepped out on the roof I said "man, it is a BEAUTIFUL morning....we ought to go fishing". He said "lets go"! I looked at him and saw he was dead serious....I said "lets go"!

We turned around and headed back to the fab shop, passing co-workers along the way. Some asked "where yall headed" and we said "fishing". Many of them were dumbfounded. They said "on a doubletime day"? And they had a valid point....


We went fishing and caught a boat load of big Tennessee River shellcracker. That was 37 years ago this month. He died 5 years ago. He and I combined would have made about $720 that day. We would have taken about $450 of that home for that day, $225 each. For the life of me I could not begin to tell anyone where that $225 would have gone but I know damn well it'd went somewhere....but I know exactly where he and I caught those shellcracker!

We get caught up on earning money and forget to live life. Living to work instead of working to live is an insane concept yet way too many people practice it everyday....

Time. I’m 51 now. I realized time was getting shorter at around 42-43 years old.

Time

I could’ve chased career/money but looking back on the years of my 13 year olds life, I haven’t missed a single thing. I was there when he first talked, crawled, walked, everything. I’ve yet to miss a game or a round of golf. I’ve never had to tell him or my wife I couldn’t do something because of work. I wouldn’t trade that for all the money in the world.

Time.

I’m not poor and not rich, but made a good life. Three years away from retirement.

I could be making a lot more money, but whenever I interviewed for a job, asking the hours they worked was always something I asked. If they were 50-60+ hours a week on average, that wasn’t for me. Not counting during initial training/starting or special projects, but on average.

Because of that I coached my son in every sport until he got to high school, made every school function, ate dinner every night with my family, etc.

That’s worth more than any additional dollars I could have earned in my lifetime.

money is simply a way to value time. In that way I consider it man’s greatest invention.

That said, people have a tendency to massively undervalue other people’s time. So I’m currently trying to hit the reset button on that again to get more of my time back.

So to answer your question, I realized it very shortly after starting my first professional job and had fully realized it 4-5 years into my career, so about 30 y/o. So much time is wasted in professional settings to give the appearance of being busy. Having my main office at home now, I don’t want to expose my kids and wife to the work side of me any more than I have to

Time. It’s never enough money