Time is Money
My wife and I were sitting on the couch watching TV on Friday night when I got a new message on my phone. It was around 9 PM, and most of my friends don't text that late unless it is an emergency. I figured it was one of the local county alerts that we occasionally get when there is a road closure or some other form of municipal emergency. So I was a bit disappointed when I looked at it and notice that it was a client.
Setting aside the fact that it was 9 PM on a Friday, my week is pretty full this week and I really don't know when I am going to have time to fit this client in. @mrsbozz asked if I was going to message them back and I said "no way, it's 9 PM on a Friday night", or something like that. First off, I don't want to set the precedent that I am available at their beck and call. Second, I just didn't feel like it.
My wife could tell I was a bit annoyed, and she said "isn't this a good thing, it's money right?", I explained to her that we don't need the money, it's my time that I am more worried about. I don't think she was expecting that answer, but more and more I have started to feel that way as I get older.
It wasn't always like that, when we were first married, my wife was working a second job at a local party store to help offset some of our bills. I also picked up contract work here and there like this with a core group of clients I have retained over the years. Now that we are older, and more established, the hundred bucks I might get from this job just isn't as important to me as being able to go home and relax on a Monday evening after work.
I think some of it has to do with the fact that I am getting older, but I also think part of it can be attributed to the fact that we don't really have any debt anymore. It's a different feeling when you are living each week looking towards that paycheck versus sometimes forgetting it's payday because you just don't need the money like you used to.
Yes, we have a mortgage still, and we have a loan for my wife's car, but we could pay the car off right now if I wanted to dip into our emergency savings. It's not that I enjoy having that debt hanging over my head, but it's not something that I feel burdened by.
I also think part of my trepidation about this service call is the fact that they never seem to be easy fixes these days. I wouldn't have such a problem with it if I knew it was something I could just take a couple minutes on and have fixed. I have a couple of those still. For example, I have to upload a water quality report to the web each year for a local water district. It takes me maybe 5 minutes if that to do it, but I bill them for a full hour at my base rate because that is the minimum. They are happy because the report gets posted, I am happy because I get paid to do not a lot of work.
I just have a sinking feeling in my stomach that this is going to be one of those long drawn out problems today. Or, even worse, it might be a problem that I can't fix. Those actually bug me a lot more than long drawn out problems, because then I feel like I am letting the client down. There have been a few instances where I have had to tell them to call someone else, and despite the fact that my time is more important than the money, I still feel bad.
As I look towards a possible retirement in the next couple of years, it would seem like something in tech would be a natural next step, but part of me wonders if I would like to step away from tech all together. After working in this space for 30 years, perhaps I want to do something different. I don't know what it would be (I'm not really a people person), but who knows.
Anyway, wish me luck, I actually have two client meetings today after I finish up my full time job, and I still have to get my stuff packed for a trip that @mrsbozz and I are taking later this week. I've really been looking forward to this trip, so I hope it isn't tainted by worrying about these client problems the whole time we are gone. Isn't it funny how calls/messages like the one I got on Friday night always come at the worst time?
Is time money, or is time much more valuable than that? I'm starting to think it definitely is.
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Well, I hope the client meetings went well. Maybe this trip will help you reset a little. Enjoy.
Thank you! Me too!
Sounds like tech clients wind you up! Not sure I would be doing that in my retirement, if I was wanting a peaceful stressfree time..
I have a feeling my retirement is going to be less of a retirement and more of a second career. Actually, given the fact that tech jobs are so hard to find now, I might just stay where I am for another five years, who knows.
Throw in the fact we don't know what will happen with tech, so sometimes yes it is better the devil you know ...
Yes, for sure!
Step out of tech in retirement and do something completely different. It can be like a breath of fresh air :)
I'll keep that in mind!
My mindset is becoming more and more similar as I age. I am valuing time over money more and more. I'm more interesting in more vacation over more pay at this point.
Yeah, I am kind of the same way. I mean the money makes the other stuff easier, but if I had to choose, I'd probably pick time.
Yeah. There's definitely a balance needed but time is definitely important to me nowadays.
Ome thing inlove so much is my time but sometimes people don't understand that fact that time is precious to everyone. It was a good one and a nive decision you have made brother. I wish you luck on your trip and you job with your client.
Thank you! I just don't really like the feeling that my time is not my own to control.
You are welcome. Yeah, we own our time and i think we should have total control over it and i am glad you did without excitation.
I hope it's an easy fix and not a nightmare... Hopefully the client meetings go well this afternoon once you finish up the good old day job. It's hard to break into another industry once you've been in for so long, and you're obviously good at what you do. I'd stick it out even though these tech problems are inevitable, but it is annoying at nine PM on Friday night. They could have waited until the morning...
I hope the day goes well and it turns out to be a great week!
Thank you! I am sure it will all go well. It looks like I have been able to take care of one of the issues remotely already, so that is a definite plus!
There are services that are needed immediately, like water or gas leaks, there's not much time you can waste with those, but when it comes to your department, I don't think I'd call at 9pm on Friday. I don't call anyone at that hour, except if it's really life threatening emergency.
I have a neighbor who has the habit of texting at 9.30 pm or 10pm, but I never reply. I told her not to bother me, but she can't seem to understand or care, so I'm teaching her by not replying.
Yes, I know people like that too. It's funny because they always want to have a full on conversation too. It's not just a quick simple thing.
Well, my time is mine alone and it's up to me how I use it. These people need a good lesson, to wake up and respect people's private time. It's rude to call or text at that hour.
Best of luck with those clients! Sometimes you just know what to expect from certain people. That trip at the end of the week will be something positive to focus on.
Thanks! I hope it goes pretty smoothly. Definitely looking forward to the trip, just wish it was longer.
Definitely something worth learning sooner rather than later. Very limited time on this Earth. Hope your trip goes well :)
Thank you!
Hello,exellent blog and exellent discussion thread I found myself in. If I were in a situation where I had enough money, I would give priority to time. I started valuing time when I lost my time, which without any help my wife and I devote to our small children aged 2 and 5 and a teenager, plus wasting time on 2 jobs, and my biggest wish now is not to go to Disneyland with the children, but just a little more sleep. In that situation, you start valuing time as much as you need money, although it is an eternal dilemma for many people...
That's a smart choice. Disney is so expensive!
I used to have a second gig which was photography, it was pretty decent money as I was charging $400/hr for the shoot with one hour minimum. I quit it in 2018 when I decided to form a family, it was a nice way to pay down the mortgage though...
Wow, that's impressive. I might be underselling myself. I only charge $100 an hour for businesses and $40 and hour for individuals, but as we have discussed, prices are quite a bit different here than out there. Unless this was while you were in Kansas still.
No it was in Washington state :) Plus photography services could be more expensive than other types of services depending on your niche and hold on the market.
You never know how much time you have. We all are on a clock. When do you have enough money? My husband retired before he was 55. He has never looked back. If he had worked longer, we'd have more money. For what? To buy stuff? As soon as he retired we gave up one of our cars. Our kids were grown. We had no mortgage. Those years since he retired--at least 25 (I lose count) have flown by. We treasure life and don't miss the money.
We still have a mortgage and we are looking at maybe moving in the future. We would be downsizing, but the price of houses now is crazy, so we would still end up paying more. We want to do some traveling too, so at least for us right now the money is necessary. I was hoping crypto would fill that gap, but so far things haven't went as planned :P
Time really does become more valuable than money as we get older, especially when life is finally stable, this is exactly how i feel at this stage of my life
For sure!