I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about time and money. I've reached the conclusion that they're actually the same commodity. You can only have so much, and the more you have of one, the less you have of the other.
Applying this to my life, right now I have plenty of money but very little time. I often hear about a meeting or group that happens once a month, or every other weekend, or weekly. While part of my brain thinks, "Once a month really isn't that often," a bigger part screams, "We already have so little time! You want to promise even more of it to someone else?" One four-hour meeting out of 30 twenty-four-hour days is very little, but one four-hour meeting out of 20 four-hour evenings is a much greater piece of the pie.
Why do I have so little time? I spend 40 hours or more every week doing a job I don't love in order to bring home money I may not actually need.
Currently, my income exceeds my expenses, by a small margin. The majority of my expenses goes to rent. I live in a two-bedroom apartment, with drafty doors and cracks in the walls. I opted for a two-bedroom place because at my complex those are the only units with washer and dryer hookups.
But what if I simplified my life? What if, instead of spending so much money on so many square feet (most of which, let's be honest, I don't really use), I spent less on living space? What could I do with more money? Trade it for more time?
If I had less expenses, especially in the form of rent/mortgage and utility bills, I'd need less income. Could I cut my work week from 40 to 20 hours? Less?
And what would I do with more time? Catch up with friends? Sleep (oh, almost definitely)? Travel? Attend some of the "once-a-month" events that I currently feel I don't have time for?
Imagine reversing the work week. By cutting expenses, by reducing the amount of income I need, I could conceivably work two days a week instead of five. Every single week I'd have a five-day weekend. Every. Single. Week.
Egads.
This merits serious consideration.
