Thursday, February 07, 2008

Millionaire Next Door - Time, Energy & Money

This is continuing my series on the common denominators of those who successfully build wealth.

See item 1 - Living Below Your Means


2. They allocate their time, energy and money efficiently, in ways conducive to building wealth.

I used to be a big abuser of wasting my time, energy and money, as shows in the following example. I have a 1 hour lunch period every day. I used to use this hour to run and grab something to eat, then I’d hit Target or the mall. At least 4 out of the 5 days, I went home with a bag from somewhere – and usually more than 1 bag. Especially if I went to Target because I used to not be able to control myself in Target, as many of you can probably attest to. I even got to the point that I was kind of hiding purchases from my husband. As soon as I got home, I’d run my huge Eddie Bauer bag down to the bedroom and take out the items so he wouldn’t notice that I had just purchased them. So in this one example, I’ve wasted all three: time, energy and money.

I now realize how valuable time is and I use it wisely. I no longer eat out or shop over my lunch hour. I make sure I’m doing something productive with that hour, such as reading, walking, doing some of my contract work (which doesn’t relate to my job at all) or blogging. And yes, blogging is productive because not only am I writing articles that are hopefully teaching you a little bit, but I also continually learn things about myself and our situation.

Dave Ramsey once said (paraphrased), “Normal people know all about the current television shows because they sit on their butts every night watching TV. Successful people know very little about the current TV hits because they are doing something more productive with their time. THOSE are the people who will get ahead in life.”