Money vs time
jasonleow • 1 Jul 2025 •
“Spend your money on the things money can buy. Spend your time on the things money can’t buy.” – Haruki Murakami
It sounds like a Captain Obvious no-brainer, but many people do it the other way. They spend time on things money can buy, and they (try to) spend money on things that money can’t buy.
Spending time on things money can buy:
- Spending hours collecting discount coupons or credit card points or saving pennies when you could spend the same time building assets and earning the equivalent or more.
- Spending weeks figuring out how to DIY fix something broken in the house than paying a professional for it.
- Driving to, shopping, queueing, carrying, driving back for groceries at the supermarket, when you just can get them delivered.
Spend money on things that money can’t buy:
- Buying a toy for your kid to replace the lack of time and attention with them.
- Buying fancy supplements and medication for your health conditions, but you continue with the same lifestyle that led to said health conditions.
- Shopping endlessly online during your revenge bedtime procrastination, because you feel empty inside working a dead end job all week.
We all think we’re smarter than that.
But we’re often not.
Comments
The latest example from the first category that I discovered is a service that comes to your house to fill up your car with gas.
therealbrandonwilson • 2 Jul 2025, 12:49 pm
@Winkletter Yeah that’s a common one for me, too. 🥲
haideralmosawi • 2 Jul 2025, 5:04 pm
@therealbrandonwilson You just need a self-driving car that also drills for oil on your property.
Winkletter • 2 Jul 2025, 8:45 pm
The one I do often is: Buying the {tool} that will motivate me to do {action} rather than investing time to do the thing with what I already have.