Many moons ago, I took a firearms safety class. The instructor was very prompt and demanded the same of his students.
The class was rather expensive so… it paid to be on time.
Which was unfortunate for some folks because they showed up late to the very first class… despite being told multiple times beforehand in the weeks leading up to the class to arrive on-time and ready to go.
5 minutes after class started, the instructor closed the door and locked it.
Wouldn’t you know it, a few folks showed up late and tried to get in. They couldn’t be bothered to make it a priority, arrange their schedule accordingly, and leave early enough to show up on time.
And so… they were told to leave.
They wasted all that money and the instructor doesn’t give refunds. Instead, he expects people to be responsible adults.
Bottom line?
Time is money — literally.
But this idea doesn’t penetrate the minds of time-wasters.
A time-waster doesn’t really respect other peoples’ time nor do they respect their own time.
And, as a result, they do irreparable harm to themselves and their reputation. They also lose lots and lots of money.
Here’s what I mean:
I once told a prospective client that (based on their wants and lifestyle) they would probably need a lot of money in the future, and that in order to save a lot of money, they had to adopt the idea of paying themselves first. Before spending any money from their paycheck, set aside 15% of their net income.
They scoffed.
Saving 15% of their income seemed like a lot of money to them but… it also forced them to acknowledge that their future lifestyle and future wants were worth saving for. And that their time was valuable enough to charge interest for (when you save money, you receive interest payments for delaying your spending, but you have to believe your time is worth the interest you collect else you won’t be motivated to save).
And so they sealed their fate, losing not just the 15% but also hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest earnings on that money.
More:
Despite my best efforts, I failed to convince another would-be client to pay themselves back, with interest, any time they spent money from their own savings.
They couldn’t get it, sending me this email that went something like, ‘Why would I pay myself interest on my own money? That’s stupid! lol!’
Once again, time is money. And if your time is valuable, then it’s worth saving at least 10% of your income every month. And more… any time you spend your savings, you pay yourself back (treating it like a loan from your savings), paying yourself interest on all money you spend from your savings.
And do it every single month, like clockwork. Mark it on your calendar and make it a higher priority than all your other monthly bills. Month after month, year after year. decade after decade.
Anywho, people who don’t place a high value on their own time or future will never understand the logic of this, but you might.