The 7 Personal Finance Articles We Loved This Week
It’s time for another round of awesome personal finance articles hand-picked by ESI of Rockstar Finance!
Something I’ve been thinking about an awful lot recently is how much money my time is worth. It’s an extreme luxury to be able to put a dollar amount on your time — being able to say “an hour of my time is worth $X, so it makes more sense for me to pay someone else $Y to clean my home, if Y is less than X.” I’m not at the place in my life where I can afford to pay people to do anything I don’t want to do myself, but I’ve learned that sometimes, it’s worth it to pay for something to free up more of my time. Even ordering takeout is a way to do this.
And to me, this is what being good with money is all about: not just having it, but recognizing how we can use it to make our lives better, even in non-material ways. That’s why I loved this week’s pick from The Frugal Convert, all about recognizing when money saved means time lost. I love this excerpt in particular:
I love money, and if I didn’t, my frugality would be in vain. I am not money hungry or stingy, but I love knowing that I can spend less of my money by using strategies that work.
But my love for money is different. It’s not a love for the actual money. It’s the longing for extra time with my family, it’s the desire to travel the world. My love for money equals different things.
I can’t speak for other frugal bloggers, but I’ll say from personal experience that more money in the sense of a higher paid job or bigger investments does not equal less worries. More money in that sense equals more stress, greater responsibility, and paralyzing risk.
Be sure to check out the full post, as well as the rest of this week’s great picks, below!
1. Five Things I Learned Growing Up in a Candy Shop – Millionaire Doc
“As I look back fondly upon my childhood memories, I realize the effects of those years in the candy store influenced me greatly. I can still recall the scents, sounds, and tastes from the little shoppe. My work ethic and my relationship with money was born from what I witnessed in my parent’s life.”
2. It’s Okay To Have Dark Early Retirement Motivation – Leisure Freak
“I watched others lose-it and either challenged corrupt or incompetent authority and lost, then paying the ultimate price or just walked off with no clear plan forward. I instead resolved to put my darkness inspired feelings towards what I really wanted- My eventual early retirement freedom.”
3. Money Is Everything … Until You Master It. Then It’s Nothing at All. – Trapped in Work
“The alternative of having no concern for money and devoting no time to prudently and wisely managing it seems to me to inevitably lead to financial hardship and ruin. But avoiding these adverse outcomes through concerted effort does not mean a lifetime of worry about money. To the contrary — it means a lifetime free of worry related to money.”
4. What is Life When It’s No Longer Defined By Work? – Reflections of a Millionaire Doctor
“Palms ground into his eyes, trying to hold the waterfall of tears back, but it was too late. Q caved into himself, hands behind his neck, head to chest, chest to knees as if to physically shield his heart from any more pain.”
5. Is Saving Money Worth Losing Time? – The Frugal Convert
“Thinking about money in a different light can change your whole life. When you sit and think of what’s really important to you on your deathbed (sorry for the morbidity), money is probably one of the last things you think about when you think of regrets. And time happens to be the biggest, most common regret of the dying.”
6. When Impatience Costs You Money & Your Sanity – Frugal Asian Finance
“The main problem with impatient people is that they want something to take place immediately and don’t want to spend time waiting for the outcome. And that definition fits me perfectly in both positive and negative ways.”
7. American Homes Are Now $1,100 Per Month Storage Units – Greenbacks Magnet
“There are quite a few financial experts and self-made millionaires that feel a home is a liability and not an asset. Unfortunately, in many ways a home is a liability. Unless it gives you money, it’s taking it from you. Let’s examine this further shall we.”
Image via Unsplash
