Income Vs Richness

I’ve been reading The 4 hour workweek by Timothy Ferriss and although I’m only through about 3 chapters I think I could do about 20 blog posts on some of the ideas he presents.

Right now I want to talk about a fallacy that many Americans hold. That is that income determines richness.

Let’s look at an example out of my life: In one of the first jobs I took out of college I made $36,000 / year but left my house at 8:30 and was home by 5:30. I worked from 9-5 Monday through Friday and took a 30 minute lunch.

A later job paid me $50,000 but I left my house at 7:50 and got home at 7:00. I worked from 8:30 until 6, and took a 30-45 minute lunch often at my desk.

Which me was richer? the $36,000 me made about $17/hour…. while the $50,000 me….also made about $17/hour.

At the end of the year, I had more money in the bank working the $50,000 job but I also gave up a lot more of my time.

Sure, money is good - but what good is money if you can’t spend it?

Think about why you want to make more money and you’ll probably list many things you want to do.

What if you could work less AND get those things done? That’s what this book is about. Check it out, it’s certainly been very interesting so far. I’m sure it’ll inspire me to write more in the future.

5 comments May 11th, 2007