← The Life You Build
The Life You Build · Card 4
Time as the Real Currency
Money can be earned again.An hour can't.
- Two buses
- A ₹300 cab
- 90 minutes to save ₹300
- Buys the hour back
Money can be earned again; a given hour, once spent, is the one thing that never comes back; which changes what a purchase is actually buying.
In Practice
Paying ₹300 for a cab instead of spending 90 minutes on two buses to save that ₹300 can be the better trade, not the wasteful one, if that hour is genuinely worth more than ₹300 to you.
Generic Example
Spending an extra ₹50 for a slightly faster checkout line makes sense the moment the ten minutes saved matters more than the ₹50 does.
Ask yourself
Am I optimizing this decision for money, or would I actually come out ahead by spending some money to get time back?