The book that most influences the way I think about money is Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez. I read it a long time ago and followed the program for a little while. Even though I lack the discipline to sustain the practice; understanding the main thesis of the book changed the way I think about money.

Ostensibly, the book is about personal finance but it asks a deeper question, “How are you spending your life?”

The book guides you through a process of determining how much money you make per hour. In addition to the time you spend working, the authors want you to account for the time it takes to get ready, commute, and recover from your job.

You subtract the costs of doing your job from your income. Transportation, your work costume, the extra whisky, and your weekly therapy session you need to deal with the stress are in the minus column.

When you do a full assessment of the time and costs involved in doing your job, it turns out your hourly rate is a lot less than you thought. What you are paid minus the costs of working divided by the total number of hours it takes to prepare, recover, and actually work is your real hourly wage.

The next part of the process is to consider the money you spend in total. Vicki asks you to make a detailed record of the money you spend. She wants you to record every penny.

At the end of the month, you divide the cost of the things you bought by your real hourly pay rate. The product is the number of hours of your life you spent for each thing you’ve bought.

You bought fast food that cost you $10. If your real hourly pay rate is $20, then you exchanged 30 minutes of your life-time for that Crappy Meal.

The next step of the process is why you keep a detailed log of your expenditures. At the end of the month, you review how you spend your life-time and and answer a couple of simple questions.

Was that t-shirt worth 13 minutes of my life? Do I want to spend more of my life on t-shirts next month? The same? Less?

The answers are subjective and personal.

If you have a high income, a $5 coffee might be worth the 30 seconds of earnings. If you make an average wage, that coffee cost 15 minutes or more.

You might decide that the ice cream cone to sooth your anger after one of your co-workers left you alone to finish a task that was theirs to begin with wasn’t worth 15 minutes of your life-time. Next time, you’ll go for a walk or meditate instead.

You might also decide an ice cream cone with your grand daughter at the park was well worth 30 minutes of your life-time. The weather is supposed to be nice this week and the kiddo is coming to stay so lets go twice!

This practice helps you manage your money mindfully and it helps you decide what you want to spend your time doing.

The difference between Work and a Job

Allow me a brief aside. I know some of you are fortunate enough to enjoy what you do for money and going to work is actually a pleasure and a joy. Not everyone has that situation. I know my dad wouldn’t have worked 3rd shift in a tire factory for 25 years if he believed he could have done better. For those who don’t like their job, I offer a couple of thoughts.

I define a “job” as paid employment in exchange for work. You go to your job. You do work. You get paid.

“Work” is effort put into a task that accomplishes some purpose. You might not be paid for work. You might work as a volunteer. You work in your yard or in the kitchen.

You can enjoy your work but hate your job and vice-versa.

I knew a sawyer who earnestly enjoyed running the saw. He liked working on machines. He got a lot of satisfaction from being the guy who could get more board feet of salable lumber from a log than any other sawyer in the mill. He also liked his job. The mill owners paid above the going rate, made sure all the safety protocols were followed, and gave time off when he needed it.

He liked his work and his job. It’s what he did his whole life. Even in his 80’s, he worked part time at the mill just because he liked it. He didn’t need the money. He had income from pension, leasing some land to a business, and selling logs his grandson cut out of their wood lot.

This calculation of money for life exchange can be a little complicated if you like your work well enough.

What does this have to do with stories, games, or music?

When someone asks you for money, they are asking you to sacrifice some amount of your life.

They are saying, “I think this is worth four hours at your job. This is worth spending time away from your family. This game is better than a day in the woods, sitting by a waterfall, or watching the movie that always makes you laugh.”

They might be right. What you are buying might enhance or improve the things you want to do. I love good coffee. I don’t buy the most expensive rare stuff all the time but it is worth it to me to do a special order once or twice a year.

My wife buys tools for gardening because it makes the experience of gardening better and that is what she wants to do. To her, it is well worth her life-time to buy a good pair of secateurs.

When I post an essay on this blog and you read it; you are expending some of your life-time.

Sometimes my inner critic reminds me of that when I don’t feel good about the writing. I tell myself, “This crap isn’t worth their time and how could I expect anyone to read it.”

There are some thoughts that come to mind when I sit down to write:

Is this really worth the expenditure of my life-time?

Is this trivial shit?

Is this worth the reader’s life-time?

Why would anyone care?

I know it is very common thing for writers to do but I am still embarrassed to admit that I procrastinate and waste my time. For someone who has already spent five minutes of your life implying that you should be present and focused on how you spend your time, I waste a hell of a lot of my life-time doing stupid shit.

Ironically, I sooth the anxiety produced by thinking about whether or not I’m wasting your time by procrastinating with activities that are a waste of my life-time.

I don’t enjoy scrolling through stupid hot-takes on Twitter. I want to smash the screen when I read the headlines. I enjoy looking at photos of attractive ladies displaying their tattoos on social media. Is that really worth an hour of my life-time? Well, maybe a little of my life-time…

I’ve been making a major effort to get out of those bad habits. It is difficult and I’m getting better at it.

Is this worth your time?

The work I’m doing here is worth my time. I hope reading it is worth your life-time.

Life can be hard. There seems to be a surfeit of despair these days. A little entertainment, some ideas and tools to make your gaming more enjoyable, or something fun can lighten the load a little. Gaming, going to shows, joining a book group might extend the amount of life-time you have.

Seriously, and truly; If you don’t think this reading my work is worth the expenditure of your life-time; I ask that you go do something else. It’s too precious.

Memento Mori.