Money is Time
American society has it backwards. We commonly extoll the virtues of efficiency, effectiveness, productivity, and “time is money.”
I think it’s the other way around. Money is time.
The primary reason many of us work hard and grow our careers is to feel a sense of fulfillment, of personal freedom, of empowerment. We want to make great money so that we can enjoy our lives more, not struggle, set up our futures for success, ensure our kids have great opportunities. We want more free time where we can do whatever we want! Money is the key that unlocks and allows us to enjoy that time.
So what does that mean? What does that future LOOK like - one where money is time?
To me, it means a future where I work smarter, not harder. Where I work less and enjoy my life more. Where I focus on my passions instead of slogging away at a to-do list.
It certainly doesn’t mean long workdays and working on the weekends. It doesn’t mean quitting a good job to make more money elsewhere if I feel fulfilled and I have growth and learning where I’m at. It doesn’t mean working a side hustle to use up all my free time chasing dollars.
The money = time mentality serves three major purposes:
1) Financial security and the ability to fulfill your financial goals. The other two can’t last long without this first primary objective. I’ll address this part first.
2) Personal development - learning, growing, and stretching yourself past your comfort zone to achieve new heights in areas that interest you. This is a never-ending journey that waxes and wanes in importance. I invest more or less time in this depending on where my passions take me. This includes both professional and personal pursuits - because honestly, once you’ve achieved #1, the professional IS personal. I work because I enjoy it, not because I have to do it.
3) Personal fulfillment and life enjoyment. Working less, traveling more, enjoying my free time, and focusing on priorities when at work so that I enjoy what I do and have plenty of time left over to enjoy my real life each day.
I’ve achieved #1, having reached a good level of success in my career. Now I focus on #2 and #3. Money is now a tool that helps me gain back more and more time to spend on #2 and #3. I’m not interested in working 60+ hour weeks to make more money. That objective has been reached. I’ve achieved my “must have” financial goals and am now MUCH more interested in enjoying the things that really matter. I love my job and the people I work with, and I’m not interested in recruiters or big signing bonuses. I’ve met my needs, and now I’m focusing on my wants.
How did I do it? The details are below. I’m also happy to walk you through it and provide advice - email me at hello@kendehlandco.com and we can chat.
No. 1: The financial goals for me were, in chronological order:
1a) Finance my education and then pay off those student loans. I didn’t plan well for my Bachelor’s degree and focused on something that was a passion that didn’t bring in the $$. I didn’t know at the time that I could leverage my education to work in a career I enjoy and take my free time and free cash flow 5-10 years in and give even more to my passions at that point. So I went back to school for the most cost-effective, quickest MBA in Seattle (Seattle University’s Bridge MBA) to try my hand again. I networked and made friends with people that could point me towards great opportunities, and was offered a GREAT career at Thrive Communities. None of this would have happened without my MBA and without making friends (aka networking) with the right people where we could mutually benefit each other.
Once I finished school, I focused HARD on paying it off. I use www.stebt.com and got the pro membership (super cheap and 100% worth it) to map out the timeline and exact payment plans to pay off my debt in record time - not just my student loans but also my mortgage. You can use it to prioritize paying off any sort of debt and choose the order and levels of extra payments, including one-time “snowflake” payments. The satisfaction of seeing that sunset date on my loans and knowing EXACTLY when they’d be paid off - and how much I’d save in interest - made any short-term sacrifices feel worth it. I could see exactly what my future would hold under a variety of different scenarios.
1b) Build my emergency fund. The amount of this fund has changed over time, having grown as I now have a home to maintain, kids to support, a husband to think about, etc. I keep enough to cover 6 months of essential expenses. I focused on this at the same time as my student loans given how critical it is to have something to fall back on.
1c) Buy and pay off a solid car I enjoy driving. I enjoy driving even more when I don’t have to pay a car loan each month and have that free cash flow. I also want to be able to drive my kids around and clients in the same vehicle without being afraid of what happens when either group is in my ride - it’s gotta be multi-functional! I chose the Honda CR-V and eventually want to get a Jeep Wrangler to fulfill my outdoorsy adventure goals. This second car goal falls solidly in the #3 “personal fulfillment” camp, so it’s not addressed quite yet.
1d) Plan and pay for a kick-ass wedding - no holds barred, I wanted a great party, and I got it! More info on that in a future blog post. :) This was a splurge my hubby and I were not willing to sacrifice. We’re next-level, epic party hosts and still have friends tell us it was the most fun wedding they ever attended. Yeah!!
1e) Afford a down payment and buy a house I love, where I plan to stay forever. More info on how I did it in a future blog post. I put this ahead of maxing out retirement savings, as I’d like to live somewhere I love, pay it off and live here mortgage-free during my retirement. I still saved for retirement, but the house was more urgent in terms of timeframe. I wanted a home where I could build memories to last a lifetime with my husband and kids. I wanted a home with enough space where I could have friends and family over for extended periods and not feel cramped or embarrassed about my space. My home is my personal oasis and where I host my loved ones quite often. I’m proud of the space we’ve built together and this home has checked a lot of boxes for me.
I also am working toward paying off my mortgage early. I’m currently on track to pay it off in four years. I did the math on interest savings for early mortgage payoff vs what I would reasonably expect to see in investment returns with that same cash (I even went aggressive and said 11% returns) - and by paying off my mortgage early I’m coming out ahead to the tune of $167,000. It also means I won’t have a monthly mortgage payment hanging over my head and my early retirement will be that much easier to finance.
1f) Set it and forget it on a savings plan for retirement. Low-cost index funds like Vanguard and low-fee target-date retirement funds are 100% the way to go for the vast majority of us and are what I do with success. I max out my 401k contributions each year so as to get the max and ensure my retirement is well-funded. I have it auto-deducted from each check so I never have to think about it. Ramit Sethi’s I Will Teach You To Be Rich is my financial bible - it’s a quick read and he’s funny and no-nonsense. You can find it for free on your local library app (I use www.libbyapp.com) or you can purchase on Amazon here.
For those of you interested in early retirement options without facing financial penalties, look into backdoor Roth IRAs and IRA ladders, as well as how to harvest capital gains intelligently for minimal tax burden. A good read on the early retirement nuts and bolts, including the IRA ladder and capital gains harvesting how-to is Quit Like a Millionaire, which you can also find for free on Libby or you can purchase here. I skimmed it and found I only really needed Chapters 13, 14 and 15 to craft a plan that will take only 5-10 years to execute and be able to retire early if I so choose.
1g) Set it and forget it on a savings plan for my children’s education. Ideally, they won’t have to finance their education and can choose schools and programs that meet their financial goals and allow them to prioritize their personal passions once those financial goals are met. I did my research and found the best value - lowest fees and best performance at the time of my research in 2017 - with the Nevada Vanguard 529 plan. I used the Bankrate College Savings Calculator to determine how much I would need to have auto-deposited each month in order to ensure we could cover college in full. You can change the beneficiary so if your kids don’t use it all, or one needs more than the other, you can give the money to any eligible family member of the original beneficiary for their education.
1h) Ensure our life insurance is sufficient. My husband and I did the math to determine how much each of us would need to support ourselves and our children in the event of one of us passing away before our kids are independent. We are not using insurance as a wealth-creating tool so it’s purely a backup plan. Therefore, we chose term life insurance which is much cheaper than whole life insurance and meets our needs. Once the kids are grown and the house is paid off, we will keep only minimal life insurance to cover final expenses.
No. 2: Personal and Professional Development
I spend my “productive hours” focusing on developing myself and those around me to reach higher levels of achievement in those things we are either employed for, or passionate about. The key is that this CANNOT come at the expense of my personal life. If I’m trying to use money as a tool to gain more time and personal fulfillment, then I cannot get this backwards and start working more and longer hours. It’s a natural draw because we’re taught this from birth basically until we die and it’s easy to get pulled onto the hamster wheel and sucked into the busy-is-better mentality. That defeats the entire purpose.
A few examples of what this development looks like and some questions to help you get started on your own development plan are below.
2a) I focus on the biggest-impact, most critical items at work. Think 80/20 rule, ruthless prioritization, and cutting all nonessential tasks. This allows us to excel at the truly important things that make the biggest difference in terms of financial performance, customer and associate satisfaction, and long-term achievement.
2b) I focus on developing great leaders on my team, and empowering them to make their own decisions. I make the goals clear and let them figure out how best to achieve them, providing guidance when it’s requested or warranted. I ask them questions to get them thinking strategically, to help them develop confidence in themselves and their abilities, and to help them feel safe enough to take risks and try new things to achieve ever-increasing returns on their efforts. I don’t do the work for them. I help think think about what work really needs to get done, what’s the most important use of their time and energy, and we go from there.
2c) I believe the best use of my time and energy is in having good conversations to promote relationships and strategy. They fuel each other. I’m either chatting about or directly developing relationships with clients, employees, and customers; getting people thinking more productively and positively; or focusing on the actionable basics that will get you 95% of the way to the goal. I work to elicit thoughtful, strategic ideas and greater self-awareness from my team members which results in their growth and greater levels of empowerment and achievement. By focusing here, I help drive home where their focus should lie and get them invested in our mutual success - because they get to own it themselves and reap the benefits of that empowerment.
2d) I spend a lot of my energy thinking about new ways to help my team members and mentees become more self-aware of and capable of commanding their strengths, and identify and mitigate their weaknesses through developing team members who can offset their weaknesses with complementary strengths. We spend at least an hour every other week connecting as a leadership team and talking through things like our Myers-Briggs personality assessments, our StrengthsFinder results, our culture and values, hiring and retaining great people, etc. I have intentional one-on-ones with each team member or mentee, and they come with the agenda and the goals and I supply the questions and the empowerment.
2e) I manage my energy rather than my time. If I’m feeling especially in the zone I might wake up at 4:30 am and pursue a passion project all day. If I’m tired, I’ll focus on the most important items and cut the fat out of the day. If I’m frustrated, I will wait to have an important conversation until I’m in a better mindset and will focus on doing things that will help me get to that improved state.
2f) I LOVE to read personal and professional development books, and am a super-fan of Brene Brown. I am a firm believer that people can only learn from you if they trust you. They will only be vulnerable with you if they see you as human, flaws and all, and if you share them openly and willingly. They will only take risks for you and your business and put in extra effort where it counts when they know that you truly care about them as human beings and individuals and are invested in their well-being and success.
2g) I regularly contribute to my local industry association, WMFHA, as a committee member and pro bono instructor of national courses on leasing and apartment management (NAA CALP). I regularly attend industry courses, educational conferences and more in order to keep my skillset relevant and continue to make and build relationships with the movers, shakers and up-and-comers in my industry. These are among the many people I consider dear friends and we consistently help one another to achieve our goals. By intentionally cultivating these friendships, we’re all exponentially more successful.
A few questions to get you thinking about how to develop yourself professionally and personally to level up in your career or life:
What one or two changes could you make to the way you operate at work to make a 10x impact on the business? Same question for your home life.
What one or two changes would your supervisor ask of you in order to warrant a promotion? If you don’t know, it’s time to ask!
What one or two key attributes would those in the levels above you say got them to where they are today? How did they develop those skills or abilities?
What are the actual results you can expect to obtain as a result of taking whatever educational step you are considering? I spoke earlier about how my Bachelor’s degree didn’t get me very far. Had I had a more concrete goal in mind, I could have drawn a more clear-cut path from point A to point B. Be sure you have one or more solid ideas in mind before you sign up for something that requires a lot of time and energy.
What should you STOP doing, reading, paying attention to, organizing, or what have you in order to achieve greater results with less time, money, effort, or energy? A great example is email. Stop living in your inbox and check one or two times a day. Put completed emails you don’t want to delete in a “done” folder and stop wasting hours filing things away into folders you rarely use. The search tool is a wonderful thing. :)
What can you take away to make things look or function better?
What can you remove from your life to enjoy yourself more, without suffering huge consequences? For me, it’s cleaning. I’d much rather pay a cleaner than do it myself. I get grumpy and frustrated. My mental health and my marriage are both happier as a result of outsourcing this dreaded task.
What would your peers and/or direct reports say makes you most irreplaceable to the business? Most effective? Most enjoyable?
What activities make you feel like you’re at your best? When do you feel like you’re experiencing flow? How can you delegate other tasks so you can spend more time in this zone?
Building on the last point - what flow activities are most valuable to your business? How can you become known for this, so as to increase your value at work?
Who would you call on if you lost your job tomorrow, to help you get back on track? Have you spoken with them recently? If not, it’s time to catch up. Grab lunch or coffee or call them to or from your way to work just to say hi and ask how they are doing.
Who would you call on at work if your dog died/house burned down/insert some other emergency and you needed someone to cover for you for a week? Have you helped them recently? Asked them how they are doing just to hear the answer?
Who are the friends and family members who bring you the most joy? Can you build in repeating reminders to connect with them? For example, I call my mom, sister and best friend all on my way to or from work meetings so that I never let too much time pass between connections. It’s a habit and now anytime I’m in the car by myself I think about who I can connect with.
If you were offered a free trip around the world with free childcare, food, clothes, etc, but the requirement was that you hop on a plane in two hours - could you do it? If not, what would hold you back? How can you untether yourself from those things? What can you delegate or empower others to do in your absence? What can you cross-train people on? What can you let go of?
Do you truly, genuinely know and enjoy your supervisor? Your work team? If not, why not? And what can YOU do to change that? Pick even just one tiny thing you can do, that is 100% in your control, to improve these key relationships. Start with just one, and build up to a few things you can do every quarter or whatever cadence works for you to continually build upon and improve these relationships.
What’s your ideal time spent at work each day? Could you fit your must-dos into 50% of the time you typically spend at work? How about 25%? How would that free up your time and energy to do other things to add greater value, have time to focus on moving up or becoming better-known as a key leader in your company or industry? Or would this simply allow you the freedom to take more time off, or have more fun at work?
No. 3: Personal Fulfillment and Life Enjoyment
The whole point of #1 and #2 is to free up your time, energy and resources to be able to enjoy your life more.
Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t spend much time thinking about what that would actually look like. If you want to retire early, how will you spend your days? Will golfing every day get old? Will you miss the connections and influence you get from your work life?
The key is to identify the things that make you feel fulfillment and satisfaction outside of a job, and build those things into your life NOW so that you can test drive before you buy.
The HUGE bonus is that you’ll enjoy your life more - immediately. You may even find you don’t care to retire early if you’re basically enjoying yourself like you would if you were free to work on whatever you wanted anyway. If you play your cards right (see #1 and #2 above), work can be done because you enjoy it and because you choose it, not because you need it to finance your life or give your life meaning.
Tim Ferriss shares his Dreamlining worksheet (direct download) and how-to in The Four Hour Workweek and on his blog. It’s a GREAT tool and I won’t pretend to be better at this than he is. I’ve used it myself and it’s helped me hone in on what I actually enjoy most and specifically how I want to spend my life.
I’ve also found through working through my dreamline and executing on my vision that some of my previously-held “life goals” were really just one-off itches I needed to scratch, or proxies for the actual goals behind the original idea. For example, I thought I wanted to run my own business, but once I really took off on my financial plan above, I realized what I really wanted was the power to control my finances without relying on a job. I don’t want to live the life of an entrepreneur. I don’t want to spend my days working. I want to spend my days enjoying relationships, helping people I care about achieve their own personal and professional fulfillment goals, and remove the shackles of financial and professional stress from themselves so as to pursue their true passions. I don’t need to start a company to do this. I get to do this at work every day and have the time and energy to pursue it on the side (SU MBA mentor, WMFHA committee member, and private business consultant) when I so choose as well - and I can put it away whenever I want.
So what sort of activities are on MY dreamline?
Going on adventures with my little family, having quality conversations with my friends, traveling at least once a quarter, hosting epic parties, keeping a great home (decorating, gardening, loving the space I spend the majority of my time in), experiencing new things (travel, being a foodie, trying new hobbies), self-expression and personal growth (writing, reading, random craft hobbies like painting with my kids or learning to make hair bows), donating to causes I care about, setting aside a little money each month to invest for fun and to learn about new companies and industries.
These are the things I envisioned myself doing when I retired. But by living a mindset of money = time, I’ve allowed myself to enjoy my working hours, reduce my individual labor and increase my achievement output, and live my best “retirement life goals” in the here and now.
So my final question for you is this: What will you do RIGHT NOW to put yourself one step closer to living a life you love as much as I love mine?
Now go get after it.
