I was in a meeting with a consultant a few weeks back when she said something so simple, yet so profound. She stood up there and said,
Most People Can’t Build Meaningful Wealth Trading their Time for Money
The topic of the meeting was creating processes to work smarter versus working hard with the real focus on those building a career in the financial services industry. Notwithstanding the topic or setting of the meeting at the simplistic and succinct statement.
Trading Money for Hours is Not a Way to Build True Wealth
She is obviously not a pioneer in the field of compounding interest, passive income, spending less than you earn, hell it wasn’t even her point, but the passing statement really just summed up what I, and anyone else who invests, wants to achieve. It doesn’t matter if your choice of investments is the traditional stock market, real estate, alternatives, or just a straight business – your goal should be to build wealth even while you are sleeping. There are only a certain amount of hours in each day, only a certain amount of days in a year and only so many years in your working life. The idea of compounding interesting, passive income, spending less than you earn are all based on the idea that your money has to work for your while you are not.
Obviously the term wealth is subjective, one man’s fortune is another man’s trash, but in the end, everyone should want to work towards their definition of wealthy. Realizing that that trading your time for money in a straight transaction is the first baby step in a long journey.
LOL! You probably have that right… But most of us have nothing else to trade for money. As a practical matter, you’re not going to get rich with compounding interest unless you’ve earned something to compound interest ON, and so while you may not get rich trading time for money, you’re not likely to get rich _unless_ you trade time for money. Well…unless you inherit enough money to invest profitably.
So the best time to try and start would be yesterday!