Time

What is most valuable to you – Time or Money?

My first thought was Money because this is what ultimately enables us to pay our bills and fund the life we want.

However, after giving this some thought I Value Time over Money and here’s why…

Living a Busy Life

I’m sure you will agree, we all live a busy life!

• There’s always have something to do.
• We often find ourselves juggling many things.
• Things are regularly put off to another day.
• It’s easy to forget.

It’s easy for life to become repetitive; We go to work, come home, sort the kids out, have tea, housework, etc and when finished we then have choices:

• Chill in front of the TV
• Socialise
• Quality time with the family
• Exercise
• Scroll social media.
• More jobs

I Was Wasting So Much Time

For me, life was becoming a vicious circle, I found myself taking the easy option, I became content and laziness was creeping in, I worked hard during the day, did the usual chores, time with the kids and then just chilled or socialised.

We all need time to chill and socialise, but I was letting myself down – I was chilling too much and when I was socialising my head was not in it.

I took my eye of the ball and the bad habit of wasting time was certainly present in my life for quite a while, but, why?

It was all down to mindset; I gave work my attention and therefore I was performing at work, but I was not giving my life the Time & Attention it needed – I had no balance!

My plans and goals began to be just thoughts and dreams, I was going nowhere, I gave myself no time to think, therefore, I was not doing what I had to do that would get me where I wanted to be.

I couldn’t see the wood for the trees because I was programming my brain by telling myself I don’t have the time, I’m busy and I deserved some chill time but the truth of it is I was just being lazy, lacked motivation and focus.

Time to Think

When we look at what we do with our time, I wonder how much time and attention do we actually spend to just think and how often do we actually give do just that?  If we want to get somewhere and start achieving our goals, we must allow ourselves time to think:

We could start by asking ourselves the following 3 questions:

• What are your goals and why?
• What is required from you to make it happen?
• When are you going to put the time in to do it?
• What can you do to get your head in the right place and improve your ability to get it done?

How much time do we waste on social media?

I was shocked at the time I wasted on my phone, but I was even more shocked when a client told me of her shock at the time she spent on social media.

You can check how much time you spend on your phone:

1. Go to your settings on your phone.
2. Select ‘Screentime’
3. Click on ‘See all activity’.
4. Flick between ‘Week and Day’
5. Look at the total time spent.
6. Scroll down and look at the time spent on apps.

How I Made Time

I know this open letter isn’t for everybody, many of you are doing great but I know some of you want:

• Change and more from life.
• Achieve some goals and move forward.
• Personal growth

If any of the above apply to you, please continue reading…

Like I said, the lifestyle I was living was getting me nowhere.

I say it again, I couldn’t see the wood for the trees because I was telling myself I was busy, but really, I lost focus and was unorganised,

When I took TIME out to think in December, I decided to:

• Laser focus in on my goals and thought why I wanted them.
• List what I had to do to achieve these goals.
• Plan out when I was going to do it by and blocked out my diary to do it.
• I committed to get it done.

Making Time Got Me Results

These are the goals I set for January & February and yes, I achieved them:

1. Painted the lounge, designed photo collages of my children, and purchased extra furnishings so I can complete the work in my lounge.
2. Painted the office and improved the layout to improve my state of mind whilst I’m working.
3. Purchased new office furniture and equipment so I have more space & able to make videos for the business.
4. Built a supporting wall in the garden so I can move onto the next stage of home improvements.
5. Went on 32 walks, probably 25 more than the whole of 2022.  This gave men time to just breath and improve my health.
6. I read 2 books and attended 4 x 2-hour sessions for personal development and growth because I want extra guidance to keep me on track with my new lifestyle.
7. I socialised less than usual but when I did I found myself I enjoyed myself more than what I was previously.

None of the above would have been achieved if I didn’t have the WHY and didn’t give myself TIME to think.

At times I had to battle my mindset and bad habits:

• I kept asking myself:
  • Is there more pain caused in doing it or more pain in not doing it?
• I reminded myself I wasn’t happy with the life I was living.
• I regularly visualised my goals.
• My to do list focused on tasks that made a difference to my life.
• I took ACTION.

All the above was achieved whilst running a business, running a household, spending quality time with the kids – no less than usual.

I just spent my time better.  I didn’t relax as much and I became more energised and I feel great.

Important

The goals I set involved planning my time, thinking about my spending and my use of savings, without the use of credit.

Getting stuff done can easily rely on money and caution should always be given to not getting carried away.

I have seen it too many times, people rush in and fund their goals using credit which very can very easily create a negative impact on day-to-day finances.

When committing to additional expenditure, I recommend you carefully think through your finances and if you do use credit, I seriously recommend you consider the impact this will have on your overall finances which fund your desired lifestyle.

I’m not a life coach, but if you require financial advice or wish to look at creating a financial plan so you can achieve your goals or take your life and money to the next level – Money Advice Clinic are here to help, please contact us here.

True Stories

I have tried to think of a few examples experienced with customers over the last couple of years, who have been too busy:

1. Put off discussing their mortgage renewal by 4 months – resulted in an unnecessary increased monthly payment of around £120 per month, £1,440 per year, £7,200 over 5 years.
2. A customer contacted me to discuss a Will, we met, and they agreed to proceed but couldn’t confirm a date to give their instructions, it kept getting put off and one of the customers died without a will and now the children’s inheritance is at risk.
3. A review meeting was held to review a clients insurance arrangements, interest was there for the need but was too busy to give it they full attention so wanted to put it off to another time – during this period the customer was diagnosed with cancer without insurance.
4. I was having a discussion with somebody who was paying private school fees for their grandchild, I advised them to make a will to protect the funding just in case the worst happened. Seven months later the person passed away and now there is uncertainty about funding future payments which could result in the child having to change school.

The above examples clearly show more pain can be caused by not doing rather than doing.

Give Yourself Time to Think

• How much time do you give yourself to think?
• What are the goals you want to achieve?
• Why are the goals important to you & What will be the feel-good factor for you?
• What are you going to do to make things happen?
• What is the financial gain or cost?
• If you are you putting off the action to achieving these goals:
  • Why?
  • What do you fear?
  • Where’s your head at?
  • Why are you putting the action off?
  • Is it more painful to put it off or more painful to do it?

Purpose of Post

Money Advice Clinic are not just here to help with your financial products, we understand the pressures of life and day to day finances.

We want to stand out against the rest and talk about real issues that can help people.  Talking about my own personal experiences may relate with others and who knows it may motivate, inspire, provide knowledge, or even remind you of simple things that can make a difference.

Summary

Spending our time better brings so many benefits:

• Improved health, energy, and mental wellbeing
• We gain purpose and move forward.
• We develop our personal skills and capability to deliver.
• Work performance improves.
• Smarter spending
• Make better decisions.

The above will have a positive knock-on effect to your finances and ability to grow to help you live the life you want, and this is why I now VALUE TIME MORE THAN MONEY.

Each key component of our life requires better time management if we want to improve aspects of our lifestyle.

Don’t waste your time giving all your focus on tasks that don’t matter.  Apply more focus to the real tasks and take action, this will move you closer to getting what you want!

Finally

I’m sincerely surprised by the number of you who are responding to these emails/posts, it’s nice to hear they are helping in some way.

Have a great March.

Best Regards

Paul