Is Time Money?

At what point does the time invested in searching for deals outweigh money saved? Is the effort and work worth the money saved? Is it actually worth my time to seek out deals, coupons and freebies?

On one hand, during our brief time immersed in financial education, we learned that "The rich don't work for money". "The rich invent money" (create assets that produce money) Poor people trade time for money.

This makes sense when we know that we can 'invent' many things, but we can't 'invent' time. We each have the same number of hours in a day. How we spend, invest or waste it is up to us.

It makes sense. It is true. But, most people we met seemed to view this from a greedy, judgmental and selfish point of view.

On the other hand, when talking about stewardship, what is the best use of my time? The bible tells us it is good to work with our hands. Actually - here are the things a Proverbs 31 woman does or is: (NLT)

• finds wool and flax and busily spins it
• brings her food from afar
• plans the day's work for her servant girls
• inspects a field and buys it, with her earnings she plants a vineyard
• hard worker
• watches for bargains; her lights burn late into the night
• her hands are busy spinning thread
• extends a helping hand to the poor, opens her arms to the needy

This is an industrious woman. Actually, it looks like she's found a balance between business ('inventing' money through creating assets), and trading time for money. Hmm. And, notice that she does not judge or condemn the poor, but helps and opens her arms to them? Nice! She's got it all! She's got the knowledge, work ethic, and the heart.

I began this post completely confused, but after ranting a bit it's a little clearer. The answer seems to be what I've heard three billion times in my life - BALANCE!

Right. I knew that.

Thanks for letting me rant :)