Too often, success in America is measured by the things we own. The bigger the house, the more luxurious the car, the more things you have, the more successful you must be.
Unfortunately for most people, this just isn’t the case. When you look at their finances, oftentimes you’ll find that they live beyond their means and finance much of their lifestyle with debt. Rather than having time freedom to do as they choose, they’re forced to spend their days earning wages so they’re able to pay bills and keep the charade afloat!
To avoid living a life that consists of just working to pay bills, we have to create time freedom which means keeping your spending in check and not keeping up with the Joneses. When your finances are under control, you’re able to save money and start improving your financial position. Over time, as your savings and investments grow, you gain greater time freedom to live the life that you choose!
What is Time Freedom?
During the employment years, most people have very little time freedom. They have careers, responsibilities, and obligations which leaves very little free time. Aside from the weekends and a couple weeks of vacation a year, most people’s lives are scheduled to the max with things they must do.
However, when you have complete time freedom the opposite is true. You are in control of how your days get spent. Rather than getting forced to do things you don’t want or that don’t excite you, you get to pick and choose what you want to do!
Truth be told, time is your most precious asset. Unlike money, once it’s spent, you can never get it back. And whether you realize it or not, with each passing day, you’re left with less time. That means less time to start a business, to develop meaningful relationships, or to live true to yourself. Not only that but there’s less time to cross items off your bucket list or to do the things that will bring fulfillment to your life.
With that being said, how can you gain more time freedom?
#1 – Set Goals
For many people, both time and money get wasted when they don’t have direction. Rather than budgeting, saving, and working towards something meaningful, they are more likely to spend impulsively and waste time endlessly scrolling Instagram or mindlessly watching TV.
However, when you set goals, you’re giving yourself direction. After all, a goal is something you’ve decided that you want to pursue and are going to work on achieving it.
When setting goals, it’s often easiest to begin with the end in mind. Think about what you’d do with more time freedom. What lifestyle would you want to have? Who would be with you? What would you enjoy doing each day? Once you have a vision, you can work backward and discover the steps that are needed to turn it into a reality!
For example, imagine your dream is captaining a sailboat and sailing it around the world. At first, you may need to take sailing lessons, get your sea legs, and eventually your captain’s license. Knowing the end goal helps you realize the steps that are needed for it to come to fruition.
#2 – Create a Time Budget
Like budgeting your finances, a time budget also helps you manage your spending. It sets up a plan for how you’ll split each 24-hour day into your time needs and wants.
Your time needs are the things you must spend some amount of time doing each day. This includes eating, sleeping, and potentially earning income depending on the amount of time freedom you already have. Your time wants are the things you’d like to do, such as getting coffee with a friend, working on a hobby, or watching TV. While these activities aren’t necessary, they improve your quality of life and sense of well-being.
By creating and sticking to a time budget, you’re being more intentional with how each day is getting spent. Rather than days passing you by with little regard, you’re making a plan and using your time allotments for an intended purpose.
For instance, if you set a goal like we discussed in the point above, then you can schedule some time to work on it. In the sailing example, you could add time blocks to your calendar for your lessons or studying. By scheduling this time, not only are you proactively working towards your goals, but you are much more likely to achieve them, too!
Also, it’s important to note that the goal of a time budget isn’t to cram more things into your day. Instead, it’s to eliminate or limit the activities that are no longer serving you. In doing so, you’ll have greater time freedom to rest and recharge or work on projects that are meaningful to you.
#3 – Track Your Time
Creating a time budget doesn’t guarantee that you’ll have more space in your day. While it sets you up to have greater time freedom, you still have to stay on budget. Otherwise, you may get distracted or lose focus and fall off track.
Oftentimes, my clients find that keeping a log of their daily activities brings about greater awareness of how their time is getting spent. One way to do this is by keeping a journal of each activity and the amount of time that’s being spent on it. After a few weeks, a time audit will show how close you are to your actual time budget. With this information, you can begin to understand which activities tend to take longer or where you’re getting distracted, all you to make adjustments.
For example, imagine that you’ve decided to limit your time on social media to 15 minutes per day. After tracking your time, you discover that you’re spending significantly more than 15 minutes each day. To stay on budget, you may need to set a timer or use an app, like RescueTime, to notify you that your allotment is up.
#4 – Manage Your Finances
Unfortunately, most Americans’ spending habits prevent them from having more time freedom. When you’re living beyond your means and buying status symbols you’re going to take on debt. Not only that, but the power of compounding starts working against you which means it takes more money and time to pay those debts back. Rather than having more free time, you end up with even less!
The degree of time freedom you have is based on your financial situation. If you have very little savings and high monthly expenses, then you’re forced to use your time to earn money to live. However, if you have a sizable cash runway and live frugally, then you have significantly more choice in what you do and for how long!
To determine your current level of time freedom, take your net spendable assets and divide them by your monthly expenses. The result is the number of months you could survive before needing to earn money, again.
Luckily, you are in control of both your assets and expenses. You can choose to focus on building wealth, lowering your outflows, or a combination of both. Either way, all of these options will increase the amount of time freedom that’s available to you!
For example, suppose you have $50k in the bank and spend $5k per month, giving you 10 months of time freedom. However, if you found ways to lower your bills and reduce spending, not only would you accumulate savings faster but your burn rate would also fall. In the end, this would yield an even greater amount of time freedom!
Another benefit of spending less is that you’ll own less. When you own less, you don’t have to spend so much time taking care of your possessions which begs the question, do you own your things or do they own you?
Despite what society tries to convince you, time freedom is the ultimate luxury. It’s not designer clothing, a larger house, or the latest gadget. It’s how you spend your time that is going to matter most in the end.
In the book, The Five Regrets of the Dying, two of the most common regrets most people have are not living a life that’s true to themself and wishing they hadn’t worked so hard. For you to not share these same regrets, you’ll need both time and money. Time freedom to live life on your terms and financial freedom so that all of your time isn’t going to work!
What are you doing to gain more time freedom? Comment below.
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