A million seconds is 11 days. A billion seconds is 31 years. A 20 year old has little money, but 2 billion seconds. As a 35 year old, I'm still a time billionaire with probably 1.5b seconds left. How do I want to invest this time? This metaphor has given me a framework that ties a few other questions I've been thinking about.
What's the right metric of return on time?
We invest dollars and measure how many additional dollars we make. But time goes to 0, no matter who you are. Focusing on converting time into $ doesn't feel right. Warren buffet has $100b but not much time. Would a 20 year old with 2 billion seconds want to trade places with him? There are rigorous frameworks for measuring return on invested capital, but none for return on time. While highly subjective, the right metric for most is some balance between health, relationships, career success, and the actual day to day enjoyment and satisfaction derived from life. It's worth putting in the effort to create this for oneself.
What's your investment strategy?
The 2 most important investment decisions are deciding asset classes to invest in and deciding how active vs passive one will be in each. Simple is often better e.g. a diversified index fund portfolio is best for most people. The same 2 questions can help with one's time investment strategy. Do you have the right allocation mix in different categories? Have you deliberately thought about your active/passive strategy? Do you actually have an information or skill advantage such that an active strategy in a particular area will produce outsize returns?
What are your input and output metrics?
Amazon is famous for focusing on input metrics rather than output metrics. We all set goals for various areas of life - work, income, health, family, and so on. These goals focus on output metrics like get the promotion, buy the nice house, or lose 10 pounds. We don't always think about the time and effort required to achieve these outcomes. Time is naturally an input metric. If we think about how we want to allocate a billion seconds of time towards our goals, our actions will be in greater harmony with our aspirations. We can achieve greater focus, make better decisions and improve the likelihood of actually achieving our goals.
Love this idea of a billionaire
Love the thinking behind this. How are you thinking about it? For example, I've learned that having LARGE unscheduled swathes is critical for me (even if I ironically schedule my unscheduled swathes).
Also, I think you'd find my post on some of these core currencies (including $) very interesting https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/four-currencies-preet-anand/