Time is Money

Currency is a substitute for money. Currency is not money. Usually currency has a low monetary value.  Currency like our own here in the United States is known as fiat currency. Fiat currency has no intrinsic value.

Did you also know that fiat currency is debt?  Take a look at any of our dollars today, and you will notice the words note and this note is legal tender for all debts public and private. In other words, our currency is debt, not money. Take a moment to digest what I just said.

Every dollar that you take from your pocket is a note for debt. It is not what it seems. It is a promise to pay something back. People have this grand idea that money is the solution for many issues. Issues that include personal happiness and international peace. We can never obtain those things when we use our form of currency. What we are saying is that we need to go into debt as an individual and as a nation to get what we want.

With a system of currency as debt, it is impossible for an economic model to perform over the long run. Debt has a lifeline. Eventually, the lifeline comes to the end of the road and changes need to be made. Either voluntarily or not, changes will be made with our economy. Usually at the end of a(n) (economic) life, there is struggle to survive.

Today, I see that struggle as the on purpose devaluing of our dollar. If you have read anything in the news lately, you know that there is a race between nations to devalue currencies. Why is America devaluing of the dollar? Because politicians say that it will increase exports, which will create jobs and be good for our economy. In a sense, the nation to devalue their currency the most and the fastest wins. I say we are doing it for two reasons.

First, it is easier to pay back our massive debt, when our dollar is worth nothing. Imagine paying back $30 trillion dollars of nothing… Heck, I got that in my pocket right now! Imagine saying to our creditors, “Here you go, here’s your money back.” Can you imagine the look on their faces?

Second, We race to devalue our dollar because our currency is meaningless. Again, fiat currency has no intrinsic value and is created out of nothing. We carelessly treat our currency with no regard, because it is abundant. Money or gold is not, that is why is holds value.

That’s what has got me thinking…do we treat life like currency or treat it like gold? If we treat it like a limited resource, I think our actions would be different. Maybe there is one lesson we can learn from our economy. It’s that our time here on this planet is short. “That’s the thing about life, nobody gets out alive.” I am making a better effort to treat life like gold.

I will worry less about the past and the future. For they are like our currencies, they are worthless, because they are gone. What we should treat like gold is the present. I am working on living more in the present and less in the other two time zones of past and future. I know I’m on to something here, because of the saying, “time is money.” If that is true, current time is gold, that’s why they call it the present 😉

What we did in the past or what we are going to do in the future is meaningless. It’s what is present that matters most. It is the truest form of money. How are you spending your current time? Take time and be present. It’s the gift that separates us from most other creatures on the planet; the ability to be self aware. Now that’s worth its weight in gold!

“Remember, life has nothing to do with money, success has everything to do with failure and life is as simple as you want to make it!” – John Dessauer