“Money’s greatest intrinsic value—and this can’t be overstated—is its ability to give you control over your time.” – Morgan Housel
I have been reflecting on the year that was 2020 over the last few weeks. If 2020 did one thing, it made me evaluate my time to include where I spend it, don’t spend it, and waste it. It made be evaluate the value of time. I suspect the same may be true for many readers. This is explains why a lot of my posts have encompassed the “personal” side of personal finance. 2020 was a strange year to say the least… I promise you that 2021 will be filled with a lot more posts on the nuts and bolts of pursuing financial independence and the logistics for reaching your goals. Today’s post… no so much.
Back to the movie and the topic of this post. It was ironic that during my self-reflection over the last few weeks, I randomly stumbled upon the move In Time. I suppose when you are an avid consumer of personal finance and financial independence related books and blogs, you tend to view and experience the world through this lens. This movie was no different, and I thought today I would share a few of my take-aways from the film.
In Time Movie Summary
The movie In Time is set in 2169. The human race has been genetically engineered to stop aging when they turn 25 years old. However, there is a catch. Everyone has a “time clock” built into their forearm, and they are born with one year of “time credit” on their clock. When you turn 25 years of age, the one year you are born with begins counting down. When it reaches zero, you will “time out” or die. For this reason, everyone is seeking more time which has become the universal currency. Time can be transferred between people directly or earned as compensation from an employer. Time, like any other currency, can also be inherited, stolen, collected (or hoarded), etc.
Society is broken into several quadrants called time zones. There are two time zones within the movie that are central to the plot.
The first time zone, Dayton, is the poorest time zone. The economy is primarily driven by manufacturing, which in turn, is how the majority of Dayton’s inhabitants earn their time. Most people in this time zone rarely have more than 24 hours on their clock. Time is scarce. They are forced to work, and often borrow day-to-day just to maintain enough time on their clock to stay alive. In extreme circumstances, some steal or even murder others to gain more time. The system is built to exploit those within this time zone. Wages, in the form of time, are stagnant and the prices on goods and services are constantly increasing. Interest rates on borrowed time also continue to increase, resulting in a vicious cycle often ending in death as a result of not being able to pay one’s debts or simply running out of time.
The second time zone, New Greenwich, is the wealthiest time zone. Immortality is common in this time zone, as time is plentiful. Time is abundant. Unlike those in Dayton, the people living in New Greenwhich live their lives at a much slower pace. It is implied throughout the movie that the New Greenwhich time zone has an economy driven primarily by financial services and the like. Think of it as the Wall Street of the future, except time is driving force rather than money.
The protagonist in the movie is Will Salas who is played by Justin Timberlake. Will lives in Dayton and works in a factory. One evening while at a neighborhood bar, Will encounters a drunken man, Henry Hamilton, from New Greenwhich with 116 years on his clock. Will ultimately saves Henry from being robbed and killed. As a result of this chance encounter, Will comes to learn that Henry is over 100 years old. Henry reveals to Will that the people in New Greenwhich hoard their time in order to live forever, while simultaneously controlling the flow of goods and services to other time zones including Dayton. With it, they have an indirect (and sometimes direct) control of prices, interest rates, etc. Henry ultimately tells Will that he has lived multiple lifetimes and wishes not to continue to be immortal while others die unnecessarily. The next morning while Will is sleeping, Henry transfers his 116 years to Will and commits suicide by purposely “timing himself out”.
The remainder of the movie centers upon Will’s efforts to discover the truth. In doing so, Will seeks to understand and dismantle the system as a whole. Will ultimately travels from Dayton to New Greenwhich in the search of the truth. Will finds himself being pursued by “timekeepers” for the suspected murder of Henry Hamilton. The timekeepers play a central role in the film as they maintain order within the current system by in part ensuring time remains in the appropriate time zone. With the timekeepers in pursuit, Will ultimately discovers previously unknown secrets of his past as well as the truth about the world as he knows it.
So… What Does This Have to do with FI?
If this is the first post you have read, you may be thinking what in the hell does a low budget Justin Timberlake science fiction film have to do with personal finance or the pursuit of financial independence? To that I would say it has everything to do with it. If you have read my posts up to this point, or peruse other personal finance blogs and books, you likely already know that much of personal finance and the pursuit of financial independence is in fact not financial. Money is simply a tool. If you understand how to use it, you can master it and live a much easier life. If you don’t, life can be much more complicated. Once you discover financial independence, FIRE and all that it entails, you begin to see money differently. Sure, money can buy you things you want. As a HENRY, we work hard and want to enjoy the fruits of our labor by having nice things in life. There is nothing inherently wrong with doing so. However, it is important to understand that money can provide for you something much greater than stuff. Money can buy you time. Your time… This is why the movie, In Time offers a great parallel to life and the pursuit of financial independence. Bear with me here, and you will see why you Justin Timberlake could teach us a thing or two. Let’s look at a few lessons that can be gleaned from the film.
Viewing Time as Currency
“Money is something you trade your life energy for. You sell your time for money. It doesn’t matter that Ned over there sells his time for a hundred dollars and you sell yours for twenty dollars an hour. Ned’s money is irrelevant to you. The only real asset you have is your time. The hours of your life.” – Vicki Robin
The first and most obvious lesson from the film centers upon time being the currency of the future world. One of the first books that I read when journeying down the rabbit hole of financial independence was Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez. Like many readers, this book made me evaluate my earning, spending, and saving in a different light. I began to equate my money with my time. Each day that I work, I am ultimately trading my time for a wage. Each time that I make a purchase, I am making a decision, albeit conscious or unconscious, to trade my time for that purchase. Sure, sometimes that purchase is essential. After all, I must put food on the table and a roof over my family’s head. However, oftentimes the purchase is non-essential, or becomes non-essential when filling the essential need. Many times I am just purchasing “stuff” that adds no real value to my life.
If you recall from a previous post, “stuff” has a price and the hedonic treadmill is a very real thing. Your Money or Your Life and In Time ultimately have the same message. Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, you are trading your time for money. Your time is your life. In Time presents a world where time is the actual currency. Without time, you “time-out” or die. As a result, your entire existence centers upon your ability to earn time if you are the poor or preserve time if you are the wealthy. You and I don’t have a clock on our wrist but we do routinely exchange our time for money which in turn is routinely exchanged for goods and services. At the macro level, debt and saving are no different. If I choose to live a life fueled by consumerism and debt, my time will never be mine. I will not own my life. My life will own me. I will simply continue to trade time for money in order to afford and sustain my lifestyle. Conversely, if I choose to spend consciously and save my money, I am ultimately buying back my time one minute and one hour at a time. It took me some time to make this connection. If you have yet to make this connection, I encourage you to read the book.
You Can Own Money or Your Money Can Own You
“Wealth, in fact, is what you don’t see. It’s the cars not purchased. The diamonds not bought. The renovations postponed, the clothes forgone and the first-class upgrade declined. It’s assets in the bank that haven’t yet been converted into the stuff you see.” – Morgan Housel
The film starts in Dayton as the character of Will Salas is introduced. As I noted in the plot summary, Dayton is the poorest time zone and the economy is primarily centered upon manufacturing. The people of Dayton epitomize the working poor. Each day is life and death. People are entirely dependent upon their employer and job to earn the time necessary to survive and trade for food and shelter. Without their job, they are literally dead. Their time is not their time. Their life is not their life.
This sounds extreme but is it really that extreme when you think about it? The average American lives paycheck to paycheck. Despite an above average income, many HENRYs are in the same position. I am friends with HENRYs. I have family that are HENRYs. I have peers that are HENRYs. Just because you make an above average income does not mean you are wealthy. As the old adage goes, you can be income rich and balance sheet poor and this is the case for many HENRYs. Even with a great income, you can still live paycheck to paycheck and be in debt up to your eyeballs. Keeping up with the Jones’ is a real thing…
It does not matter whether you make $200K or $2MM a year. If you spend everything you make (or more), you will continue to trade your time for money in perpetuity. If you want be average and save 10% – 15% of your income, you will only have to trade your time for money for approximately 40 – 50+ years. Hear me out… There is nothing inherently wrong with this approach IF you are living your best life and you are happy. If you truly enjoy what you do, then exchanging your time for money for 50+ years is perfectly fine. After all, are you really working if you enjoy what you do? The unfortunate reality is that many HENRYs do not truly enjoy their job. They find themselves stuck on a treadmill and they are unable to get off. They are not living their best life. They are stressed out and there is no joy in their work. Is this really living?
As a HENRY, I found myself in the situation above and still do to some extent. However, I have discovered another way. A better way… Using the principles of financial independence, I realized that I did not want to continue to be income rich and balance sheet poor. I did not want to be average. I did not want to trade my time for money for the next 50+ years.
Money Does Not Equal Happiness
“It doesn’t matter about money; having it, not having it. Or having clothes, or not having them. You’re still left alone with yourself in the end.” – Billy Idol
Money does not equal happiness… Profound I know…
An interesting statement for an anonymous blogger with the pseudonym H (High) E (Earner) N (Not) R (Rich) Y (Yet), wouldn’t you say? There is nothing wrong with building wealth or being rich/wealthy. The key is understanding that money is only a tool and that having an abundance of it does not directly equate to happiness and fulfillment.
Henry Hamilton plays a key role in the film as noted above as he transfers his time to Will Salas which sets into motion the entire plot. He serves as the first glimpse into the life of the wealthy in this future world. Despite being wealthy in time and having the ability to live forever, Henry is not happy. In fact, Henry is so unhappy he does not wish to live any longer. As the movie progresses, we are introduced to another key figure, Philipe Weis. Philipe Weise is a businessman who is essentially a “time-banker”. His business empire is built upon the lending of time to people across all time zones including Dayton in exchange for interest. Think of him as a modern day Pay-Day-Lender or Credit Card Company. Philipe is a caricature of the wealthy in New Greenwich. Despite being immortal and wanting for nothing in life, his entire focus in life is preserving his wealth of time for himself and his family. He is paranoid in every way possible. He has full time bodyguards to protect himself, his family, and his assets. He takes little or no risk in virtually every aspect of his life. Despite the ability to live a rich and fulfilling life, Philipe ultimately creates his own prison. His fear paralyzes him and sucks the happiness from his life.
The parallels to actual life here are clear. All the money in the world will not bring happiness. You have to have purpose. You have to have a why. As someone in the pursuit of financial independence, this is equally as important. Achieving FI without a purpose and without understanding your why, may not equate to happiness.
TimeKeepers and the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon
“When you grow up you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money. That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it… Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.” – Steve Jobs
The main antagonist in the movie is played by Cillian Murphy (picture above) who is a timekeeper. If you are a Christopher Nolan fan like myself, you will likely recognize him as he has been in many of his movies. Timekeepers, as their name implies, are responsible for “keeping time”. Put another way, they are responsible for maintaining order by ensuring time stays in the appropriate time zone, and that time does not fall into the wrong hands. They are responsible for maintaining the status quo, if you will.
I bring up the timekeepers not because of the role itself, but because of what they represent. I noted in one of my earlier posts that discovering financial independence is like Neo discovering the matrix. There is an alternate path that is the pursuit of FI, and once you see it you cannot unsee it. If you have not heard of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, you have surely experienced it. The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, also called frequency bias, is when you have a tendency to notice something more often after noticing it for the first time. Put another way, this phenomenon occurs when you have just noticed, been told about, or experienced something that suddenly seems to appear everywhere. Have you ever been in the market for a new car and then you begin to see the car everywhere? That is the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon at work.
Once you discover FI, you begin to see the systems and traps in place to keep you from achieving your goals. Consumerism is everywhere, and it is obvious. We are inundated with advertisements from a young age. Purchases are not evaluated in the context of time being exchanged for money being exchanged for stuff. The ability to afford something is not driven by the total cost, but instead by the monthly payment. Low interest… sure… No interest…even better! It is estimated that over $500 billion will be spent in 2020 on world-wide advertising when all the dust settles and the final figures are tabulated. [1] All to make us think we need more and that we need it now. If you have the money, spend it. If you don’t have the money, borrow it! You can afford it… You deserve it… After all, money is just money. You can earn more of it. You simply need to trade more time!
For those unfamiliar with the concepts of FI, this is the American way. To many, it is the only way. It is normal. We are a consumer culture, fueled by a consumer economy. 70% of the economy is driven by consumer spending. [2] Similar to the timekeepers and what they represent, there are forces at play designed to continue this as the status quo. If you are not careful, as a HENRY, you will fall victim to this system. You will work long hours, stay stressed out, and spend limited time with your family all to support a lifestyle of luxury fueled by material possessions. The pursuit of financial independence, especially earlier in life, presents an alternate path. A path where you control your life. A path where you control your time. A path where you create your own world and your own possibilities.
The Value of Time
“I just try to live every day as if I’ve deliberately come back to this one day to enjoy it as if it was the full final day of my extraordinary life.” – Tim Lake in About Time
Justin Timberlake’s character of Will Salas is interesting in many ways. Despite his lack of wealth/time, his life is fulfilling. In reference to time, Will says several times throughout the film that all he has ever had is a day. As such, he seeks to live each day as if it were his last because it quite literally could be. He seeks to maximize his time and happiness. This despite living in the poorest time zone and working each day to simply survive.
This, to me, is the central take-away of the film. Value your time. Life your best life today while still striving for a better life tomorrow. When evaluating this in the context of finances and the pursuit of financial independence, the message is the same. Value your time.
Money is abundant. The amount of money you can earn is infinite. However, time is finite and we all trade time for money. Tomorrow is not guaranteed for any of us. Deep down we all know this, but how many of us actually acknowledge this simple fact and view our life through this lens? If today were the full final day of your life, would it be different? Would you approach the day differently?
How about taking this a step further… If time is finite and we are trading our time for money, should you view money differently? Should you view your time differently? Should you evaluate purchases in a different manner? Are you trading your time for money and your money for stuff? Is that stuff bringing additional value and happiness to your life?
The answers to these questions are deeply personal and often very complex. The true power is in asking the questions and considering the alternatives. The pursuit of financial independence is an alternative. It is a way to take back your time and take back your life.
Regards,
– Henry
References:
[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/236943/global-advertising-spending/
[2] https://www.marketplace.org/2020/04/06/whats-gonna-happen-to-the-consumer-economy/