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Traders: How Much Do You Value Your Time?

All traders at the end of the year always take stock of their own trading activity. There is, still, an element that is never taken into account and therefore we tend to forget… How much is our precious time worth?

While it may seem obvious, time cannot be “preserved” and we know this. It just happens. It is said that when we are born we are filled with time, because we have a life ahead of us, but no one can quantify this wealth and no one can know how long a person’s life will last.

Even so, this wealth is a certainty, since time can be devoted to all things that free will allows. Bearing in mind that our choices will show us the way because with each decision we take new paths and leave others.

This leads to a consequence: we spend more time on what motivates us the most. This motivation can be effective, economic, work, sense of duty, etc. It is interesting to note that on many occasions we use time as an exchange currency.

Traders Continuously Exchange Their Time

This concept applies particularly well to a trader. He exchanges part of his time to have more availability of it, later. What do you mean? Invest money in financial markets to get more of it so you have more time to enjoy your life with your goals and desires. Let me explain in detail what this phrase means.

Time and money are perhaps the two most important resources we have available to invest and make a profit. However, it is money that is really valued as an investment because it allows us, being a system of payment, exchange, and reference, to receive something in return.

Otherwise, when we invest our time, it is not so easy to quantify the performance we will get, only in some cases will it give us a profit in the form of money. For example, in the event that we exchange our time with work to be rewarded with a salary.

In others, the exchange is not tangible, for example, when we want to increase our knowledge through study. Paradoxically, these resources have great similarities: both can be managed, lost, wasted, saved, they are not infinite, but the substantial difference is that only money can be earned. If you lose money, you can recover it over time, but if you lose time, you can never recover it, even by buying it.

Unconsciously, money is valued more than time, except by increasing age: older people value time more because they realize their lack. Time is available at no cost and available at will. Moreover, it is the most equitable resource there is. We all have it. The problem is your administration.

Different Uses of Time and Money

The same amount of money and time in the hands of different people will not coincide with their uses, even if the source from which they come is the same. If it is easy to answer that time is the main resource we must fight for, we must be aware that money is decisive for our future. Buying new experiences or particular desires requires a significant monetary expense and an investment of time to enjoy them.

The needs of life and the time in which we live mark the future of events: money well-spent costs little, while time well spent is scarce and spent inadvertently. A very good dilemma.

Time measurement predates the creation of money and is often related to productivity. Benjamin Franklin said that “time is money” and explained that time spent working to earn money was time well spent; otherwise, if time has been spent on other matters, money has been lost. This reflection is correct only in its own context, outside of it it does not make sense because the time well spent not only generates money but also generates many benefits that go beyond money.

Both time and money are consumed even if nothing is done with them. If we let time go, it is spent. If we do nothing with the money, like leaving it in a non-productive place, then inflation will, over time, despite its initial value. And this is surely the most important theory of finance: while the price of money remains constant, its value fluctuates over time.

Time Should Be Devoted to Investment

In the world of investment, the results are obtained after having devoted much of our time to them. The paradox that to make money I have to invest my time and that if I have money I will have more control over my time, does not go beyond the fact that the reward of both is not proportional. Having a lot of money is not synonymous with having a lot of time.

Time is indifferent to the amount of money. Those who have obtained a significant amount of money have invested a lot of time in it and will also need a lot of time to manage it.

It is clear that everyone is happy in their own way, but it is possible that those who have more time and less money to devote themselves and their families will be happier. A study carried out by the publication Psychological and Personality Science reveals that 64% of respondents prefer to have money for leisure time, even if the results changed when asked about happiness. In fact, it has been concluded that the amount of money accumulated is not proportional to happiness.

When you reach a certain limit of money, by earning more, that extra amount is not proportional to increasing happiness. In this sense, it is said, and rightly so, that the rich do not enjoy the same happiness as money. This limit is at 60,000 euros per year, according to experts. 60,000 euros a year? Here must enter an important reflection.

Invest Time to Gain Time

The trader invests his time because a greater amount of money improves the ability to use his time. Very true, but how do you use this time spent for this purpose? The trader must be really good at managing the time he spends in this profession. If the study of trading requires much of our time and a lot of dedication, it is also true that we should not launch it in a 10-hour session that does not bring anything good.

Some will say it depends on how much I earn. True, but only in part. If I have to destroy my psycho-physical balance to make money, there’s no point in working like this. Trading is said to be freedom, but this statement is the subtle line between good and evil.

If by freedom we intend to spend money on totally useless luxury items or sit in front of the screen for hours and hours to end up repenting and burning our human contact with the outside world, happiness will never be there and this is clear to everyone. If, instead, we mean the possibility of having quality time, for example, stay with our loved ones or have experiences that enrich us as human beings, then everything changes.

Trading As A Growth Process

Trading can be seen as a great ladder: a path where step by step we grow first as people and then as traders. A continuous exchange of time and money that should have a higher quality of time available, but above all the awareness of ourselves and of how we want to live our lives.

Life… We know it’s unique and we’ll never know the exact moment we’re leaving. Therefore, we must be very responsible to ourselves throughout this journey. Negative emotions, the lack of objectives, and the inability to react in the difficult moments of this work must be prohibited.

Time is the most precious thing we have. Unfortunately, we seldom evaluate it consciously: it continues to decline, inevitably tending to run towards a zero balance. Only in the future will we lose the past and this can never be recovered. Therefore, it is necessary to manage time: if you want to achieve something, the first thing is to realize it. It would be sad and out of logic not to do so, it would be an act of self-denial.