Time and Money, Money and Time

The Great Conundrum for most of us, typical Americans. If you find yourself with a lot of one, then you are usually very short on the other. Time and money.
The greatest crime against humanity is the salaried worker. Sadly I believe I am heading right towards this, a sad ending to a pretty good life. The salaried worker gets paid X dollars no matter how many hours a week they work.

For example I have a very close friend who makes 35k a year for a very well known worldwide corporation. He works a typical 60 hours per week. He usually only has one day off a week, so lets look at this mathematically. He doesnt even take the usual 2 weeks off. (cant afford it)
He is management making $10.00 per hour of his life. To make the same living but work a regular 40 hour week he would have to have a $15/ hour job. This is not outside the realm of possibility except; the salaried worker is a rat seeking the same reward over and over. You see his check is the same every time and that makes him feel safe. So the Gianormous Corporation has him trained. Who could find another job while working 60 hours a week anyway? When would you have time? So in this scenario he has neither time nor money. I am not sure the salaried worker can lead a balanced life. Its as if the corporation owns you!

Another close friend is an hourly worker who is offered 20 plus hours of OT a week. He can’t get enough of it, complains if he doesn’t get all of it. He is making an astronomical amount of money for his profession. Here’s the hook, his wife is at home 60 hours a week waiting for him. He has no real life of his own beyond work. When he does have time off he’s trying to pay off the guilt of not being there for his family. He has plenty of money but no time, no one is happy.

I am trying to position myself before entering the “rat race” to be able to live a balanced life with time for work and time for myself. I don’t think this entails getting up super early or going to bed super late. This entails something that flies in the face of our modern lifestyle. Ready, OK, here it goes. You have to give up the desire for material possessions and keeping up with the Joneses. You have to ply your own path. You have to find what is important to you and find a standard of living that will allow you to have the time you want and the money you need to live on. Some people can live on amazingly little money because they don’t consume much.

Wish me Luck……..

Another way to approach this is to move out of the U.S. I have researched and found many sources detailing the amount of vacation that other countries give their workers. In Europe it is not uncommon for a worker to have 6 weeks paid vacation off per year. Here is an interesting tidbit. Did you know that Europe has adopted a 35-hour workweek?
Japan is right behind us in time worked. They mandate that their workers have 25 paid days off