How to Store Time
How to Store Time
By Financial Imaginer
This is the first post of a series called “financial excursions” where we will explore how to understand the world better while learning about money and your life. In my view, “financial excursions” are the best way to teach your kids about money. This summer we took our kids for a trip to see one of the largest dams with hydroelectric plant in Switzerland.
We marveled at the large wall, enjoyed the views from its top, learned about its functions and of course I grabbed the opportunity to explain how building a dam is similar to capturing your income streams and save money and therefore time for later usage in life.
Let’s explore our discoveries together.
Lac Mauvoisin
This summer, we went to see the Mauvoisin dam. In Switzerland we are very proud to have the bulk of our electricity production generated by hydropower (59.9%), nuclear power comes in second (33.5%) and conventional thermal power plants (2.3%, non-renewable) conclude the electricity mix.
Switzerland has currently 638 hydroelectric power plants. The largest dam in Switzerland is the 285 metre-high Grande-Dixence dam (canton of Valais), the second largest is the Mauvoisin dam standing at 250 metres (820 ft) tall, it’s the eight-tallest in the world.
The impounded water behind the Mauvoisin dam forms the 5 kilometres (3 miles) long lake with a capacity of 211.5 million m3 and captures the water from an area as large as 167 square kilometres.
The impressive statistics about this dam include of course its capacity to produce energy. Water released from the Mauvoisin dam into several hydroelectric power stations lower in the valley are boosting the Swiss energy grid with 943 million KWh annually!
The dam was also chosen as perfect location of the world-record highest [successful] basketball shot. In 2016 the 28-year-old Australian Derek Herron launched a basketball from the top of the dam, where it fell 180 metres directly into a net placed on the ground below. LINK
Water And Gravity
My last post about waterfalls covered the topic how to build an abundant waterfall of income streams where we have learned how to diversify “getting paid”.
Fact is: The average millionaire has seven flows of income!
It’s good to have the income flows, but what do you do once the “water” comes flowing your way? If you don’t do anything particular, “water” will follow gravity and disappear in the endless oceans where it originally came from again. LINK
Looking at the wild mountain range the kids could see how the mountains are still nicely covered in snow – even in summer. From there, the sun melts the snow into water and as it comes down, energy is set free. This energy, released from water flowing downwards, has been harnessed by humans for millennia. Over two thousand years ago, people in Greece used flowing water already to turn wheels of their mills to ground wheat into flour. Today, we convert this kinetic energy into electricity.
This sounds all magnificent. However, there’s one big problem here: As the water keeps flowing, you must keep using and consuming the energy right on the spot. Hence, how about if you would like to delay consumption? How to prevent money simply from flowing through your life I asked my kids standing on that magnificent dam?
If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people. Chinese saying
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