Time is Money, but Money Can’t Buy Time
Time is Money, but Money Can’t Buy Time
The Physician Philospher
“This broken water heater is going to set us back. If it costs $2,000 to replace, that’s an extra two weeks of payments towards our student loans.” Please, tell me I am not the only one who thinks like this? For a while, my monetary mindset revolved around our biggest financial goal: Paying off our refinanced student loans. Time is money, and I didn’t have the time for costs that slowed our financial progress down.
It is important to realize, though, that money is a means to an end. It is not the end itself. This is a common concept that many struggle with in medicine, particularly if you work in private practice or you work in a shift work specialty.
Time is Money
The first person to use the phrase “Time is Money” was Benjamin Franklin in his book “Advice to a Young Tradesman, Written by an Old One”.
The original quote is actually the following:
Remember that Time is Money. He that can earn Ten Shillings a Day by his Labour, and goes abroad, or sits idle one half of that Day, tho’ he spends but Sixpence during his Diversion or Idleness, ought not to reckon that the only Expence; he has really spent or rather thrown away Five Shillings besides. ~Benajamin Franklin
The point that Benjamin Franklin was trying to make is that for every moment that you do not work, this will cost you money. Of course, this is only true if there is a job that would pay you during times that choose not to work.
Shift work and The Problems it Entails
For those of us that do shift work, this idea hits close to home. For example, I know that if I get sick and cannot go to work that is going to cost me what my shift normally pays. As a physician who earns a lot of money, getting sick just got expensive!
Or what about that week of vacation you want to take to the beach? That week, for me, is five days of missed work. So, that beach trip costs more than just renting the house, buying the gas to drive the cars, and the cost of food. It is also missed opportunity cost from not working. Most of the time our beach trip costs more than twice what we paid for it. Speaking of vacation, I know that in many private practice groups people will have to pay others to get a day off. All of this costs money.
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