Retiring Early

Saturday, February 17, 2007

To give or not to give...

There is an interesting discussion going on over at Free Money Finance about what's better to give: time or money. Over the past several years, I have been giving both. Unfortunately, over that same time period, my work obligations and family obligations have grown and I'm in a position where I need to make a choice. I've given it a lot of thought, and at this point in my life, given my constraints, time is just more important to me. I've been dragging this on for a while and now is the time to just make the call -- I'm going to stop giving my time away and focus solely on giving money for the time being.

Since our goals are to hang up our corporate hats and retire in the next 4-5 years, I guarantee my approach will undergo a 180 degree change. When I have the right-sized nest egg and all the time in the world, I'll likely switch to giving away more time than money. In fact, I'm somewhat looking forward to spending more time on charity!

And isn't that what being financially independent is all about? Having more time to do whatever you want to do?

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posted by fin_indie @ 2/17/2007  

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2 Comments:

  • At 3/02/2007 10:08 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I had no time at all to give when I was working; are you kidding me, with hubs and I both at the big M we were lucky to have the time, let alone the energy, to say "hi" to each other.

    The fact that the big M does matching was further incentive to put our $ to work in contributions.

    Now since I have jumped the mother ship I contribute time whilst hubs still contributes $ (my time = volunteer financial counselor, volunteer conversation companion to seniors, and that Katrina rebuilding trip I took last April, plus lots of informal "being there" for people).

     

  • At 3/03/2007 3:15 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Although I don't know your religious faith --- I'll give you the Christian response to that question. :)

    When faced with the question, God would want us to evaluate what is most important in our lives. For instance (example only), if a person's job takes up too much time from what is most important, then a change needs to take place. I'm not arguing that every waking minute of your day should be spent volunteering, but if the constant excuse for not being able to volunteer or give your time is that you are "too busy with work" or some other item, then the answer is to change that part of life to make the time.

    I just wanted to share the Christian response --- being that I'm a Sunday school teacher at our local church. It's a question that I also struggle with and forces me to re-evaluate what's most important in my life.

    NetWorth
    http://www.networthchallenge.com

     

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