{"id":11140,"date":"2017-06-17T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-06-17T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/?p=11140"},"modified":"2017-06-11T02:57:08","modified_gmt":"2017-06-11T07:57:08","slug":"3am-thoughts-or-why-everyone-says-to-be-an-accountant-blast-from-the-past-october-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/3am-thoughts-or-why-everyone-says-to-be-an-accountant-blast-from-the-past-october-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"3am thoughts, or why everyone says to be an accountant (Blast from the Past: October 2013)"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lot of my blog posts this week had to do with money, wealth, and politics, so when I was searching for an old post to bring back, this one<\/a> made me stop and reflect for a while.<\/p>\n

My opinions and perspective have changed a bit since I wrote it, but the fundamental message is still one that I agree with. I’ve trimmed out some of the parts where I think I was wrong, and left the stuff that still resonates. Hopefully it resonates with you as well. Either way, feel free to let me know.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve been reading in bed on my smart phone recently, which is probably a bad idea because it makes it harder to go asleep. At the same time, it tends to get my mind rolling, and at 3am my thoughts tend to go some really interesting places. Sharing those thoughts is probably going to get me into trouble, but hey, you might find them interesting, so why not?<\/p>\n

When I was eight years old, I knew I was going to be a writer.\u00a0 There was never any question about that. I spent all my free time making up stories.\u00a0 However, I knew I never wanted writing to be my job, because 1) everyone hates their jobs, and 2) everyone knows that writers can\u2019t make a decent living. Even at eight years old, I had bought into some of society\u2019s most pervasive myths about jobs, careers, and how to make money.<\/p>\n

Americans are generally horrible with money. We struggle to keep budgets and put all sorts of things on credit, and pay more than twice what our houses are worth by signing mortgages we barely even read. Because we\u2019re so horrible with money, we tend to see it as a magical force, something that can solve all our problems and make us happy. Rich people are like wizards or sorcerers, so far above the rest of us that we can hardly fathom their ways.<\/p>\n

Nowhere is this stupidity more apparent than in the fact that most of us spend our lives working for some sort of hourly or salaried wage. Wages and salaries are basically the same, in that they convert time into money. That\u2019s why we all measure income in terms of dollars per hour, or salary per year.\u00a0 But for anyone who understands how money works, that is stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid. Money comes and goes, but time? Time is one of the most finite and precious resources known to man.<\/p>\n

All of us are going to die someday. Most people are scared shitless by that fact, so we try to ignore it or put off thinking about it until we have to. But not all of us get the opportunity to put our affairs in order before we die. And even if we do all live to be centenarians, our time on this Earth is still finite. It\u2019s non-renewable, too\u2014you can\u2019t go back and relive that day or that hour or that minute once it\u2019s passed.<\/p>\n

Converting time into money is basically trading gold for lead, or wine for water. Yet that\u2019s exactly what we do, because money is this strange, magical force that so few of us understand.<\/p>\n