Essential Skills: Earning, Spending, Giving

Value Your Time Using Your TiMER

time money exchange rate

We exchange a mix of our time, effort, skill, comfort, and security to make money. Time is the common denominator.

We spend money to buy other people’s time, effort, skill, comfort, and security for the products and services they provide us.

What is your Time Money Exchange Rate (TiMER)? Calculate it and learn how to use it to make more rationale earning and spending decisions.

The Earning & Spending Trap

spending problem

Professionals often have opportunities to work more to pay for more.

The bait can be subtle and alluring. Beware. It could be a trap.

Learn to detect, disarm, or extricate yourself safely.

Biology of Happiness: Evolve Beyond The Hedonic Treadmill

spending problem

The fossil record is littered by those who ended up on the wrong side of natural selection.

Learn about the biology of happiness to avoid a Darwin Award on the hedonic treadmill.

Instead, evolve to align with your biology in the pursuit of happiness.

Avoid a Lip-skid on the Hedonic Treadmill

spending happiness

If we are driven by the boluses of our happy-chemicals, then we will ratchet up the speed of the hedonic treadmill. Until we have a lip-skid.

Learn strategies to avoid that based on our biology and behavioural science.

Walk, choose your path, and savor the journey. Or add a mouthguard to your shopping list.

Income & Happiness: A Double-Edged Sword

money happiness

Some research suggests that increasing income helps to increase happiness up to a point and then it may decrease. It is a double-edged sword. However, there is more nuance to it than that.

There are clues embedded in that research to help you learn how to use your income to maximal happiness advantage. And avoid cutting off your own appendages.

Income & Happiness: Your Mindset Matters

money happiness mindset

Another method of studying happiness suggests that increasing income helps to increase happiness, but no satiation point. There may be a diminishing return by earning more. Or it may be accelerate happiness gains.

The difference in response to income appears to depend on your baseline happiness. Almost half of that is impacted by your mindset and relationship with money. Learn how. So, that you can learn to bounce like Tigger rather than be an Eeyore.

Synergistic Spending for Compounded Happiness Returns

money happiness

Spending is an essential financial skill. We only have so much time and money to spend. So, we must maximize the return on that investment.

Learn how you can spend your time and money effectively. There is much more to it than “buy experiences, not stuff”.

Happiness research can inform how spend effectively in different domains. Even better, find ways to spend synergistically.

Give Your Capital To Receive Happiness

charity wellness

Philanthropy or pro-social spending is a skill we must master to maximize our happiness and life satisfaction. There are many ways to give, but some are more effective and rewarding than others.

Learn how to give effectively. Both to maximize your impact, and life satisfaction. You don’t gain much satisfaction when you are dead. So, don’t save your giving for your estate. Make it a part of your life.

How to Donate To Charity Tax Efficiently

donation tax savings

By learning how to give tax efficiently, you have more money to donate and expand your reach. You may even be able to save on your personal taxes as well.

Sometimes it is best to give personally and other times through your business. Be a good financial steward and deliberately plan your giving efficiently to support the causes that matter to you. If not, the Government will get the money and they will decide.

Mental Accounting: Be A Financial Vulcan To Live Long & Prosper

personal finance errors

As humans, we compartmentalize to be able to handle all of the information and tasks the world throws at us. That can lead to mental accounting and illogical financial mistakes.

Learn to recognize these common financial mistakes and tips to prevent them. Be a financial Vulcan.