Time is Money

First of all, I love economics.

Second of all, I love to think.

Third of all, I suck at writing and will now explain why time is money.

First, we must answer the question, what is money? Money is a medium of exchange, a store of value, and a unit of account. It's a medium of exchange because it reduces transaction costs (it acts like a middleman, kinda). It's a store of value because we can have a service provided to us and eventually pay someone later for it. It's a unit of account because it allows us to measure in terms of other things.
Money is scarce, meaning that it is limited and that it's in high demand.
If money 1) lacks scarcity, 2) is perishable, and 3) is indivisible, then it's NOT MONEY.

So, now it's time to talk about Time (see what I did there?).
Let's start with scarcity. Is time scarce? Well, you tell me. Have you ever had a deadline on a school assignment? Have you ever looked at a clock and realized you were running late to an obligation? Have you ever said the words, "I don't have time!" or, "I don't have ENOUGH time!" or, "I wish I had MORE time!" If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you can conclude that yes, time is scarce.
There are only so many seconds and minutes and hours that fill our day, and only so many days in a week. Just a few weeks, and you have a month. Just twelve months and you have a year. Sure, you can say that there is a lot of time... there are a few milleniums of time! But that doesn't mean that each individual has a lot of time. Nope, each individual has very little of it. And I'd be lying if I said I had all the time in the world.

But wait a second... does time actually die, or go away? Does it ever cease to exist? I don't think so. Fish and donkies die, milk expires. Although time can be in the past, it doesn't just "disappear". If time disappeared, there would be no such thing as memory... Alright, so I went off on a tangent with the memory thing, but whatever. To put it briefly, time is NOT perishable. You can't kill it, and it doesn't just stop or go away, no matter how badly some people might want it to.

Now for indivisibility. I've got two words for the world: time management.
The fact that we are able to do what we want with our time and DIVIDE it in about 19284928572 different possible ways means that it is very divisible. Boom. Also, if you wished to think of this in a mathematical way, think of it like this: time is measured in numbers (60 seconds, 60 minutes, 24 hours, 7 days, etc. etc. etc.) You can divide numbers.


So, now that I've proven to you that time is, indeed, money, we must now answer this question: what kind of money? Is time a commodity or a fiat? Commodity money is something that has value within itself, meaing that without being a medium of exchange, store of value, or unit of account, it's still useful and valuable for other reasons. Fiat money has no intrinsic value on the market, or, to put it in non-econ words, it has no purpose but to be a means of getting what you actually want. Your initial reaction to this answer might be, "Well, obviously commodity because I value my time! Time is so precious!!! I cherish it!"...Or whatever you might say. I don't know. 
But we really need to think critically about this, so slow down. If you believe Time is a commodity, then you need to figure out what its value is other than being money. So, what is Time? Is it something we like simply because it's time? Is it just an empty void of space? Is it history, or the future? I can't really answer any of these questions, but perhaps you can.
I CAN, however, tell you what my opinion of Time is.
I think time is fiat money. Time is worthless if I can't use it to get something else. Picture this: I have a wallet full of coins that say 1, 5, 10, and 25 seconds on them. I have pieces of paper that say 1, 5, 10, and 20 minutes on them. Heck, I even have one piece of paper that says "one hour". So, one afternoon after all my challenging classes, I pull out my wallet and take out the "one hour" piece of paper. I use that to take a nap. After I wake up from the nap, I think, "Man, that was a great nap. It was so worth one hour my time." Worth. I got my time's worth by taking a nap.
But are there consequences? Yeah, sure. There are opportunity costs in every decision. Because I spent one hour of my time, I have one hour less of my time to study.
This is why I think time is only good for getting something else. Time is a medium of exchange because we "cash it in" to take a nap. Time is a store of value because, well, it can move through time. Time is a unit of account because we measure things by how much time it will cost us.


In conclusion, I value time. However, I don't love it, because in itself, it means absolutely nothing to me. However, when I spend it on my friends, family, learning, adventures, and music, it suddenly become important. It suddenly becomes the most precious and valuable thing in life. It's sacred, and incredibly scarce. I must finance my time, so that I don't "fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way", as Pink Floyd teaches us.

So, I'll leave you with this one last question:
What do you invest your time in?