Control Over Your Time

Housel draws in The Psychology of Money on the psychologist Angus Campbell, whose large studies of American well-being found that a strong sense of control over one's own life predicted feeling good more reliably than income, status or any other objective condition. Money's most valuable use, then, is not more things but more autonomy. Autonomy comes in degrees. A few months of expenses saved lets you leave a bad boss without panic. A year lets you change careers. More lets you choose work you like at a slower pace. Each step buys a little more say over your own hours, and that say is what people miss most when it is gone. Housel adds that modern work sharpens the point: more and more jobs are done in our heads, so a job we cannot control occupies the mind all day, even at home. He also notes that older people, asked what mattered in their lives, talk about friendships, family and unhurried time, not about what they bought. The practical shift is to price purchases in time: each one either adds to your independence or delays it.