Money doesn’t buy happiness, though, neither does time. To have all the money in the world and not be able to spend time with my family and friends would mean absolutely nothing! What is the point of having money if we can’t enjoy it? How many people actually like to work for money? Not many. So how can someone be happy working constantly to bring home money? By all means, if someone can make a lot of money with minimal work, that would be great! Odds are though, that most people have to do a lot of work to make a lot of money; therefore making happiness almost obsolete. Be happy or have money, hmm, that’s a tough one! This is not to say, however, that every single person with money is unhappy.  

Time with the family is special especially if one has children. Children grow up so fast, and the best way to raise children is to spend less money on them and more time with them. What do you think a child will remember more: A hundred dollar pair of shoes bought for him/her, or spending time outside with their parent/s playing ball? If you’ve said the hundred dollar pair of shoes, you’ve probably never seen how quick children can go through a pair of shoes! If we don’t spend time with our children when they’re young, they may not want to spend time with us when we’re older.

Is a person more stressed when they work more hours? I’d bet so, how about you? How many people want less stress? I’d bet probably a lot of people. So it’s reasonable to believe that less work equals less stress. If someone has to work more hours just to make more money, then what is that doing for their mental health? I’ve never heard of any side effects of having more free time, except for maybe laziness. Yes, laziness can be a problem when someone has excessive amounts of free time. I’ll take being lazy or being stressed, after all laziness is a choice that can be reversed. Stress can be caused by lifestyle and is not a choice we cannot say “I’m going to stop stressing today.” It doesn’t work like that, you have to change part or all of your lifestyle to help alleviate stress, or take medication. I’ve never heard of anyone taking medication for laziness.

Just these few reasons alone are enough, for me, to say time over money. Money can be good, and is great when we need it! We need money to pay our bills, buy necessities, and things we want. Making money, though, has its costs and we must decide if the benefits out-weight the costs. In this case, for me, the benefits do not out-weigh the costs.