The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

Life's Most Bitter Truth: What Your University Won't Teach You...

  • Admin

TRANSCRIPT:

Hey this is MJ DeMarco and I’d like to officially announce, I’m back!

It’s been nearly TEN years since I’ve actually did an in-person video and a lot has changed besides the gray hair and wrinkles. As you might know, one of the big changes for me, is I left Phoenix Arizona now live in Alpine Utah which is a little town about 40 minute SE of Salt Lake City. Now a lot of people asked me “why?” especially since I hate snow and lived in Arizona for nearly 25 years and pretty much, loved living there.

Unfortunately the “why” I would move to a place that is subject to snow and blizzards is another video, but since we’re on the topic of SNOW, it is a good segue into this video’s topic: What am I about to say, if you accept it, will be a major paradigm shift in your life. And if you don’t accept it, well I have bad news: I don’t need you to believe me because TIME will make you a believer. TIME will teach you the lesson. And by the time that TIME teaches you the lesson, it will be too late.

So when I was at college earning a finance degree, one concept was repeatedly drilled home: Money today is better than money tomorrow. This concept, the discounted time value of money, is universally taught worldwide, no matter the university. The concept is simple: Given a choice, you always prefer X dollars NOW over X dollars LATER. One million dollars today is light-years better than one million dollars fifty years from now. If you ever played the lottery, you’ll recognize this phenomenon: the winner doesn’t get the $10M prize immediately but over 30 years. If they want all of the money now, they’ll only receive about half.

When time is involved, future money is discounted by an arbitrary interest rate. For example, one million dollars received fifty years from now and discounted at a mere five percent interest is worth only $87,000 in today’s money. Folks, that doesn’t even buy you a top of the line Ford F150. If there was any evidence proving that TIME is a horrific partner for wealth, look no further than the prior statement.

So here’s the big paradigm shift: When it comes to time itself, a more valuable resource than money since you can’t make more if, and you’ll never be as young as you are today, TIME enjoys no such discounting. No school teaches what I call The Discounted Time Principle which I discuss in my latest book,The Great Rat Race Escape . The Discounted Time Principle states that future “elderly” time is not as valuable as today’s youthful time. Think of it this way. If a genie granted you a ten years of total of financial freedom, would you want it at thirty years old? Or at seventy? Isn’t freedom better while you’re young and vibrant and not in life’s twilight when health and energy might be precarious?”

So let’s get back to me moving to place that gets a lot of snow. I’m about 45 minutes away from one the best skiing capitals in the world Park City Utah. So when people heard that I was moving to the area, the first question they asked was, “Oh, do you ski?” And the answer is, unfortunately NO. And here’s the thing … if I wanted to learn how to ski at my age, I’m not sure I could. I’ve had multiple orthopedic surgeries, from shoulders to elbows, I have no cartilage in my ankles, and have bad knees from playing years of pickup basketball, and basically, me learning how to ski at my age is not the same as me learning to ski at age 30. You see TIME makes my free time less valuable as I get older and older, simply because time ravishes your body and the things you could enjoy at age 30 are not the same things you can enjoy at age 70.

So whenever some rat race media outlet or one of these “financial experts” is preaching about financial freedom if you just start saving now while waiting 30 or 40 years, be warned. You’re getting brainwashed and numbed into believing freedom at twenty-five is exactly the same as freedom at seventy-five. I’m mean think about that insanity. Mainstream financial experts want you to penny pinch every dollar and deprive yourself of life experiences in your youth, so one day you might finally enjoy those life experiences old. It’s a freaking mind-F*ck, and people drink this shit up like a pina colada on the beach.

This fact is something you’ll never learn in business school. If universities taught the discounted time value of time like they did money, Wall Street’s “live poor die rich” financial orthodoxy wouldn’t survive. Entire industries and economies would go bankrupt because the rats would finally figure out that their time is too valuable for trading. Yes, youth isn’t wasted on youth. It’s wasted on cultural norms that normalize and then celebrate the “exchange of youthful time for elderly time.”

My friend, whenever you’re on Instagram and one of those cute “financial freedom” graphs show up on your feed saying after X years X saved per month will be worth with X dollars, run the other way. TIME is a NOT to be used as a variable for wealth, because TIME is wealth. One belief that needs to be swapped is a resource reconfiguration: Time first, money second. You can always earn more money, but you can’t make more time. Using TIME for wealth is like your selling body parts for money … at some point, you’ll have no body left to enjoy your millions.

Now a great book that expands on this is Die with Zero by Bill Perkins. I don’t agree with everything in this book, but it has some fascinating perspectives on this philosophy and frankly, I think he does a better job at explain the Discounted Time Value principle.

Now that said, I definitely will try to learn how to ski, I’m not on to make excuses for not trying, but I don’t hold myself to any expectation. For more resources including the books mentioned in this video, check out the description below. Hope you learned something today, until next time, I’m MJ DeMarco!!
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Walter Hay

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
401%
Sep 13, 2014
3,318
13,305
World citizen
What a great wakeup call! Life is uncertain anyway, so why sell your life now for tomorrow, when tomorrow you might fall under that proverbial bus?

My attitude to this has always led me to avoid budgeting for my businesses. I have always just gotten stuck into doing the best I can now, and enjoying the results now. If I spent my time worrying about preparing and meeting a budget does that mean I am more likely to achieve that self-imposed target?

One target has always been in my mind - Succeed at what I am doing.

Thanks MJ.

Walter
 

Andy Black

Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
370%
May 20, 2014
18,563
68,687
Ireland

TRANSCRIPT:

Hey this is MJ DeMarco and I’d like to official announce, I’m back!

It’s been nearly TEN years since I’ve actually did an in-person video and a lot has changed besides the gray hair and wrinkles. As you might know, one of the big changes for me, is I left Phoenix Arizona now live in Alpine Utah which is a little town about 40 minute SE of Salt Lake City. Now a lot of people asked me “why?” especially since I hate snow and lived in Arizona for nearly 25 years and pretty much, loved living there.

Unfortunately the “why” I would move to a place that is subject to snow and blizzards is another video, but since we’re on the topic of SNOW, it is a good segue into this video’s topic: What am I about to say, if you accept it, will be a major paradigm shift in your life. And if you don’t accept it, well I have bad news: I don’t need you to believe me because TIME will make you a believer. TIME will teach you the lesson. And by the time that TIME teaches you the lesson, it will be too late.

So when I was at college earning a finance degree, one concept was repeatedly drilled home: Money today is better than money tomorrow. This concept, the discounted time value of money, is universally taught worldwide, no matter the university. The concept is simple: Given a choice, you always prefer X dollars NOW over X dollars LATER. One million dollars today is light-years better than one million dollars fifty years from now. If you ever played the lottery, you’ll recognize this phenomenon: the winner doesn’t get the $10M prize immediately but over 30 years. If they want all of the money now, they’ll only receive about half.

When time is involved, future money is discounted by an arbitrary interest rate. For example, one million dollars received fifty years from now and discounted at a mere five percent interest is worth only $87,000 in today’s money. Folks, that doesn’t even buy you a top of the line Ford F150. If there was any evidence proving that TIME is a horrific partner for wealth, look no further than the prior statement.

So here’s the big paradigm shift: When it comes to time itself, a more valuable resource than money since you can’t make more if, and you’ll never be as young as you are today, TIME enjoys no such discounting. No school teaches what I call The Discounted Time Principle which I discuss in my latest book,The Great Rat Race Escape . The Discounted Time Principle states that future “elderly” time is not as valuable as today’s youthful time. Think of it this way. If a genie granted you a ten years of total of financial freedom, would you want it at thirty years old? Or at seventy? Isn’t freedom better while you’re young and vibrant and not in life’s twilight when health and energy might be precarious?”

So let’s get back to me moving to place that gets a lot of snow. I’m about 45 minutes away from one the best skiing capitals in the world Park City Utah. So when people heard that I was moving to the area, the first question they asked was, “Oh, do you ski?” And the answer is, unfortunately NO. And here’s the thing … if I wanted to learn how to ski at my age, I’m not sure I could. I’ve had multiple orthopedic surgeries, from shoulders to elbows, I have no cartilage in my ankles, and have bad knees from playing years of pickup basketball, and basically, me learning how to ski at my age is not the same as me learning to ski at age 30. You see TIME makes my free time less valuable as I get older and older, simply because time ravishes your body and the things you could enjoy at age 30 are not the same things you can enjoy at age 70.

So whenever some rat race media outlet or one of these “financial experts” is preaching about financial freedom if you just start saving now while waiting 30 or 40 years, be warned. You’re getting brainwashed and numbed into believing freedom at twenty-five is exactly the same as freedom at seventy-five. I’m mean think about that insanity. Mainstream financial experts want you to penny pinch every dollar and deprive yourself of life experiences in your youth, so one day you might finally enjoy those life experiences old. It’s a freaking mind-f*ck, and people drink this shit up like a pina colada on the beach.

This fact is something you’ll never learn in business school. If universities taught the discounted time value of time like they did money, Wall Street’s “live poor die rich” financial orthodoxy wouldn’t survive. Entire industries and economies would go bankrupt because the rats would finally figure out that their time is too valuable for trading. Yes, youth isn’t wasted on youth. It’s wasted on cultural norms that normalize and then celebrate the “exchange of youthful time for elderly time.”

My friend, whenever you’re on Instagram and one of those cute “financial freedom” graphs show up on your feed saying after X years X saved per month will be worth with X dollars, run the other way. TIME is a NOT to be used as a variable for wealth, because TIME is wealth. One belief that needs to be swapped is a resource reconfiguration: Time first, money second. You can always earn more money, but you can’t make more time. Using TIME for wealth is like your selling body parts for money … at some point, you’ll have no body left to enjoy your millions.

Now a great book that expands on this is Die with Zero by Bill Perkins. I don’t agree with everything in this book, but it has some fascinating perspectives on this philosophy and frankly, I think he does a better job at explain the Discounted Time Value principle.

Now that said, I definitely will try to learn how to ski, I’m not on to make excuses for not trying, but I don’t hold myself to any expectation. For more resources including the books mentioned in this video, check out the description below. Hope you learned something today, until next time, I’m MJ DeMarco!!
Great work MJ. Love that you did a talking head video. I’m sure it will help spread this life changing message.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
  • Thread starter
  • Admin
  • #5

MJ DeMarco

I followed the science; all I found was money.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
445%
Jul 23, 2007
38,076
169,471
Utah
Great work MJ. Love that you did a talking head video. I’m sure it will help spread this life changing message.

Thanks Andy, I'm finally more settled into my new house and can start doing more live "talking head" videos. It's my first in a whopping TEN YEARS!!! And with not having experience during that time with microphones, lighting, editing, and various other things, I'm happy with it as a first video. I have nearly 50,000 subscribers and it is a waste to not utilize that audience, especially since video is the hot content consumption medium right now.
 

Antifragile

Progress not perfection
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
453%
Mar 15, 2018
3,706
16,806
You can always earn more money, but you can’t make more time. Using TIME for wealth is like your selling body parts for money … at some point, you’ll have no body left to enjoy your millions.
Well put MJ. 100%

Great message! And glad you are back putting out videos!
 

WJK

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
256%
Oct 9, 2017
3,115
7,961
Alaska

TRANSCRIPT:

Hey this is MJ DeMarco and I’d like to officially announce, I’m back!

It’s been nearly TEN years since I’ve actually did an in-person video and a lot has changed besides the gray hair and wrinkles. As you might know, one of the big changes for me, is I left Phoenix Arizona now live in Alpine Utah which is a little town about 40 minute SE of Salt Lake City. Now a lot of people asked me “why?” especially since I hate snow and lived in Arizona for nearly 25 years and pretty much, loved living there.

Unfortunately the “why” I would move to a place that is subject to snow and blizzards is another video, but since we’re on the topic of SNOW, it is a good segue into this video’s topic: What am I about to say, if you accept it, will be a major paradigm shift in your life. And if you don’t accept it, well I have bad news: I don’t need you to believe me because TIME will make you a believer. TIME will teach you the lesson. And by the time that TIME teaches you the lesson, it will be too late.

So when I was at college earning a finance degree, one concept was repeatedly drilled home: Money today is better than money tomorrow. This concept, the discounted time value of money, is universally taught worldwide, no matter the university. The concept is simple: Given a choice, you always prefer X dollars NOW over X dollars LATER. One million dollars today is light-years better than one million dollars fifty years from now. If you ever played the lottery, you’ll recognize this phenomenon: the winner doesn’t get the $10M prize immediately but over 30 years. If they want all of the money now, they’ll only receive about half.

When time is involved, future money is discounted by an arbitrary interest rate. For example, one million dollars received fifty years from now and discounted at a mere five percent interest is worth only $87,000 in today’s money. Folks, that doesn’t even buy you a top of the line Ford F150. If there was any evidence proving that TIME is a horrific partner for wealth, look no further than the prior statement.

So here’s the big paradigm shift: When it comes to time itself, a more valuable resource than money since you can’t make more if, and you’ll never be as young as you are today, TIME enjoys no such discounting. No school teaches what I call The Discounted Time Principle which I discuss in my latest book,The Great Rat Race Escape . The Discounted Time Principle states that future “elderly” time is not as valuable as today’s youthful time. Think of it this way. If a genie granted you a ten years of total of financial freedom, would you want it at thirty years old? Or at seventy? Isn’t freedom better while you’re young and vibrant and not in life’s twilight when health and energy might be precarious?”

So let’s get back to me moving to place that gets a lot of snow. I’m about 45 minutes away from one the best skiing capitals in the world Park City Utah. So when people heard that I was moving to the area, the first question they asked was, “Oh, do you ski?” And the answer is, unfortunately NO. And here’s the thing … if I wanted to learn how to ski at my age, I’m not sure I could. I’ve had multiple orthopedic surgeries, from shoulders to elbows, I have no cartilage in my ankles, and have bad knees from playing years of pickup basketball, and basically, me learning how to ski at my age is not the same as me learning to ski at age 30. You see TIME makes my free time less valuable as I get older and older, simply because time ravishes your body and the things you could enjoy at age 30 are not the same things you can enjoy at age 70.

So whenever some rat race media outlet or one of these “financial experts” is preaching about financial freedom if you just start saving now while waiting 30 or 40 years, be warned. You’re getting brainwashed and numbed into believing freedom at twenty-five is exactly the same as freedom at seventy-five. I’m mean think about that insanity. Mainstream financial experts want you to penny pinch every dollar and deprive yourself of life experiences in your youth, so one day you might finally enjoy those life experiences old. It’s a freaking mind-f*ck, and people drink this shit up like a pina colada on the beach.

This fact is something you’ll never learn in business school. If universities taught the discounted time value of time like they did money, Wall Street’s “live poor die rich” financial orthodoxy wouldn’t survive. Entire industries and economies would go bankrupt because the rats would finally figure out that their time is too valuable for trading. Yes, youth isn’t wasted on youth. It’s wasted on cultural norms that normalize and then celebrate the “exchange of youthful time for elderly time.”

My friend, whenever you’re on Instagram and one of those cute “financial freedom” graphs show up on your feed saying after X years X saved per month will be worth with X dollars, run the other way. TIME is a NOT to be used as a variable for wealth, because TIME is wealth. One belief that needs to be swapped is a resource reconfiguration: Time first, money second. You can always earn more money, but you can’t make more time. Using TIME for wealth is like your selling body parts for money … at some point, you’ll have no body left to enjoy your millions.

Now a great book that expands on this is Die with Zero by Bill Perkins. I don’t agree with everything in this book, but it has some fascinating perspectives on this philosophy and frankly, I think he does a better job at explain the Discounted Time Value principle.

Now that said, I definitely will try to learn how to ski, I’m not on to make excuses for not trying, but I don’t hold myself to any expectation. For more resources including the books mentioned in this video, check out the description below. Hope you learned something today, until next time, I’m MJ DeMarco!!
I'm older than you and I've learned to cross country ski. It's fun and I'm NOT as worried about breaking a leg. Another activity is snowshoeing. Both are good exercises.
 

Dionysos

Contributor
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
156%
Sep 1, 2020
41
64
Netherlands
Great video MJ!

Read in the books about this and that really opened my eyes! Never before had I even thought about this concept so deeply..

It's funny that once you have 'seen the light' you see all the people around you use these principles wasting their time.. I know I have wasted a lot, but as I just turned 31 this fires me up so much!
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Black_Dragon43

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
337%
Apr 28, 2017
2,069
6,964
‍☠️ Eastern Europe

TRANSCRIPT:

Hey this is MJ DeMarco and I’d like to officially announce, I’m back!

It’s been nearly TEN years since I’ve actually did an in-person video and a lot has changed besides the gray hair and wrinkles. As you might know, one of the big changes for me, is I left Phoenix Arizona now live in Alpine Utah which is a little town about 40 minute SE of Salt Lake City. Now a lot of people asked me “why?” especially since I hate snow and lived in Arizona for nearly 25 years and pretty much, loved living there.

Unfortunately the “why” I would move to a place that is subject to snow and blizzards is another video, but since we’re on the topic of SNOW, it is a good segue into this video’s topic: What am I about to say, if you accept it, will be a major paradigm shift in your life. And if you don’t accept it, well I have bad news: I don’t need you to believe me because TIME will make you a believer. TIME will teach you the lesson. And by the time that TIME teaches you the lesson, it will be too late.

So when I was at college earning a finance degree, one concept was repeatedly drilled home: Money today is better than money tomorrow. This concept, the discounted time value of money, is universally taught worldwide, no matter the university. The concept is simple: Given a choice, you always prefer X dollars NOW over X dollars LATER. One million dollars today is light-years better than one million dollars fifty years from now. If you ever played the lottery, you’ll recognize this phenomenon: the winner doesn’t get the $10M prize immediately but over 30 years. If they want all of the money now, they’ll only receive about half.

When time is involved, future money is discounted by an arbitrary interest rate. For example, one million dollars received fifty years from now and discounted at a mere five percent interest is worth only $87,000 in today’s money. Folks, that doesn’t even buy you a top of the line Ford F150. If there was any evidence proving that TIME is a horrific partner for wealth, look no further than the prior statement.

So here’s the big paradigm shift: When it comes to time itself, a more valuable resource than money since you can’t make more if, and you’ll never be as young as you are today, TIME enjoys no such discounting. No school teaches what I call The Discounted Time Principle which I discuss in my latest book,The Great Rat Race Escape . The Discounted Time Principle states that future “elderly” time is not as valuable as today’s youthful time. Think of it this way. If a genie granted you a ten years of total of financial freedom, would you want it at thirty years old? Or at seventy? Isn’t freedom better while you’re young and vibrant and not in life’s twilight when health and energy might be precarious?”

So let’s get back to me moving to place that gets a lot of snow. I’m about 45 minutes away from one the best skiing capitals in the world Park City Utah. So when people heard that I was moving to the area, the first question they asked was, “Oh, do you ski?” And the answer is, unfortunately NO. And here’s the thing … if I wanted to learn how to ski at my age, I’m not sure I could. I’ve had multiple orthopedic surgeries, from shoulders to elbows, I have no cartilage in my ankles, and have bad knees from playing years of pickup basketball, and basically, me learning how to ski at my age is not the same as me learning to ski at age 30. You see TIME makes my free time less valuable as I get older and older, simply because time ravishes your body and the things you could enjoy at age 30 are not the same things you can enjoy at age 70.

So whenever some rat race media outlet or one of these “financial experts” is preaching about financial freedom if you just start saving now while waiting 30 or 40 years, be warned. You’re getting brainwashed and numbed into believing freedom at twenty-five is exactly the same as freedom at seventy-five. I’m mean think about that insanity. Mainstream financial experts want you to penny pinch every dollar and deprive yourself of life experiences in your youth, so one day you might finally enjoy those life experiences old. It’s a freaking mind-f*ck, and people drink this shit up like a pina colada on the beach.

This fact is something you’ll never learn in business school. If universities taught the discounted time value of time like they did money, Wall Street’s “live poor die rich” financial orthodoxy wouldn’t survive. Entire industries and economies would go bankrupt because the rats would finally figure out that their time is too valuable for trading. Yes, youth isn’t wasted on youth. It’s wasted on cultural norms that normalize and then celebrate the “exchange of youthful time for elderly time.”

My friend, whenever you’re on Instagram and one of those cute “financial freedom” graphs show up on your feed saying after X years X saved per month will be worth with X dollars, run the other way. TIME is a NOT to be used as a variable for wealth, because TIME is wealth. One belief that needs to be swapped is a resource reconfiguration: Time first, money second. You can always earn more money, but you can’t make more time. Using TIME for wealth is like your selling body parts for money … at some point, you’ll have no body left to enjoy your millions.

Now a great book that expands on this is Die with Zero by Bill Perkins. I don’t agree with everything in this book, but it has some fascinating perspectives on this philosophy and frankly, I think he does a better job at explain the Discounted Time Value principle.

Now that said, I definitely will try to learn how to ski, I’m not on to make excuses for not trying, but I don’t hold myself to any expectation. For more resources including the books mentioned in this video, check out the description below. Hope you learned something today, until next time, I’m MJ DeMarco!!
Love the beard MJ, powerful stuff :fistbump: - fits you very well! Thanks for the book recom as well!
 

NewManRising

Silver Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
147%
Oct 30, 2017
484
711
Los Angeles
Reminders like these about your time definitely help get your butt into gear. When you're constantly reminded about your mortality your fears and hesitation start to get weaker. Great video, MJ.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

MTF

Never give up
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
455%
May 1, 2011
7,560
34,430
Damn you're charismatic on video.

Excellent job.
 

MJ DeMarco

I followed the science; all I found was money.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
445%
Jul 23, 2007
38,076
169,471
Utah

MJ DeMarco

I followed the science; all I found was money.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
445%
Jul 23, 2007
38,076
169,471
Utah
Funny how the image below feels like hyperbole... but it is a stone cold fact...

timevaluetime.png
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

GTMS

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
114%
Oct 9, 2020
7
8

TRANSCRIPT:

Hey this is MJ DeMarco and I’d like to officially announce, I’m back!

It’s been nearly TEN years since I’ve actually did an in-person video and a lot has changed besides the gray hair and wrinkles. As you might know, one of the big changes for me, is I left Phoenix Arizona now live in Alpine Utah which is a little town about 40 minute SE of Salt Lake City. Now a lot of people asked me “why?” especially since I hate snow and lived in Arizona for nearly 25 years and pretty much, loved living there.

Unfortunately the “why” I would move to a place that is subject to snow and blizzards is another video, but since we’re on the topic of SNOW, it is a good segue into this video’s topic: What am I about to say, if you accept it, will be a major paradigm shift in your life. And if you don’t accept it, well I have bad news: I don’t need you to believe me because TIME will make you a believer. TIME will teach you the lesson. And by the time that TIME teaches you the lesson, it will be too late.

So when I was at college earning a finance degree, one concept was repeatedly drilled home: Money today is better than money tomorrow. This concept, the discounted time value of money, is universally taught worldwide, no matter the university. The concept is simple: Given a choice, you always prefer X dollars NOW over X dollars LATER. One million dollars today is light-years better than one million dollars fifty years from now. If you ever played the lottery, you’ll recognize this phenomenon: the winner doesn’t get the $10M prize immediately but over 30 years. If they want all of the money now, they’ll only receive about half.

When time is involved, future money is discounted by an arbitrary interest rate. For example, one million dollars received fifty years from now and discounted at a mere five percent interest is worth only $87,000 in today’s money. Folks, that doesn’t even buy you a top of the line Ford F150. If there was any evidence proving that TIME is a horrific partner for wealth, look no further than the prior statement.

So here’s the big paradigm shift: When it comes to time itself, a more valuable resource than money since you can’t make more if, and you’ll never be as young as you are today, TIME enjoys no such discounting. No school teaches what I call The Discounted Time Principle which I discuss in my latest book,The Great Rat Race Escape . The Discounted Time Principle states that future “elderly” time is not as valuable as today’s youthful time. Think of it this way. If a genie granted you a ten years of total of financial freedom, would you want it at thirty years old? Or at seventy? Isn’t freedom better while you’re young and vibrant and not in life’s twilight when health and energy might be precarious?”

So let’s get back to me moving to place that gets a lot of snow. I’m about 45 minutes away from one the best skiing capitals in the world Park City Utah. So when people heard that I was moving to the area, the first question they asked was, “Oh, do you ski?” And the answer is, unfortunately NO. And here’s the thing … if I wanted to learn how to ski at my age, I’m not sure I could. I’ve had multiple orthopedic surgeries, from shoulders to elbows, I have no cartilage in my ankles, and have bad knees from playing years of pickup basketball, and basically, me learning how to ski at my age is not the same as me learning to ski at age 30. You see TIME makes my free time less valuable as I get older and older, simply because time ravishes your body and the things you could enjoy at age 30 are not the same things you can enjoy at age 70.

So whenever some rat race media outlet or one of these “financial experts” is preaching about financial freedom if you just start saving now while waiting 30 or 40 years, be warned. You’re getting brainwashed and numbed into believing freedom at twenty-five is exactly the same as freedom at seventy-five. I’m mean think about that insanity. Mainstream financial experts want you to penny pinch every dollar and deprive yourself of life experiences in your youth, so one day you might finally enjoy those life experiences old. It’s a freaking mind-f*ck, and people drink this shit up like a pina colada on the beach.

This fact is something you’ll never learn in business school. If universities taught the discounted time value of time like they did money, Wall Street’s “live poor die rich” financial orthodoxy wouldn’t survive. Entire industries and economies would go bankrupt because the rats would finally figure out that their time is too valuable for trading. Yes, youth isn’t wasted on youth. It’s wasted on cultural norms that normalize and then celebrate the “exchange of youthful time for elderly time.”

My friend, whenever you’re on Instagram and one of those cute “financial freedom” graphs show up on your feed saying after X years X saved per month will be worth with X dollars, run the other way. TIME is a NOT to be used as a variable for wealth, because TIME is wealth. One belief that needs to be swapped is a resource reconfiguration: Time first, money second. You can always earn more money, but you can’t make more time. Using TIME for wealth is like your selling body parts for money … at some point, you’ll have no body left to enjoy your millions.

Now a great book that expands on this is Die with Zero by Bill Perkins. I don’t agree with everything in this book, but it has some fascinating perspectives on this philosophy and frankly, I think he does a better job at explain the Discounted Time Value principle.

Now that said, I definitely will try to learn how to ski, I’m not on to make excuses for not trying, but I don’t hold myself to any expectation. For more resources including the books mentioned in this video, check out the description below. Hope you learned something today, until next time, I’m MJ DeMarco!!
Thank you for this awesome message and reminder of the value of time!
 

Mike Ronin

Contributor
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
134%
Jul 18, 2019
38
51
Coastal Alabama
Excellent video MJ, and love the beard. I'm 61 and mine is more white than black, but that's okay. Thanks for the video, looking forward to seeing more.
 

olli_23

Contributor
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
196%
Dec 14, 2021
24
47
Thank you MJ for this reminder. I had read it already in the book but it comes across even better on video! :)
Looking forward to more videos of yours.
 

Ing

Gold Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
102%
Jun 8, 2019
1,621
1,651
58
Bavaria
My motto since decades. Thanks for the write up.
MJ, as experienced bad knees soldier: if you want to use the sky area, take a snowboard instead! Knee rotation is much less. Only your a$$ will hurt more from falling back the first time.
 

WJK

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
256%
Oct 9, 2017
3,115
7,961
Alaska
Funny how the image below feels like hyperbole... but it is a stone cold fact...

View attachment 41233
Yes, I see what you are saying. I am still frugal even though I can afford pretty much whatever I want. I just don't want "it" anymore. I have no one to impress these days except myself. I just allocate my assets differently than a lot of people around me.

Here's my bottom line. I sure don't want to go into debt to buy more stuff to keep up the Jones'. That's a silly, counterproductive idea. I don't want to owe the bank $ -- I want to BE the bank that others owe. That's why I'm saving my money right now and expanding one of my side gigs in a new direction. I LOVE to make deals. To me, it's so much fun to play Monopoly with real money. Others can play their computers games and create a "let's pretend" illusion. I am happily building my little "empire" with real property interests and securities.
Oh, sorry. I'm on my soapbox again...

To get back to your idea... I don't think the problem is being too frugal or being a spendthrift -- either is just as bad. It's two sides of the same coin -- both are based on naked FEAR!

I think the real problem with being frugal like your Joe Jones is putting off being happy until you save ____ amount of money -- own ______, the perfect thing -- do/go _______ ...
It's when, in our heads and hearts, we are living in -- and for tomorrow -- while we literally only have today. It's many times the "what ifs" thinking-loop --spending all one's time worrying and preparing for all those catastrophic events that never happen.
(Is the end of the world just around the next corner? My answer to that is: when I'm dead, all my problems are over anyway -- so why worry?)

The real tragedy to me is to NOT enjoy the journey. The ending is a pretty flat feeling when you finally get there and you've already sucked all the happiness out of that accomplishment.

It's also NOT being able to add value and our personal touch to our little corner of the world. It is the feeling that our hard struggles and effort do NOT matter. They go unseen or noticed.

Being frugal is a game to me for all those things that aren't very important. I hate to spend money on trivia. But I spend money freely on things that I really need or to improve my life. That's one of the great perks of being financially independent.

I can buy something and use it once, or only a few times. Then I'm free to give it away to someone who needs that item. (That allows me to try a product and decide that I either like or don't like it. I don't have to keep using it until it's gone, worn out, or broken.)

I don't have to pack "heavy" to go on a trip. I can buy what I need or want along the way. If need shampoo, I can buy it when I get there rather than worrying about it spilling on my underwear. If I get cold, I can buy myself a new jacket and then feel free to put it in a donation box rather than in my luggage. If I see something I really want, I can have it boxed up and sent to my home.

I can decide to NOT buy the item and just go rent it for a specific time period. Then, when I'm done, I take it back to its rightful owner. I don't have to store it, clean it, insure it, dust it, or even look at it. Yes, there are times when it would be cheaper to buy the item, but I ask myself IF I really want to own it. If the answer is no, then I can make another decision.

If I really like something, I can buy one for each space where I'll use it. (I bought new vacuum cleaners for my different buildings this last fall. I gave away the ones we had been using.) I don't have to carry tools, supplies, or machines from one job to another all day long. I can afford to have those items on site.

If I really don't want to do something, I can hire a person to come to do it for me. No harm, No foul. As my grandfather would have said, "I ain't gotta do nothing these days, that I ain't wantin' to do."

For a girl who grew up "poor", this mindset is sure different for me! Was it worth all the years of struggles and painful days? You bet you! Those times tempered me -- like turning iron into steel. Over the years I succeeded and I failed. I made fortunes and then lost them. I got up every morning and I went to work -- because the sun came up again and again. Would my life had been better if some of that success had stuck at a younger age. Maybe. But like I said. For me, it's all about the journey, not the end accomplishment. The proof is in the mindset and the memories...
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
Last edited:

CLE

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
112%
Feb 7, 2016
51
57
44
My wife and I were happiest when we younger and in debt. We had debt on the things that we had with and our income was low but we didn't care because we were having fun and it was the best time of my life. Fast forward 20 years and we are way way better off finincially and have gotten rather cheap. We are indeed less happy with life and eachother overall. Money doesn't always solve problems. We used to be so spontanious and go do weekend trips and now we analize how much that would cost and just sit at home.
 

WJK

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
256%
Oct 9, 2017
3,115
7,961
Alaska
My wife and I were happiest when we younger and in debt. We had debt on the things that we had with and our income was low but we didn't care because we were having fun and it was the best time of my life. Fast forward 20 years and we are way way better off finincially and have gotten rather cheap. We are indeed less happy with life and eachother overall. Money doesn't always solve problems. We used to be so spontanious and go do weekend trips and now we analize how much that would cost and just sit at home.
I totally understand. The best thing I ever did was to take care of my mom for the last 10 years of her life. We laughed a lot and we had some wonderful days together. Those years and moments are what I think about when I think of her.
 

Gabbe18

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
164%
May 16, 2020
117
192
Sweden

TRANSCRIPT:

Hey this is MJ DeMarco and I’d like to officially announce, I’m back!

It’s been nearly TEN years since I’ve actually did an in-person video and a lot has changed besides the gray hair and wrinkles. As you might know, one of the big changes for me, is I left Phoenix Arizona now live in Alpine Utah which is a little town about 40 minute SE of Salt Lake City. Now a lot of people asked me “why?” especially since I hate snow and lived in Arizona for nearly 25 years and pretty much, loved living there.

Unfortunately the “why” I would move to a place that is subject to snow and blizzards is another video, but since we’re on the topic of SNOW, it is a good segue into this video’s topic: What am I about to say, if you accept it, will be a major paradigm shift in your life. And if you don’t accept it, well I have bad news: I don’t need you to believe me because TIME will make you a believer. TIME will teach you the lesson. And by the time that TIME teaches you the lesson, it will be too late.

So when I was at college earning a finance degree, one concept was repeatedly drilled home: Money today is better than money tomorrow. This concept, the discounted time value of money, is universally taught worldwide, no matter the university. The concept is simple: Given a choice, you always prefer X dollars NOW over X dollars LATER. One million dollars today is light-years better than one million dollars fifty years from now. If you ever played the lottery, you’ll recognize this phenomenon: the winner doesn’t get the $10M prize immediately but over 30 years. If they want all of the money now, they’ll only receive about half.

When time is involved, future money is discounted by an arbitrary interest rate. For example, one million dollars received fifty years from now and discounted at a mere five percent interest is worth only $87,000 in today’s money. Folks, that doesn’t even buy you a top of the line Ford F150. If there was any evidence proving that TIME is a horrific partner for wealth, look no further than the prior statement.

So here’s the big paradigm shift: When it comes to time itself, a more valuable resource than money since you can’t make more if, and you’ll never be as young as you are today, TIME enjoys no such discounting. No school teaches what I call The Discounted Time Principle which I discuss in my latest book,The Great Rat Race Escape . The Discounted Time Principle states that future “elderly” time is not as valuable as today’s youthful time. Think of it this way. If a genie granted you a ten years of total of financial freedom, would you want it at thirty years old? Or at seventy? Isn’t freedom better while you’re young and vibrant and not in life’s twilight when health and energy might be precarious?”

So let’s get back to me moving to place that gets a lot of snow. I’m about 45 minutes away from one the best skiing capitals in the world Park City Utah. So when people heard that I was moving to the area, the first question they asked was, “Oh, do you ski?” And the answer is, unfortunately NO. And here’s the thing … if I wanted to learn how to ski at my age, I’m not sure I could. I’ve had multiple orthopedic surgeries, from shoulders to elbows, I have no cartilage in my ankles, and have bad knees from playing years of pickup basketball, and basically, me learning how to ski at my age is not the same as me learning to ski at age 30. You see TIME makes my free time less valuable as I get older and older, simply because time ravishes your body and the things you could enjoy at age 30 are not the same things you can enjoy at age 70.

So whenever some rat race media outlet or one of these “financial experts” is preaching about financial freedom if you just start saving now while waiting 30 or 40 years, be warned. You’re getting brainwashed and numbed into believing freedom at twenty-five is exactly the same as freedom at seventy-five. I’m mean think about that insanity. Mainstream financial experts want you to penny pinch every dollar and deprive yourself of life experiences in your youth, so one day you might finally enjoy those life experiences old. It’s a freaking mind-f*ck, and people drink this shit up like a pina colada on the beach.

This fact is something you’ll never learn in business school. If universities taught the discounted time value of time like they did money, Wall Street’s “live poor die rich” financial orthodoxy wouldn’t survive. Entire industries and economies would go bankrupt because the rats would finally figure out that their time is too valuable for trading. Yes, youth isn’t wasted on youth. It’s wasted on cultural norms that normalize and then celebrate the “exchange of youthful time for elderly time.”

My friend, whenever you’re on Instagram and one of those cute “financial freedom” graphs show up on your feed saying after X years X saved per month will be worth with X dollars, run the other way. TIME is a NOT to be used as a variable for wealth, because TIME is wealth. One belief that needs to be swapped is a resource reconfiguration: Time first, money second. You can always earn more money, but you can’t make more time. Using TIME for wealth is like your selling body parts for money … at some point, you’ll have no body left to enjoy your millions.

Now a great book that expands on this is Die with Zero by Bill Perkins. I don’t agree with everything in this book, but it has some fascinating perspectives on this philosophy and frankly, I think he does a better job at explain the Discounted Time Value principle.

Now that said, I definitely will try to learn how to ski, I’m not on to make excuses for not trying, but I don’t hold myself to any expectation. For more resources including the books mentioned in this video, check out the description below. Hope you learned something today, until next time, I’m MJ DeMarco!!
Another great video MJ!
 

MJ DeMarco

I followed the science; all I found was money.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
445%
Jul 23, 2007
38,076
169,471
Utah
We used to be so spontanious and go do weekend trips and now we analize how much that would cost and just sit at home.
Money doesn't always solve problems.

This is a contradiction. By the sound of things, you are still a slave to money. If money wasn't a problem, you would be spontaneous. You would do X, Y, and Z and not hesitate. You would enjoy life. The problem is calling oneself "Free" but being still chained to an existence because money is still your jailbars.

Fast forward 20 years and we are way way better off finincially and have gotten rather cheap.

yes, because you are allowing the mainstream "narrative"to define your way of life.

Your "youthful freedom" was far more valuable because you enjoyed life experiences.

Now you can tell yourself you're "financially secure" while basically doing nothing but worrying about money. Save for retirement! Again, I'd rather be young and broke rather than live that existence.
 

Jemmalee

Bronze Contributor
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
244%
Jun 15, 2020
128
312
UK

Iammelissamoore

Silver Contributor
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
239%
Sep 23, 2014
393
938
Trinidad and Tobago

TRANSCRIPT:

Hey this is MJ DeMarco and I’d like to officially announce, I’m back!

It’s been nearly TEN years since I’ve actually did an in-person video and a lot has changed besides the gray hair and wrinkles. As you might know, one of the big changes for me, is I left Phoenix Arizona now live in Alpine Utah which is a little town about 40 minute SE of Salt Lake City. Now a lot of people asked me “why?” especially since I hate snow and lived in Arizona for nearly 25 years and pretty much, loved living there.

Unfortunately the “why” I would move to a place that is subject to snow and blizzards is another video, but since we’re on the topic of SNOW, it is a good segue into this video’s topic: What am I about to say, if you accept it, will be a major paradigm shift in your life. And if you don’t accept it, well I have bad news: I don’t need you to believe me because TIME will make you a believer. TIME will teach you the lesson. And by the time that TIME teaches you the lesson, it will be too late.

So when I was at college earning a finance degree, one concept was repeatedly drilled home: Money today is better than money tomorrow. This concept, the discounted time value of money, is universally taught worldwide, no matter the university. The concept is simple: Given a choice, you always prefer X dollars NOW over X dollars LATER. One million dollars today is light-years better than one million dollars fifty years from now. If you ever played the lottery, you’ll recognize this phenomenon: the winner doesn’t get the $10M prize immediately but over 30 years. If they want all of the money now, they’ll only receive about half.

When time is involved, future money is discounted by an arbitrary interest rate. For example, one million dollars received fifty years from now and discounted at a mere five percent interest is worth only $87,000 in today’s money. Folks, that doesn’t even buy you a top of the line Ford F150. If there was any evidence proving that TIME is a horrific partner for wealth, look no further than the prior statement.

So here’s the big paradigm shift: When it comes to time itself, a more valuable resource than money since you can’t make more if, and you’ll never be as young as you are today, TIME enjoys no such discounting. No school teaches what I call The Discounted Time Principle which I discuss in my latest book,The Great Rat Race Escape . The Discounted Time Principle states that future “elderly” time is not as valuable as today’s youthful time. Think of it this way. If a genie granted you a ten years of total of financial freedom, would you want it at thirty years old? Or at seventy? Isn’t freedom better while you’re young and vibrant and not in life’s twilight when health and energy might be precarious?”

So let’s get back to me moving to place that gets a lot of snow. I’m about 45 minutes away from one the best skiing capitals in the world Park City Utah. So when people heard that I was moving to the area, the first question they asked was, “Oh, do you ski?” And the answer is, unfortunately NO. And here’s the thing … if I wanted to learn how to ski at my age, I’m not sure I could. I’ve had multiple orthopedic surgeries, from shoulders to elbows, I have no cartilage in my ankles, and have bad knees from playing years of pickup basketball, and basically, me learning how to ski at my age is not the same as me learning to ski at age 30. You see TIME makes my free time less valuable as I get older and older, simply because time ravishes your body and the things you could enjoy at age 30 are not the same things you can enjoy at age 70.

So whenever some rat race media outlet or one of these “financial experts” is preaching about financial freedom if you just start saving now while waiting 30 or 40 years, be warned. You’re getting brainwashed and numbed into believing freedom at twenty-five is exactly the same as freedom at seventy-five. I’m mean think about that insanity. Mainstream financial experts want you to penny pinch every dollar and deprive yourself of life experiences in your youth, so one day you might finally enjoy those life experiences old. It’s a freaking mind-f*ck, and people drink this shit up like a pina colada on the beach.

This fact is something you’ll never learn in business school. If universities taught the discounted time value of time like they did money, Wall Street’s “live poor die rich” financial orthodoxy wouldn’t survive. Entire industries and economies would go bankrupt because the rats would finally figure out that their time is too valuable for trading. Yes, youth isn’t wasted on youth. It’s wasted on cultural norms that normalize and then celebrate the “exchange of youthful time for elderly time.”

My friend, whenever you’re on Instagram and one of those cute “financial freedom” graphs show up on your feed saying after X years X saved per month will be worth with X dollars, run the other way. TIME is a NOT to be used as a variable for wealth, because TIME is wealth. One belief that needs to be swapped is a resource reconfiguration: Time first, money second. You can always earn more money, but you can’t make more time. Using TIME for wealth is like your selling body parts for money … at some point, you’ll have no body left to enjoy your millions.

Now a great book that expands on this is Die with Zero by Bill Perkins. I don’t agree with everything in this book, but it has some fascinating perspectives on this philosophy and frankly, I think he does a better job at explain the Discounted Time Value principle.

Now that said, I definitely will try to learn how to ski, I’m not on to make excuses for not trying, but I don’t hold myself to any expectation. For more resources including the books mentioned in this video, check out the description below. Hope you learned something today, until next time, I’m MJ DeMarco!!
SUPER Great seeing you back again. Happily reading and organising with your 3rd work of art. Definitely liking the new look too. Always appreciate the exceptional guidance.
 

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

Latest Posts

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top