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

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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!!
 
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Jadus

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Thanks for the great video MJ! I always had a picture of you in my mind as a younger guy. It's nice to see you have more gray hair than I do!

Your words really hit home because I've been contemplating whether I should take early Social Security benefits or wait until i'm 66 and 10 months to get a little bit more. Now, I see it as a no-brainer. I'll take it now but keep working on my business of course. It'll be a nice back-up in case of a slow month or two (I haven't hit the fast lane just yet).

I've said it before but I'll say it again. I wish I had your books when I was young. Better late than never though.
 

Tiago

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Thank you for sharing this MJ.

This is why I've gone on two round the world trips, and plan on living between 3-6 months every year in a different country. Already did Indonesia, Germany/France, and next up is traveling around Brazil.

And the reason why I ended a relationship, because I didn't want to have kids yet. It felt selfish, and to be honest, it was. But I'm so glad I made that decision, because I've got enough time later on to build a family.

One thing that I also think will factor into this conversation is humanity living longer. Just reading through David Sinclair's "Lifespan" book, and I believe it will become very common for humans to live to 120, 130 and beyond.

Knowing that we'll live longer, how will that affect our decisions? When we get married, when we have kids, how long we stay in school, how much more we travel before "hunkering down", what experiences we get to have etc...

I appreciate you sharing the video and already ordered Die With Zero.
 

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Damn @MJ DeMarco, you look fitter, stronger, and in better health than me and I'm only 34!?

Great content there, I'm looking forward to seeing some more.
 
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Every time I feel like I'm not "earning" enough I remind myself that I'm not even spending 1/3 of my monthly income. That, and the fact that I was born a billionaire in terms of time.

With what I earn I can't buy a "sports" car, a nice house, or a private island. But I can grab a ticket to practically anywhere in the world, go to a restaurant every day, not worry about food or bills, and throw money at everything that catches my attention (when I previously had to do mental maths on whether I'd have enough left for survival). I'm also free to pursue anything I want after about 1-2 hours of work at most per day.

@MJ DeMarco

In regards to skiing, my best and only tip is to learn how to turn FIRST.

I got stuck thinking I needed to learn how to brake before anything else, but braking/slowing down comes easy when you know how to turn!

Source: A total of 2 days of skiing ever. Fell 20+ times on my first day, nearly launched myself off a 50ft drop and sprained my wrist. Immediately went skiing again the next morning (with a swollen wrist) and told myself I couldn't fall even once. I did not fall even once.
 

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Definitely liking the new look too.

I always had a picture of you in my mind as a younger guy.

Well when I started writing TMF, I considered myself young as I was still in my late 30s. But that book is over 10+ years old from first word to today.

Someone once told me that once you hit your late 30's, things seem to go south pretty fast. My early 40s was rife with a lot of fitness injuries, torn ligaments/muscles, surgeries, and various other physical problems that cannot be repaired with diet or medicine.

I used to play pickup BB 3-4 times a week... after rolling an ankle the Nteenth time and limping to my car, little did I realize then it would be the last time I would play.

Another something I heard...

The next time you do something you enjoy, try to remember that it might be the LAST TIME you ever do it.

For me it was basketball... (which sucks because my home has an indoor basketball court which I use now as a pickelball court).

I definitely want to try to ski, but I get a bad feeling that I'm being overly optimistic...
 

MTF

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Well when I started writing TMF, I considered myself young as I was still in my late 30s. But that book is over 10+ years old from first word to today.

Someone once told me that once you hit your late 30's, things seem to go south pretty fast. My early 40s was rife with a lot of fitness injuries, torn ligaments/muscles, surgeries, and various other physical problems that cannot be repaired with diet or medicine.

I used to play pickup BB 3-4 times a week... after rolling an ankle the Nteenth time and limping to my car, little did I realize then it would be the last time I would play.

Another something I heard...

The next time you do something you enjoy, try to remember that it might be the LAST TIME you ever do it.

For me it was basketball... (which sucks because my home has an indoor basketball court which I use now as a pickelball court).

I definitely want to try to ski, but I get a bad feeling that I'm being overly optimistic...

That sucks to hear.

That's partly why I prefer activities that even people 60+ can easily enjoy or sometimes can even still excel in them. Stuff like climbing, swimming, some types of martial arts that rely more on technique (BJJ possibly), diving, surfing or yoga. In all of these there's a large number of people doing it for life and often still improving in at least some aspects of them.

As for issues with ankles, I wouldn't be surprised if they were all caused by wearing basketball shoes.

IMO the traditional shoe industry is a scam. There are huge 100% proven benefits of going barefoot as often as we can. Many injuries can be avoided by going back to the roots.

Case in point:

Walking barefoot results in a more natural gait. People who are used to walking barefoot tend to land less forcefully, eliminating the hard heel strike and generating much less collision force in the foot and lower leg.[36] A 2006 study found that shoes may increase stress on the knee and ankle, and suggested that adults who walked barefoot may have a lower rate of osteoarthritis,[37] although more study is required to elucidate the factors that distribute loads in shod and barefoot walking. A 2007 study examined 180 modern humans and compared their feet with 2,000-year-old skeletons. They concluded that, before the invention of shoes, humans overall had healthier feet.[36] A 1991 study found that children who wore shoes were three times more likely to have flat feet than those who did not, and suggested that wearing shoes in early childhood can be detrimental to the longitudinal arch of the foot.[32] Children who habitually go barefoot were found to have stronger feet, with better flexibility and mobility, fewer deformities like flat feet or toes that curve inwards, and fewer complaints.[38] Walking barefoot enables a more natural gait, eliminating the hard heel strike and instead, allowing for a rocking motion of the foot from heel to toe.[36] Similarly, barefoot running usually involves an initial forefoot strike, instead of on the rear of the foot, generating smaller collision forces.
 
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Simon Angel

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@MTF @MJ DeMarco


49 years old. Basically wears flip-flops with better support. Builds everything with his bare hands.

One of my favorite channels. This guy is a legend. His story is interesting too - says he couldn't adapt to the modern way of living and working a job (well into his 40s, not 20s or something) and sook answers elsewhere.. in nature.

Ironically, recording his adventures in nature (yes, he's a one-man crew) he ended up earning money in the "real" and "modern" world.

Suggest starting from here:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tstHo8dWDg
 

MJ DeMarco

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This hits hard! Good point. Sometimes I take this too far though; the FOMO is real.

@SteveO might remember the last time I played softball... I had the game winning hit as a sub. Little did I know as I left the field that night it would be the last time I would play.
 
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@SteveO might remember the last time I played softball... I had the game winning hit as a sub. Little did I know as I left the field that night it would be the last time I would play.
It wasn't just the game winning hit. It was the playoff winning hit... against a team that was in a higher division than us!
 

MJ DeMarco

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@SteveO might remember the last time I played softball... I had the game winning hit as a sub. Little did I know as I left the field that night it would be the last time I would play.

The next time you do something you enjoy, try to remember that it might be the LAST TIME you ever do it.

Point of information: I can still physically play as this sounds like I cannot.

But for the following years, I tried to find a new team and a new league. Called both my community/city leagues and registered as a "free agent" -- did that for 6 years, but never ever got a call. I joined a bunch of softball FB groups and volunteered many times, until I stopped visiting FB. Even volunteered on a church team even though I'm not religious or part of any theology. And then I moved to Utah not knowing a soul (and not being part of the predominant religious population) it just seems my odds are getting worse and worse on playing again.

So I look back at that game and realize, it might have been the last time I ever played-- but due to circumstance, not old age or physical limitations.
 

Bill M.

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I am 23 years old - this is a great perspective to have. Thank you.

PS How old were you @MJ DeMarco , when you wrote "the Fastlane"?
It is a great perspective. I'm 62, and I was raised by parents who were penny pincher saving for a rainy day. That was considered responsible, and I embraced that value for too many years. Fortunately, I'm in good health and still able to do most things I could in my youth (with reduced vision, hearing, and flexibility), but many can't. Speaking to an elderly couple years ago, they said their life lesson (in hindsight) was to live large (not irresponsibility) in your youth because you likely won't be able to when you're older. Where do you want to travel? What activity do you want to engage in? Do it!
 
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missinfinity98

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It is a great perspective. I'm 62, and I was raised by parents who were penny pincher saving for a rainy day. That was considered responsible, and I embraced that value for too many years. Fortunately, I'm in good health and still able to do most things I could in my youth (with reduced vision, hearing, and flexibility), but many can't. Speaking to an elderly couple years ago, they said their life lesson (in hindsight) was to live large (not irresponsibility) in your youth because you likely won't be able to when you're older. Where do you want to travel? What activity do you want to engage in? Do it!
Yeah...? Yesterday I strongly considered becoming a hells angel, so do not tease me xD I saw a video - a woman had her feet outside of a car window. A rider passing by them - tickled her. It was adorable - buff, bearded man. And then it struck me - at one point they saw the meaninglessness of it all and simply hit the road. I am 23, enjoy healthy home-cooked meals, and prefer breathing clothes rather than sweaty motorcycle gear, so you won't see me on a Harley... Actually no. I will not delete what I wrote. I just now decided to add a motorcycle trip around the world to my list. Oh, I love it. Nice to meet you, Bill :D

Btw I adore motorcycles for a long time, so this kind of trip would happen finally anyway...
Any two-wheels lovers out here? ;)
 

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I just now decided to add a motorcycle trip around the world to my list.

That's the last thing I'd advise... at ANY age. I simply know too many people who never got to old age because of motorcycles.


Perhaps swap the motorcycle for a rented convertible so you can get some of the same effect.
 

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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!!
MJ, thank you for adding the transcript of your video. For many of us, it's faster to read than to watch the video. I wish podcasters would also provide transcripts instead of having us sit through their podcasts. As you always say, our time is our most valuable resource.
 
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Living in South Korea where you graduate uni at the age of 26 because of 2 years spent on mandatory military service, only to face a job market where it's hell just to land my first job, the phrase 'you can always make more money' sounds so distant.

Enterprenuership sounded so good when I first came across it in MJ's book while in the military. 4 yaers latter with no money, no ideas and no working experience, I'm just at a loss on how I'll ever reach the point of attemping to start my own 'something'.
 

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@MJ DeMarco

Thanks for the video, I love the mindset shift! In December 2021 I discovered your book and read the whole thing. In November 2021 my wife and I were talking about our next finance goals to make, which typically would be some sort of savings goal. I have loved reading finance books since I discovered and read Rich Dad Poor Dad in 2007, and have since read books by a lot of the classic guru's. I loved reading the books and would get really excited about the compound interest charts (like the ones you find in the David Bach books). I think these books teach important principles, principles we used to pay off mountains of debt in a few short years but this last November when we were talking about our next finance goal I said to my wife, "I'm sick of saving, I want to earn more money. That's the kind of goal I want to make!" A week later my wife one-upped me. We were out to lunch and she said "I have made a new financial goal." I recognized the way she said and I knew she was absolutely determined. "My goal" she said "is to become a millionaire by the time I'm 45." (about 5 1/2 years in the future. Not even a week later a youtube video got suggested to me recommending The Millionaire Fastlane. I told my wife we had to get this book and it totally validated and completely expanded and schooled the thoughts we had been having about wealth. We are just at the beginning of this journey but it has been very serindipotous so far and we are stoked to work hard to hit our millionaire goal! Thanks MJ!

P.S. I'm curious and excited to hear the story of why you moved to Alpine from AZ. As a fellow hot weather lover, in August I moved my family from cold Logan UT to warm TX and we are loving it!
 

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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!!
Great video and I agree 100%. I can't stand these Instagram posts and people, like you said, eat it up and many promote it on YouTube as well, as a way of life.
 
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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!!
@MJ DeMarco I read the book per your recommendation and I couldn't agree more.

He definitely mentions some things that I questioned (annuities) but his framework is solid.

Experiences while young are way better than when you are old. And assuming we live long we get to enjoy those memories way longer too.

I guess I did this without really knowing a few years back...

I was 25 years old and just quit my cubicle sales job because I couldn't see myself making 100 cold calls a day to earn $40k a year for the next 40 years. And I hopped on a plane to Mexico.

Ended up cancelling my return flight and backpacking through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica for the next two months.

Life changing experience for sure.

And didn't see too many 75 year olds travelling alongside me.

I created memories that live vividly in my head and will continue to do so for the remainder of my life.

And was able to do the whole thing for a few thousand bucks.

So - get out there and live today my friends. Because as cliché as it is - tomorrow is never guaranteed.
 

MJ DeMarco

I followed the science; all I found was money.
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So - get out there and live today my friends. Because as cliché as it is - tomorrow is never guaranteed.

Absolutely. Part of the Fastlane is massive income acceleration, or asymmetric returns which gives you the ability to spend money stress free. Religious and fantatic saving (as now advocated by every financial guru) is really a prescription to starve your life of youthful experiences.
 

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