I sit here staring at the hundreds upon hundreds of CDs that I’ve purchased over the years and ponder their fate. One by one we’re checking the resale value on Amazon and, if they’re already being sold for over $1.00 used, we’re posting them on the site for sale cheapest available item.

I used to be all about ownership of media. Be it music CDs or DVDs, if there was something that I liked I would go out of my way to buy it’s circular holographic plastic container.

But we’re in a much different age today. With Spotify giving freemium access to nearly any track that I ever want to listen to and the local public library stocking basically every single movie, there’s no longer a need for me to own all of this media.

So now all of this clutter is on it’s way out. After giving an excited friend 2 full boxes of DVDs we’re now posting maybe 10% of our CDs on Amazon while the rest are simply valueless and being donated to Goodwill.

All of this media and it truly has no value. But the value in this shift is much greater than the amount of money we’ll be “earning.” Simply getting rid of this clutter and clearing out the physical and mental space it occupies, is well worth the effort.

This is a trick that my Dad taught me to quickly determine a yearly salary for a 40 hour a week job.

Take the hourly wage, multiply it by 2 and add 3 zeroes (multiply by 1,000).

$20/hr * 2 *1000 = $40,000

This gives you an awesomely simple estimate for any 40hr/week job.

This quick formula gives you the 50 week total, so if you want to quickly know the exact amount for the year simply take the hourly wage, multiply by 80 (2 weeks at 40hr/wk) and add it to your total above.

$20/hr * 80 + $40,000 = $41,600

Easy right?

Our perception of money changes throughout life, but I wish I could tell the person that’s making $10/hr that it’s not “good money” and trading more hours for more of it isn’t the best answer.

Instead I have to choke back my advice and not tell them to look for a smarter way to make money. Instead I congratulate them on getting a job.

It’s tough because I know that one needs to learn it for him or herself, but I wish I could somehow accelerate the realization that working more hours or more jobs is never the solution.

Working to live instead of living to work may be a cliche phrase, but it’s only gotten that way because it’s a true sentiment.

Trading time for money is one of the worst things that we can do with our lives yet it’s one of the inevitabilities that most people take for granted.

“Suffer through working the majority of your waking hours until you can retire. That’s life, suck it up.”

Ya, I don’t believe in that.

On that note, the movie In Time looks to be based around a concept that’s right up my alley. Time has replaced money as the form of currency. Replenish your time or perish.

Looks pretty cool. 🙂

I’m always a little disappointed hearing the excitement someone has about getting a new job. I’m not a fan of typical day jobs or following the conventional life path in general and although I’m truly happy to see people pleased I know that the excitement of getting the job is very temporary.

Sure there’s astronauts and pro baseball players, people fulfilling their lifelong dreams, but most of us are getting average run of the mill jobs.

So what are we excited for? It’s the money and the dream of the life that the money will give us.

Unfortunately money doesn’t buy you the life you’re dreaming of, because many times it requires that you give up the majority of said life.

Shortly, very shortly, after getting the good paying job most of us are back in the ‘work sucks’ camp. Although the “only option” is to turn around and look for another better job. There’s got to be a good job out there, right? How about instead of looking for a job, search for/create a fulfilling life?

I know entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone, although anyone with drive will succeed, but although it may seem like a good job is one of the most important parts of a successful life, we’re much more insignificant than we want to believe. All the money in the world means nothing if you’re at the end of your life harboring regrets.

It’s time to live.