Investment

            This post is about investment. I have had this particular topic on my mind for weeks now, and it is only just now becoming solidified enough for me to broach.

            This isn’t about money. I don’t know much anything about investing money, how to make money into more money, or even how to budget very well. But I do, of course, understand the concept of investment.

          
Now, I can apply any concept to my daily life in these posts, so beware. I’ll try not to over symbolize everything that ever happens to me, but the concept of investment is just too precious to let it fall by the wayside.

            I recently read a blog where the author wrote on a life-budget. She discussed her family’s real budget, but then applied it to time as well. You can read the post here. So it got me thinking…

            If I look at time as though it were money in a budget, where would most of my “money” go? As a mother, I have so little extra time in my day. I cook, I clean, fold clothes, change diapers, then rinse and repeat. But those few minutes of “me” time I have every day most often are wasted on television or some other worthless distraction.

            I’ve been throwing money down the drain,  figuratively speaking, and then I wonder why I am always short just a little of the change I expect to have.

            It’s a bigger problem than I’m letting on at the moment, but I’m not sure it’s the time to spill the whole back story. Let’s just say, I’ve realized I have an addiction to television, but that’s another post for another time.

            Time is precious. Am I investing smartly? I’ve come to realize in the past few weeks that I’m terrible at time-management. I spend hours cleaning my house, but I don’t sit down and read my son a story. I rock him, but I’m thinking of the million things I need to do, or worse: I watch television or just let my mind wander from this precious bundle of joy in my arms. Letting myself be distracted basically ensures that I will just be wasting that moment. Not only will the dishes not get washed, but I will have missed a priceless moment that could be an investment for the future.

            Are the investments I’m making going to help me achieve my goals? This was another topic the author touched. She said her family made a list of their goals as a family, for example: To be a God-centered family, to be a close-knit family, etc… So, they ask themselves before they spend time in an activity (just like you would when considering to spend money), will this help us get closer to our goals? I’ve started asking myself the same question. Will sitting down to watch television with my husband for thirty minutes help us reach our goals as a family? Is this a wise investment of our time? Sometimes the answer is yes, surprisingly. Sometimes it is just what the doctor ordered to sit down as a family and watch a movie. But, sometimes it is just moving us further away from our goals and making us take loans from other areas of our lives.

            If it is creating more debt in our lives, it’s simply not worth the expense.