Your Life or Your TSP? Your choice

What Is the Value of Your Life? Imagine someone pulling a gun on you as you are crossing the street.

If you don’t give them your wallet, they’ll shoot. Most of us would unquestioningly hand over our wallets. But what if they compelled you to turn over your house or TSP?

Selling Your Life to Get Rich

Even this choice is simple when facing death. You’ll want to live even at the expense of your finances. But what if it’s the other way around? Instead of the man requesting payment in return for your life. What if he demanded payment in exchange for a portion of your life?

Would you accept that exchange?

It seems that you already are. You guarantee a portion of your life as a federal employee in exchange for a salary today and a pension tomorrow. Now, this is not advocating against ever exchanging your time for cash. Everyone needs money.

However, it is critical to understand precisely what you are losing in exchange for your cash.

How much are you paid in reality?

Most people can name their annual income off the top of their heads, but do you know their hourly rate?

Not your hourly rate as it appears on your pay stub, though. Your hourly wage is in actual dollars. If you work eight hours a day, for instance, you might actually spend ten hours a day on job-related activities like getting ready, traveling, etc.

What about the additional costs that result from your job? Consider your gas money, work clothes, etc.

So even if a person is paid $50 per hour on paper, after deducting all the additional time and money needed to do their work, their actual hourly wage may only be $35.

Then if you account for additional costs like Social Security tax, Medicare tax, income tax, etc., your actual hourly rate will decrease even further. But there’s no need to go there to keep this post straightforward. You could be shocked if you do the math for yourself.

How much does this boat actually cost?

By this point in the essay, you should know that you are exchanging your time or your life for money, and you ought to be able to estimate your hourly rate more accurately.

Now that you know that, you’re ready to move things along.

The fact that your money is much more than just money may now be dawning on you. It stands for the time and effort you put in to earn it. If you decide to spend money on something, you are trading a portion of your life for that object.

For instance, if you exchange 2,857 (100,000/35) hours of your life for the $100,000 wakeboarding boat, your actual hourly rate is $35/hour.

So consider the gunman once more. However, he is exchanging 2,857 hours of your life for a boat this time. Do you want to do it?

This doesn’t mean the transaction is a bad one. It may be a fantastic trade for someone who is passionate about boats. However, when you invest your hard-earned money, it is crucial that you fully understand what you are buying and selling.

You only have one life, and once it’s over, it’s over.

The hope is that when you look back on your lives, you can all say that the money and time you invested were worthwhile. 

Contact Information:
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 9143022300

Bio:
My name is Kevin Wirth and I have worked in the financial services industry for many years and I specialize in life insurance and retirement planning for individuals and small business owners, with a specialty in working with Federal Employees. I am also AHIP certified to work with individuals on their Medicare planning. You can contact me by e-mail or phone. I look forward to the opportunity of working with you on these most relevant areas of financial [email protected] 914-302-2300