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The Brutal Mathematics of Time
August 15, 2025 - Available at 3:00 PM
Rough Outline
The Brutal Mathematics of Time: Why Most People Delegate Their Financial Future
The Big Question One Needs to Answer
Before putting money into any investment, one needs to be honest about something important: Is there one really true and legitimate focus on investing, or is investing more of a hobby?
This isn't meant to make anyone feel bad. It's a reality check that every serious investor needs to face. The stock market doesn't care if someone has good intentions or only pays attention sometimes. It rewards people who are prepared, focused, and stick to their plan. There are no do overs because something in life got in the way.
The Shocking Reality of Financial Planning Time
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals a stunning truth about how Americans actually spend time on financial planning:
Among all Americans, the average time spent on financial management per day is just 1.8 minutes. This number is dragged down because 97% of Americans spend zero time on money management on any given day.
Even among the small 2.6% of Americans who do engage in financial planning daily, they spend only 59 minutes managing their money. The amount of time spent on financial management has hovered between 45 minutes and just over an hour for the last 20 years.
How Much Time Does One Really Spend?
Here's the tough question: Does one honestly spend 2-3 hours every day focused only on investments? Not just checking stock prices on a phone, not just reading news headlines, but real focused time where one is:
• Learning about how the market works and what affects it
• Looking at investments and deciding if they still make sense
• Researching new companies or funds before buying them
• Reading reports and updating plans based on new information
• Planning when to buy and sell, and how much risk one can handle
If the answer is "no," that's totally fine. But it means one should invest differently than someone who treats investing like their main job.
The Mathematics of Remaining Time: A Sobering Reality
Here's where the conversation takes a dramatic turn. Most people haven't calculated how much truly discretionary time they actually have left in life—time where they have complete control over their choices.
Using Social Security Administration life expectancy data and Bureau of Labor Statistics time-use surveys, the numbers are startling:
At Age 65 (18.8 years of life expectancy remaining):
• Personal care (sleeping, grooming, health): 9.8 hours daily
• Eating and meals: 1.4 hours daily
• Household activities (cooking, cleaning, maintenance): 2.9 hours daily
• Television watching: 4.0 hours daily
• Medical appointments and errands: 1.5 hours daily
• Transportation and waiting: 0.5 hours daily
Total required/routine activities: 20.1 hours daily
True discretionary time: 3.9 hours daily
Over 18.8 years remaining, that equals 26,742 hours of discretionary time—equivalent to just 3.1 years of full-time living. That represents only 16% of remaining lifespan.
At Age 75 (11.8 years of life expectancy remaining):
• Personal care: 10.1 hours daily
• Eating: 1.5 hours daily
• Household activities: 2.5 hours daily
• Television watching: 4.6 hours daily
• Medical appointments and errands: 2.0 hours daily
• Transportation: 0.3 hours daily
Total required/routine activities: 21.0 hours daily
True discretionary time: 3.0 hours daily
Over 11.8 years remaining, that equals 12,954 hours—equivalent to just 1.5 years of full-time living. That represents only 13% of remaining lifespan.
The Investment Time Paradox
Now consider what serious investment management actually requires. Professional-level investing demands 2-3 hours of focused daily attention. For a 75-year-old with only 3 hours of discretionary time daily, this would consume 83% of all free time.
Most Americans currently spend 1.8 minutes daily on financial planning. To become serious investors would require increasing that by 67-100 times their current effort.
The Great Delegation
Faced with this mathematics, most people make a rational choice: they delegate. They buy index funds, use robo-advisors, or hire financial planners. The algorithms handle the decisions while they focus their precious discretionary hours elsewhere.
But here's the critical question: Are people delegating thoughtfully or by default?
Many delegate without:
• Understanding what the algorithms actually do
• Having meaningful conversations with their advisors about strategy
• Knowing how their money is being managed day-to-day
• Regularly reviewing whether the delegation is working
They've outsourced not just the execution, but the thinking.
The Life Well-Lived Question
This brings us to the philosophical heart of the matter. With such limited discretionary time remaining, how does one choose to spend it?
Option 1: Become a Serious Investor
Dedicate 2-3 hours daily to active investment management. Master the markets, analyze opportunities, build wealth through hands-on expertise. Accept that this will consume most discretionary time.
Option 2: Thoughtful Delegation
Spend perhaps 30-60 minutes weekly on financial oversight. Choose excellent advisors or proven systems. Use saved time for family, health, experiences, or other meaningful pursuits.
Option 3: Default Drift
Continue the current pattern of 1.8 minutes daily, hoping somehow it works out while precious time slips away on activities that add little lasting value.
What This Means for Living
The most successful approach depends on honest self-assessment. The mathematics of time doesn't lie:
For those who choose active investing: Recognize it's a major life commitment consuming most discretionary hours. It should be a passionate pursuit, not a burden.
For those who choose delegation: Do it excellently. Invest the time to find outstanding advisors or systems, then trust them while living fully in other areas.
For those drifting: Realize that time is finite and precious. The middle ground—not enough attention to do it well, too much worry to ignore it—may be the worst choice of all.
The Bottom Line
Whether someone chooses hands-on investing or thoughtful delegation matters less than making the choice consciously. What matters most is recognizing that time is the ultimate non-renewable resource.
At 75, with roughly 1.5 years of truly discretionary time remaining, every hour becomes precious. The question isn't whether to manage money personally or delegate it. The question is whether to live that time intentionally—making conscious choices about what deserves those irreplaceable hours.
In investing, as in life, the most important decision isn't what to buy or when to sell. It's how to spend the finite gift of time in a way that creates meaning, security, and fulfillment while there's still time to do so.
Remember: No one can buy more time. But everyone can choose how to spend the time they have left.
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