The Economy of Time

Lately, I have found myself thinking a great deal about what I call the economy of time.

At this stage of my career, there is still a lot I want to learn—and, perhaps surprisingly, I am still fascinated by the world of investment and wealth management.

Lately, my work with clients in Wilmington, North Carolina, Raleigh, and Charlotte has continued to expose me to increasingly sophisticated financial situations. That has reinforced something I have believed throughout my career: if I want to continue giving thoughtful guidance, I have to continue learning.

I have recently been studying the complexities of California tax law and how dramatically the rules can differ from federal tax law. I have been digging deeper into the nuances of advanced stock-option planning: ISOs, NSOs, RSUs, AMT exposure, concentrated employer stock and the tax consequences that can accompany decisions made years before the tax bill arrives.

Then there are strategies that require an entirely different level of understanding: Delaware Statutory Trusts and §1031 exchanges; Qualified Small Business Stock under §1202; §1045 rollovers; direct indexing and systematic tax-loss harvesting; concentrated-stock diversification; charitable strategies; and increasingly sophisticated tax-managed investment approaches, including long/short portfolios designed not only around investment exposure but around the deliberate creation and use of tax losses.

The deeper I go, the more interesting it becomes.

And the more I learn, the more aware I become of how much there is to learn.

But that creates another problem.

There are only so many hours in a day.

I can study California tax law for another hour. I can spend that hour becoming better at stock-option planning. I can research another investment strategy. I can work on the business, improve a process, speak with a client, write an article or study something that may make me a better advisor five years from now.

All of those are worthwhile uses of time.

But they cannot all occupy the same hour.

So increasingly, I find myself trying to weave all of this into a very concentrated and efficient economic model of my own time. I want very little wasted daylight. If I am studying, I want the study to matter. If I am working, I want the work to matter. If something can be delegated effectively, I increasingly question whether I should be doing it simply because I am capable of doing it myself.

The objective isn't to squeeze another hour of work into the day.

The objective is to make the hours I devote to work valuable enough that I don't have to give work all of them.

Because some of the most valuable hours of my week produce absolutely nothing.

There is a local park just minutes from my house. I enjoy walking my dog up to the park and then walking a couple of miles beneath the canopy of trees, not far from the North Carolina coast. It is a long walk without a business objective or anything in particular to accomplish. It is simply time spent walking, thinking and being present.

There are also times when my son walks into my office while I am working with questions, concerns, or simply something on his mind. There are days when I would rather knock off work an hour early and give him that hour. Whatever was sitting on my desk will probably still be there tomorrow.

That particular conversation may not be.

And sometimes it is nothing more than taking a few minutes in the middle of a busy day to call my daughter—not because something is wrong or because there is something we need to discuss, but simply because she has been on my mind and I want to hear her voice.

Those moments have increasingly become part of how I measure wealth.

Time with my children is precious to me. A long walk with my dog is precious to me. And I am increasingly conscious that all of it is fleeting.

That realization has changed the way I think about productivity. The objective isn't to extract every possible productive minute from the day. It is to become more deliberate about where those minutes go.

The purpose of managing time efficiently is not simply to create more time for work. It is to create more time for what matters.

Interestingly, I think many successful people eventually encounter the same question in their financial lives.

They may be perfectly capable of researching their own investments, understanding their stock compensation, evaluating tax strategies, coordinating estate planning, managing a concentrated position, or figuring out what needs to happen next. Capability isn't necessarily the problem.

Time is.

Eventually the question changes from:

“Can I do this myself?”

to something more consequential:

“Is this where I want to spend my finite time?”

That is one of the less-discussed purposes of a financial advisor.

Good advice should not remove someone from the decisions that matter. It should reduce the amount of their life consumed getting to those decisions.

Research can be distilled. Complexity can be organized. Specialists can be coordinated. Alternatives can be evaluated before they ever reach the client's desk. A financial question that might require a client to spend an entire weekend researching can instead arrive as a clearly framed decision: here are the alternatives, here are the tradeoffs, here are the tax implications, and here is what deserves your attention.

The client remains engaged. The client remains in control.

But perhaps the client doesn't have to spend Saturday morning figuring everything out.

Because that Saturday morning has value too.

Maybe it belongs to a spouse.

Maybe it belongs to a son who unexpectedly walks through the office door with something on his mind.

Maybe it is the right morning to call a daughter simply because you were thinking about her.

Maybe it belongs to a long walk with the dog under a canopy of trees near the coast.

We spend much of our careers learning how to accumulate, invest and protect financial capital.

Perhaps somewhere along the way, we should become equally thoughtful about managing the one form of capital we can never replenish:

our time.

Thank you for reading the Inspire Journal.

The information presented in this article is intended solely for educational and informational purposes. It should not be interpreted as personalized investment, legal, tax, accounting, or financial-planning advice, or as a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security or pursue any particular strategy.

Financial circumstances, objectives, tax considerations, liquidity needs, and tolerance for investment risk vary widely from one situation to the next. Strategies discussed in this article may not be appropriate for every investor. Before making financial, investment, tax, or legal decisions, you should consult with qualified professionals who understand your complete circumstances.

Tax laws, regulations, thresholds, and interpretations may change over time. The tax consequences of equity compensation, concentrated stock, charitable strategies, retirement planning, and other financial decisions can vary significantly based on the type of transaction, the timing of the transaction, the taxpayer's state of residence, and other individual factors. Readers should consult with a qualified CPA, tax professional and/or attorney regarding their particular situation.

Inspire Financial Planning believes that complex financial decisions are often best addressed through coordinated planning among a fiduciary financial adviser, CPA, estate-planning attorney, and other appropriate professionals.

Investment advisory services are offered through AlphaStar Capital Management, LLC, an investment adviser registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Inspire Financial Planning and AlphaStar Capital Management, LLC are separate and independent entities.