As much as I want to be financially independent, I also know one thing… don’t sell all of your time.

What do I mean by saying ‘don’t sell all of your time?’.

I mean – don’t work for others and spend all of your waking hours monetizing your time. Working for a wage, where you will only ever get paid per hour of time that you spend towards your employers goals.

Or even worse, working a salary job that doesn’t pay you based on output or performance, rather one that pays a flat rate and there’s no opportunity for overtime or additional pay tied to other metrics.

What we need to work towards is high leverage opportunities.

What is leverage? Think of a lever, with the fulcrum or balance point far away from the handle. The further from the fulcrum you are, the more leverage you have.

In the context of our time and our energy, what we need to aim for are opportunities that take minimal input, but produce an output that is multiple times larger than the energy we put in.

What do these high leverage opportunities look like?

For the most part, they look like assets. Think about a rental home or a condo or a fleet of cars that you own or a business that you own. An asset is the leverage – it is the thing that you put some input into and get outsized returns from. When you own an apartment complex, all you really had to risk was some of your time and deploy a good bit of capital. But if done well, what do you receive in return? You receive income from every tenant that lives there. But what about maintainence and upkeep? Well, that’s paid for, by the tenants – they just don’t see it. The rent stays the same and you as the owner of the apartment complex, you pay for the maintenance of the building and the property with some of the revenue driven by the tenants.

Or let’s look at this blog for example. It takes me about 30 minutes to research and learn for a given topic, and another 30 minutes to draft each post (which I generally do while I’m doing cardio at the gym, meta-leverage). So for a weekly time commitment of about 4 hour per month (1 post per week) I get to build a platform to share knowledge and provide value to my audience (that’s you). How is this a form of leverage you ask? For me, it allows me to gain HUNDREDS of views per week that I am unable to accomplish in person. I don’t have the physical time in the day to sit down with 50+ people per week at an hour session each in order to relay this same information. I have to eat, sleep, workout and do my day job. But this blog stays running while I sleep for a annual cost of $95, and it never needs a break, it’s always available and I can reach thousands of people per year. The audience then gets to provide feedback and tell me other topics that are of interest, further minimizing my required input. Best of all, I can do this AD free, which is a principle that I stand by. I refuse to sell ads for information that is free and should remain free. What do I get in return? I get reach, I get an opportunity to showcase my knowledge, I am afforded the benefit of networking with strangers from all over the world, and that’s leverage that people pay millions for year over year (just look at Superbowl ADs and how much people pay there).

One last example of leverage – owning a business.

Owning a business allows you to leverage tax law. Meaning, you can run your business at a huge financial discount just because you’re producing something of value. It also allows you to hire employees and leverage their time in order to help with tasks that they can do in order to minimize the tedious tasks that the business owner would have done (such as writing copy, writing emails, picking up mail, writing code). This is still an area that I’m learning the benefits of – but still, it remains a huge lever where a little bit of input provides for a whole lot of output. For my Etsy business, it gives me reach and a easy way to streamline sales to customers and do all of my accounting in one simple system. Again, it works day and night, counting up orders and keeping them organized so I can spend time with my wife and spend time working on the actual artwork itself. Lastly…

What leverage is NOT- leverage is not a cheat code or a short cut. You will still have to ‘sell’ some of your time in order to use other people’s time or other systems to your own benefit. I still write each and every one of these blog posts. I still manage all of my own social media. There is still input (i.e. work) that is necessary in order to accomplish my goals. The intent here is to not sell ALL of your time. Don’t work just for the sake of work. Don’t sell your time to an employer and just sit back at the end of the day, especially if you’re not building something for yourself (be it a retirement fund, be it a business, be it the family of your dreams). Don’t get stuck in a work loop, where you live to work…Don’t sell all of your time.

-Michael, with Military.cash

P.s. Speaking of, this has been a lifelong dream of mine – to be able to share my experience and my goals with others. This blog allows me to do that without compromise – I own the content, I own the Domain (military.cash). It’s all self-sponsored, so I will not be selling AD space or shilling out to any third parties. If you want to support me and the value I provide, just share this post on your social media or with word of mouth. My thanks goes out to those that have been with me since day one, the silent supporters and my family. Continue following me on Instagram @military.cash to keep up with my adventures. Thanks!