The ROI of Time: Why Net Worth is the Wrong Metric
The ROI of Time: Why Your Net Worth Is a Leading Indicator of the Wrong Metric
We have been measuring the wrong thing.
In traditional financial planning, the goal is almost always a number. It might be a portfolio size, a net worth milestone, or a specific safe withdrawal rate. We often treat our bank accounts like a high-score screen in a video game. We assume that the higher the number, the better we are doing.
But there is a fatal flaw in this logic.
Money is a renewable resource. Time is not.
If you are increasing your net worth but decreasing your agency over your own calendar, you are not getting richer. You are simply buying a more expensive cage. At Memento Financial Planning, we believe true wealth is not measured by what you have. It is measured by how much of your life you actually own.
The Three Currencies of a Life Well-Lived
To build a plan that actually matters, you have to manage three distinct currencies. Most people only focus on the first:
Money: The tool. It is theoretically infinite. You can always earn another dollar.
Energy: The capacity. This peaks in your 30s and 40s and begins a slow, natural decline.
Time: The constraint. This is the only currency you are spending every second, with no way to earn a rebate.
The tragedy of modern wealth building is that we often trade our most valuable currency (Time) during our most capable years (Energy). We do this just to accumulate a surplus of our least valuable currency (Money) for a version of ourselves that may no longer have the health to enjoy it.
The Concept of Memory Dividends
In the book Die With Zero, author Bill Perkins introduces a concept we advocate for deeply: the Memory Dividend.
When you spend money on an experience, such as a month in Tuscany with your kids, a sabbatical to learn a new skill, or even just a Friday off to play golf with your father, you are not losing that money. You are investing it in a memory.
Unlike a stock, a memory pays dividends for the rest of your life. Every time you think back on that experience, you receive a payout of joy. If you wait until you are 75 to start living, your window to collect those dividends is incredibly short.
A Memento-style plan asks: What is the utility of this dollar today versus twenty years from now?
The High-Earner Trap
If you are a high-achieving professional, especially in the tech sector, you have likely fallen into the trap of Lifestyle Creep's evil twin: Decision Fatigue. You make more, so you buy more. This requires you to work more to maintain the "more." Suddenly you are 50 years old, your kids are heading to college, and you realize you have been a spectator in your own life.
You do not need a better portfolio. You need a Memento Snapshot.
The Memento Snapshot: Five Questions to Clarify Your Legacy
Before you rebalance your portfolio, you need to rebalance your priorities. The Memento Snapshot is designed to help you see exactly where your time and money are out of alignment.
Ask yourself these five questions:
1. Does your asset allocation support your life, or just your estate?
Your plan should fund the life you want to live now, not just the inheritance you leave behind later. Avoid building a bigger pile for people you haven't spent enough time with.
2. Are you optimizing for tax efficiency at the expense of life efficiency?
We have seen clients defer so aggressively that they defer their life experiences, too. There is a point where marginal tax savings cost more in unlived life than they save in dollars.
3. What would you do with an unexpected Tuesday off?
When was the last time you had one? If you cannot answer the first part, that is a vision problem. If you cannot answer the second, that is a planning problem.
4. Which memories are you currently underinvesting in?
Name one experience you keep pushing to "someday." Now ask what it would actually cost. The number is almost always smaller, and more affordable, than you assumed.
5. If today were your last day, would you be proud of your balance?
This is the core of Memento Mori. It is not a morbid question. It is the most clarifying financial planning question there is. Are you proud of how you balanced your three currencies?
Flipping the Script
Financial planning should not be about retirement. That is a word that implies receding or disappearing. It should be about Agency. True financial freedom is the ability to wake up and ask, "What do I want to do today?" and have the resources to say yes to the answer.
Stop measuring your success by the size of your pile and start measuring it by the quality of your days. You cannot take the money with you, but you can certainly leave the time behind.
Is your wealth working for you, or are you working for your wealth?
At Memento Financial Planning, we help high-performers reclaim their time through intentional, legacy-focused planning.
Take the Memento Snapshot → and let's start planning for the life you want to remember.
