Which Currency Do You Need the Most?

How many currencies do you know? 

No, we don’t mean the peso, the yen and the deutsche mark. 

We mean the 3 you currently own. 

The three currencies are time, money and skills.

Interestingly, you can use 2 of the currencies to acquire more of the other one. Let’s think through 3 scenarios, which mostly depend on your age, and somewhat on your outlook on life. 

Scenario 1: Need more skills? 

If you need more skills, you need to invest time and money to gain them. 

This typically applies to younger people. 

You usually have no skills and little to no money, but a lot of time ahead of you. To acquire skills, you need to invest years of your life (for many of our readers, this is vet school) and lots of money (aka student loans) in order to get the skills and degree you desire. 

Scenario 2: Need more money? 

If you need more money, you need to invest time and use your skills in order to earn it. 

When you graduate from school, you typically have many skills, but little time and zero money. 

To make money, you now need to work at a job and put your skills to good use. 

Scenario 3: Need more time? 

Later in life, you finally realize that the most precious currency is not money, or skills, but time. You can always acquire more skills, you can always make more money, but you can’t get more time. 

At this stage of your life, you realize that you only have so much time left. By then, you’ve got some mad skills, and hopefully lots of money. 

If you need more time, you need to spend money and use the skills of others in order to “find more time.” This allows you to increase your impact, work on your legacy and enjoy life. 

Of course, this could vary tremendously in other fields. A piano or gymnastics or acting prodigy would spend fewer years in school and would earn money much sooner. But for the rest of us, we tend to follow a more classic path: school, work, retirement. 

Nevertheless, if you acquire more financial knowledge earlier, you can alter the typical trajectory significantly. This is what the Vet Financial Summit, the community and the mastermind are all about. 

So, which of the 3 currencies do you need the most?

Phil Zeltzman, DVM, DACVS
Meredith Jones, DVM
Co-Founders of Veterinary Financial Summit