Put money, finance and investment aside for one moment. In every walk of life, there are three constraints that are universal and unavoidable. They will constrain people in different ways and to different extents, but the universal constraints will impact us all. It’s probably fair to say that as a general rule, having more of each of them is a good thing. They are: health, money, and time. None is entirely controllable, but all are manageable.
This blog is about personal investment; we’re not medical professionals, so we’re not going to tell you how to live a healthier life. But we do know – from personal experience – how closely money and health are intertwined. Perhaps its our spiritual side talking, but we are certain that investment in your health is the most fruitful investment you can make. That is true for those with pre-existing conditions and those without, and it is true for both physical and mental health considerations. It is also true as much for your loved ones as it is for yourself.
Health and money are not entirely controllable, but they are manageable. Clearly some things are outside of your control, and often these things are uncontrollable because they are unpredictable. It is the unpredictability of the world which makes health and money difficult to manage.
Time, on the other hand, is completely out of your control. Once a moment passes, it is gone forever, and you can never get it back. But time is predictable. It can only ever move forward, and it moves at a predictable and constant pace. An unforeseen health event could change the total amount of time you have left in the world, but that is still health, not time, that is unpredictable.
The predictability of time is what makes it a useful framework. You don’t need to control it. By managing everything else within the framework of time, you can create an order in your life that will put you on a path that is more likely to lead to each of your objectives. Hence our assertion that time is such an important factor in your investment plan.
But if health, money, and time are all good things that we generally want more of, why do we call them “constraints”? Why do we use a negative word to describe positive things? It’s not just because a setback in each of them can make it more difficult to achieve an objective. No, we think as a robust individual, you can overcome setbacks that come knocking unexpectedly. Rather, it is because these three things are merely means to an end, not ends in and of themselves. Living forever wouldn’t necessarily make you happy, it’s not money that makes you happy but the things you use it for, and if all your time was free time, you’d eventually feel rather empty.
So they are constraints because it is a requirement that you pay them attention if you want to meet your real objectives.
To the pound 