I am constantly hearing people tell me that life is short. Maybe it’s because when they see me I am accompanied by my daughter which reminds them how fast toddlers grow up. Perhaps it’s because I am constantly talking to people about how they should think about their money in increments of ten years or more and they worry I am never living in the moment.  Or maybe it’s because the mantra “life is short” is printed, spoken, and talked about in seemingly every corner of the planet. 

No matter the reason, I have begun to think that the idea that life is always short may be the wrong way to think about it. 

Debt Takes Time

When I was 25 years old I was $25,000 in credit card debt. Living in that reality made every single day of my life stressful, daunting, and miserable. In my late teens and early twenties, I heard people all the time telling me that life is short, you only live once, and that I can’t take my money with me when I die. All true points — and things that I believed at the time. I remember buying a pair of skate shoes when I was 22 that had the words “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” printed on the soles. I can still recall how I felt when I bought those shoes. I loved that saying at the time. That day, that moment, that period of my life felt like it would last forever. 

Three years later I was buried in debt making $31,000 per year — barely able to pay rent and on the brink of financial ruin every single month of my life. As it turned out, waiting until I was dead to get some sleep and make better financial decisions was a lot further away than I thought it was. 

I never intended to go deep into debt. It started slow, and it stayed that way until I finally could barely afford the minimum payments on all of my credit cards. I didn’t buy a new car, I didn’t buy a boat, and I didn’t take a trip to Europe. I just slowly and consistently grew my debt load until it became something enormous and out of control. 

Your Life = Sum Of Your Decisions

I understand the idea behind thinking that life is short — because in the grand scheme of all things being considered, we live an incredibly short duration. So, yes, living with the idea that no day is guaranteed for you has benefits. I am all for leaving that job you hate, taking your dream trip to see the one place on earth you have always aspired to see, and taking some risks as if you only had six months to live. But the reality is that the life we are living today is a compilation of all of the decisions we have made over all of the days, weeks, months, and years before now. Whether you are 25 or 65 the world you are living in has been made from a multitude of decisions you made over years and years and years of decision making. 
Take my life today as an example. I’m 37 years old, I have been laid off from a more than ten-year career in digital advertising and I have not been employed by anyone for over ten months. I can raise my daughter at home with my wife, build the business of my dreams without a single fear of “needing” money, and pay my bills comfortably every month. How am I able to live in this wonderful world now but ten years ago my world felt like it was imploding? 
Because the life we are living right now is a culmination of all the thousands and thousands of decisions we have made up to this point.   

Money Is Always Long

I have several friends that have had several hundreds of thousands of dollars come to them in various circumstances. Inheritance from a family member, insurance payouts, and random windfalls have brought every one of them over six figures in a matter of days from random circumstances. The S&P 500 (which is the top 500 companies in the United States, and is considered to be a proxy for the overall stock market) is up an average of 12% over the last ten years. If my friends had taken $100,000 and invested it in an S&P Index Fund ten years ago they would currently be sitting on $330,038. According to U.S. News, the average American family has $121,760 in total net worth. I emphasize total net worth because, in my friend’s case, they would be living in a world where they have over $330,000 sitting in an investment account. That doesn’t include any of the assets that are included in the typical American net worth such as retirement accounts, house equity, cars, boats, et cetra. 
Most of my friends have spent all of their windfall money and their lives look very similar to what they looked like before they received hundreds of thousands of dollars. Imagine what they could be doing with $330,000. One could argue that life is short and they can’t take that money with them when they die. On one hand, I agree — but the possibilities for a person with $0 in the bank and someone with $330,000 are so far apart it is almost incomprehensible. And in these cases, all it took to dramatically alter those lives was one decision.  

Parenting Is Just As Long

This same thing happens with my daughter. I think all the time about how impactful these years are while she is young. Then I remember I have decades to go. When she looks back on her childhood she may not ever remember last week. But she will remember me picking her up from school when she’s 5, 6, 7, 8 9, 10, 11 — and on and on. She’ll remember me attending the estimated 1,216 soccer games she might play, but she’ll remember the year I was away working and didn’t make a single one. In the 18 years she will theoretically live with me she will have 6,552 days with me. If we spend a conservative 5 hours a day together I will have to show up and be an exceptional parent for 32,760 hours. And that’s just counting the years she lives with me. If I live to 85 I would have another 30 years (1,560 weeks) of life with her after she turns 18. It seems to me that not only do I need to show up as my best self today, but I also have to think about myself in the future. Am I being healthy enough now to maintain this kind of energy as a parent in ten years? Am I saving enough money now to afford everything I want to do with my family over the next several decades?  

These points are not to make life seem meaningless because of how insanely long it might be — they are to remind us that the life we are living right now is a complex recipe of all of the little (and big) decisions we have made up until now. If I decided to spend all of the money I made in my previous ten-year career my life would be dramatically different. And the decisions I make today will dramatically affect what kind of person, friend, mentor, husband, and father I am going to be in all of the days, weeks, months, years, and decades I have left.  

So, it seems to me that remembering that sure, life is short, but we should also never forget that life is also kind of long. I like the idea of making some of your decisions as if you will have to live with them for the rest of your life. Sure, having one soda tonight isn’t the end of the world, but doing it every week or every day will eventually add up to an astounding number. And you will have to live with the person that made all of those decisions. And yes, not saving any money this month may feel harmless, but if you keep that way of thinking going you may one day find yourself wishing you didn’t skip this month.  

Just make sure you keep your future self in mind. Trust me — you’ll be thankful you did.