Pete the Planner: The wealth you can share is more than just money

Allow me to oversimplify your lifelong relationship with resources to make what I think is an incredibly complicated point. From the moment you were born, resources were poured into you. For the sake of my point, I’m focusing on what I believe to be the three primary economic resources: money, time and attention. Your parents cared for you by allocating some money, a lot of time, and most of their attention to your care and development.

It wasn’t until you were a young teen that your money, time or attention could be harnessed to make a difference in anything beyond appropriate elementary causes. And leading up to this crossover moment, your community at large began to invest in you. Whether it was your teachers (and other school staff), your Little League coach or even Fred Rogers, adult humans with resources of their own made the conscious decision to invest some of their resources in you.

As you made your way into your 20s, you gained agency over your time, your attention and money itself. I purposefully didn’t suggest that you took control of your finances, because control and responsibility are markedly different ideas. You were responsible for your finances then, whether you admit it and whether you had control of them.

So what’s happened since then?

You wouldn’t be the first person in human history to leverage all your economic resources for personal (and family) indulgence and gain, and it’s not really my place to judge a person’s decision to do that, anyway. But there is another way.

To fully grasp the other way, let’s start with the extreme, then work backward. What would it look like to give away all your time, all your attention and all your money to your community?

Said in a different way, what if you returned leftover resources to the community pool? No, this isn’t some newfangled socialism. This exercise is completely voluntary. I guess in a way, I’m suggesting you create multigenerational wealth for other bloodlines.

This concept is not binary. It’s not all or nothing. Committing your time to your community alone would have a multiplying impact.

I realize this concept isn’t possible or prudent for everyone. But I do believe it’s possible and prudent for a lot more people than the number who are actually pursuing it. At worst, this idea is a healthy aspiration.

I can’t fathom a scenario in which the best course of action is accumulating resources, then not realizing or acknowledging how much more powerful those resources are when used to lift all boats.

If your mind is still stuck on money, switch your brain to time and attention. An accomplished person’s greatest contribution to society at large isn’t their money; it’s focusing that brain on their community, offering time and attention until the biggest problems melt away.

The day you retire, you’ll have access to more money than you likely ever have access to, 168 hours per week to do whatever you want, and 100% of your attention to distribute. I’m all for recharging, but if you’re flush with those three dynamic economic resources, do something more impactful with them.

My message today isn’t necessarily that you’re not doing enough. Instead, I’m suggesting you’re underestimating the impact your time and attention can have on the biggest challenges we share as a community. You also don’t need to wait until the day you retire to make this happen. At various points in your career, you’ll be able to allocate varying amounts of money, time and attention toward the greater good. There’s no doubt that, from time to time, you should direct the bulk of the resources inward toward your own self-interest. But that shouldn’t remain your default position in perpetuity.

Again, stop thinking about money. Your time and attention are wildly valuable. Use them to solve massive challenges and stop hoarding them because of your lack of understanding of their potential impact.•

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Dunn is CEO of Your Money Line powered by Pete the Planner. Email your financial questions to askpete@petetheplanner.com.