Henry Hamilton: “For a few to be immortal, many must die.”
Will Salas: “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
Henry Hamilton: “Everyone can’t live forever. How else could there be men with a million years while most live day to day? But the truth is… there’s more than enough. No one has to die before their time. If you had as much time as I have on that clock, what would you do with it?”
Will Salas: “I’d stop watching it. I can tell you one thing. If I had all that time, I sure as hell wouldn’t waste it.“
The conversation above is from the movie In Time. In it, time is used as currency. Imagine you’d stop aging at 25, but when you turn this old, a countdown clock appears on your arm, set to 365 days.
If it ever runs out, you die.
So if you find yourself with less than 24 hours left, you’ll do whatever it takes to make another day. Meanwhile, others have millions of years left.
The reason I like this movie so much is how spookily close it is to the real world.
We don’t have the power to extend our lives indefinitely (yet), but within our natural limits, we struggle and compete for our scarcest resource: time.
And it’s the second most scarcest resource we can directly trade for it: money.
When you’re dead broke, making enough money to eat another day’s worth of food is what buys you the next 24 hours.
However, there’s one key difference between our world and the movie: Unlike the quest for infinite time, you can actually win the money game.
Given you’re happy with a modest lifestyle, $1-$2 million at a 4% interest rate is more than enough. You wouldn’t have infinite time, but could spend however much you do have in whatever way you want.
If you ever do win this game, remember what Will said: Stop watching it. You have all that time. Don’t waste it.
