My final column

This is my last column for the year.

And the biggest lesson I learned this year wasn't about money – it was about time. We get 4,000 weeks, if we’re lucky. I’ve burned through half of mine, and time is speeding up.

My life is vanishing between the scramble – “Hurry up! We’ll be late. Where is your water bottle? Do you have your water bottle? I packed your water bottle. Go and get your water bottle!” – and the scroll at the end of the night watching numbing videos one after another. 

Look, I’m no role model. The phone in my pocket is too powerful – it’s designed to pull me in and eat hours of my life. 

So this year I created one embarrassingly simple rule:

The last hour of every night I spend with my wife. No screens. No fixing, just listening. Connecting with her is a priority, because if that falls then everything falls. (After all, divorce is one of the biggest wealth destroyers you’ll face. So, yes, this is about money.)

So I literally put a reminder in my phone each night at 8pm:

“Time for Liz”

“What’s that?” asked my son when the reminder came up on the Apple CarPlay on the way home from basketball practice.

“It’s a reminder for me to spend time with your mum.”

“Why do you need to be reminded?” he laughed.

I wanted to tell him that, without it, I’d go down a rabbit hole researching the latest Demons trade talks, or sending mates dumb memes, instead of talking to his mother.

I stopped short.

“Sometimes we all need a reminder about what really matters”, I told him.

Tread Your Own Path!