Mind Your Decisions

My “Secret” to Feeling like a Million Bucks

Update: This article is an editor’s pick in the 162nd Carnival of Personal Finance at Taking Charge

Some highlights of my “secret:”

• It costs nothing.
• Most of us can do it naturally.
• We willingly ignore it to our own detriment.
• Though when we occasionally do it, we feel like a million bucks.

My “secret” is something all of you know: getting a full night’s rest. Sufficient sleep is the basic step to feeling amazing. It erases the stresses of the day and promotes good health.

But you didn’t need me to tell you sleep is important. I’m here to address another question: why don’t more people get in on the “secret” of sleep?

Why is sleep ignored?

For one, sleep isn’t sexy. If you look at this Wisebread article on “10 killer ways to feel like a million bucks,” it has a lot of catchy tricks, but no mention of sleep. It is full of things you can do during the waking hours. In my opinion, the real reason the advice is “killer” is that it does nothing to reduce sleep debt, a major contributor to lethal traffic accidents.

But there’s another reason for our neglect of sleep. It is the result of our tireless American work ethic and our drive to be busy. Paul Martin, Ph.D., captures our strange view of sleep:

A century ago the majority toiled long hours while the affluent few idled away their time. Today, however, the more conventionally successful you are, the less free time you will probably have. Having nothing to do is seen as a sign of worthlessness, while ceaseless activity signifies status and success. Supposedly unproductive activities are deprioritised or delegated. And according to the prevailing cultural attitudes, sleeping is one of the least productive of all human activities – more worthwhile perhaps than sitting around picking your nose, but not much. In their ceaseless pursuit of work and pleasure the cash-rich buy time from others, hiring them to cook and clean their houses, look after their children and cook their food. But one of the activities you simply cannot delegate to anyone else is sleeping. –Counting Sheep [emphasis added]

(If you’re looking for a book on sleep, I highly recommend Counting Sheep by Paul Martin. I improve my sleep habits each time I read from it. Get it from your library or buy it from Amazon.)

Sleep should be financial advice

Financial advisers often talk about the miracle of compound interest. If you sock away money for several years, have decent stock returns, and wait it out, you’ll surely be a millionaire and make your investment worthwhile.

I recently reflected on how we financial writers fail to make meaningful change. We spend our time telling people to be patient, to control temptation, and to hang on to bear markets for the hope of monetary gains at retirement. Imagine if we also told people to sleep more so they could feel like a million bucks right away.

I’d call that one heck of a return on investment.

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162nd Carnival of Personal Finance at Taking Charge

A couple of articles caught my eye. Please check them out:

• Review of MyGallons.com by Wide Open Wallet. Reminds me of the adage of “Heads I win, tails you lose” for prepaying gasoline. The company wins if gas prices go down, but you might lose if gas prices go up and they don’t have money to pay.
• How many retirement accounts can you have? at Cash Money Life. Brief and accurate summary of various retirement accounts.