I just realised Candy Crush Saga has cost me more than $3000 (R47 000)!
I’ve always mocked people that paid for extra lives, gold coins, and super powered striped candy. You would never catch me paying a cent for lack of skill!
That is until I read a book that changed my perspective…
Here’s a short story from Millionaire Fastlane by MJ DeMarco;
The $6 Bucket of Chicken
Why will most people never get rich? Look no further than a $6 bucket of chicken. It made big news: A major fast-food restaurant offered a free bucket of chicken to anyone who had an Internet coupon. People flocked to restaurant locations and waited for hours, all for a free $6 bucket of chicken. Know anyone who would stand in line for hours just to get something free? Are you one of them? These stories are common, and yet my reaction is the same: What the hell is wrong with people? I’ll tell you: These people value their time at zero. It’s free. Like the air we breathe, they’re convinced that time is abundant and in endless supply. They live as if they were immortal. They are certain that time, the fuel of their life, never runs empty. I wonder if these people had three weeks left to live, would they be standing in line for a bucket of chicken? What if they had three months? Three years? At what level of mortality would they rule that standing in line for three hours for free chicken is not good use of time?
“Free time” is never free. MJ reasons that we work to pay for our free time. We work 5 days a week for 2 days of weekend. How much is your free time worth?
It reminds me of people who queue for hours at petrol stations the night before the price goes up. Is waiting for an hour to save R20 really worth your time? You would never work for R20/hour but you are willing to pay it for your free time.
I’ve played about 700 levels of Candy Crush and Soda Crush, I hate to imagine how much time that is. If each level takes 10 min (which is conservative - the hard ones take much longer), that’s 117 hours! I currently get paid R400/hour. My free time is worth much more, but lets keep it at that. 117h x R400/h = R46 800, more than $3000 at the current exchange rate.
What a waste of money. I could have invested that time talking to my wife or sending her a thoughtful text, writing a book, or starting a new business!
“Time is the greatest asset you own, not money.. The greatest theft of all humanity is to act as if our time on this Earth is infinite when it isn’t.”
After reading that I deleted all the games off my phone. I also deleted facebook for good measure. Maybe when I’m financially free I’ll reinstall them. But I doubt it.
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