Most people (there are obvious exceptions for hedge fund employees, day traders, etc.) allocate approximately no time to financial savings.
While it’s likely true that many people in (at least in the US) live paycheck-to-paycheck, financial investment allocation strategies are even more irrelevant to them than to Taleb’s target audience. But for those who work for money and have incomes in excess of expenditures, what are they doing at work, if not allocating time to financial savings?
Neither children, friend networks, nor financial savings are an activity—those are all goods you might acquire and cultivate by means of a mixture of activities.
What they are doing at work is allocating time to _acquiring money_. They may then save that money (acquiring financial savings) but they may also use it in other ways. They may spend it on their children, or on activities they engage in with their children; that would be an indirect way of allocating time to their children. They may give it away to causes they consider valuable. They may spend it on concert tickets or fancy restaurant meals for the sake of sheer pleasure. Etc.
(Just to be explicit: Having income in excess of expenditure doesn’t mean that when you’re at work you’re allocating time to financial savings, because unless your expenditure is _zero_ -- or, more precisely, less than your income from sources other than paid work—some of that time at work is supporting your expenditure.)
And, of course, paid employment isn’t _exclusively_ about acquiring money. A person may value their personal relations with colleagues (so that going to work is partially a matter of allocating time to their friend networks). They may consider their work valuable in its own right (not implausible; at the very least, it’s valuable enough _to someone_ that they get paid for it). They may derive satisfaction from doing difficult things skilfully. And so forth.
While it’s likely true that many people in (at least in the US) live paycheck-to-paycheck, financial investment allocation strategies are even more irrelevant to them than to Taleb’s target audience. But for those who work for money and have incomes in excess of expenditures, what are they doing at work, if not allocating time to financial savings?
Neither children, friend networks, nor financial savings are an activity—those are all goods you might acquire and cultivate by means of a mixture of activities.
What they are doing at work is allocating time to _acquiring money_. They may then save that money (acquiring financial savings) but they may also use it in other ways. They may spend it on their children, or on activities they engage in with their children; that would be an indirect way of allocating time to their children. They may give it away to causes they consider valuable. They may spend it on concert tickets or fancy restaurant meals for the sake of sheer pleasure. Etc.
(Just to be explicit: Having income in excess of expenditure doesn’t mean that when you’re at work you’re allocating time to financial savings, because unless your expenditure is _zero_ -- or, more precisely, less than your income from sources other than paid work—some of that time at work is supporting your expenditure.)
And, of course, paid employment isn’t _exclusively_ about acquiring money. A person may value their personal relations with colleagues (so that going to work is partially a matter of allocating time to their friend networks). They may consider their work valuable in its own right (not implausible; at the very least, it’s valuable enough _to someone_ that they get paid for it). They may derive satisfaction from doing difficult things skilfully. And so forth.