Time is the Best Investment by Cody Scholberg

There are two different things most people desire but are grouped into one category: wealth. Most people think this means having a lot of money, but it also means having a lot of free time, too. There is a difference between money and freedom. You can have a whole lot of one but none of the other, none of either, or a whole lot of both.
The class you are in is determined by your income. If your income is high, you are rich. If your income is low, you are poor. If it is somewhere in between, then you are middle class or affluent.
Poor <$25,000 Middle Class $25,000-$100,000 Affluent $100,000-$200,000 Rich $100,000+
Now, there are two categories of classes just like this; there is a third dimension to these classes. One can either be middle class free or middle class captive.
FREE
Poor <$25,000 Middle Class $25,000-$100,000 Affluent $100,000-$200,000 Rich $100,000+
CAPTIVE
Poor <$25,000 Middle Class $25,000-$100,000 Affluent $100,000-$200,000 Rich $100,000+
The difference is how this income comes in. Captive people trade time and effort in for dollars; free people do not. Someone may make $150,000 per year from stock dividends, while another may make $1 million from working as a lawyer. Though the lawyer makes far more, many would consider the stock owner the "richer one." Thus, it is not only money that determines wealth, but time, too.
There exists also spending patterns of money. The three types can go by any names. We will call them the slave, middleman, and the freeman patterns.
The slave knows only his money coming in and out. He makes, and he spends. He may not necessarily spend every dime he gets; he might save a lot of money. But, eventually, he will spend it somehow. We call him a slave because he will work forever. Someday, if he has saved enough, he can survive without working. But, if his savings ever run out, he will dust off his resume.
The middleman is more disciplined and generally more educated. The middleman usually saves some money, but with it he buys things that take money away from him. You have to feel sorry for the middleman, for he is so disciplined and hardworking, yet he does not realize that he keeps buying things that take his money away. We call him the middleman because he usually ends up middle class, most likely from buying a home to live in.
The freeman is very similar to the middleman; usually he comes from the same education system, and he is usually disciplined as well. He saves his money, but unlike the middleman, he buys things that give money to him (whatever he deems the best investment). We call him the freeman because his spending pattern, if continued far enough, will enable him to move to the set of free classes.