The story
Ben Franklin usually gets the credit. In his 1748 “Advice to a Young Tradesman,” he wrote: “Remember that time is money.”
He spelled out the math. A man who can earn ten shillings a day but “sits idle one half of that day” has lost more than whatever he spends on his fun. In Franklin’s words, “he hath really spent or thrown away five shillings besides.”
Franklin wrote the piece as friendly advice to a young man starting out in business. Its message was that idle hours are not free. Every hour has a price, even when no coins change hands.
But Franklin was not first. In 1719, a London periodical called The Free-Thinker told of a man whose wife tried to teach him “That Time is Money.” Whether Franklin ever read it, no one knows.
The idea is far older than either. The ancient Greek writer Antiphon is quoted as saying “the most costly outlay is time.” Franklin simply gave it the short, sharp form that stuck.
