Understanding the Value of Time

Do you know how much your time is really worth? Today we discuss when to trade money for time and vice versa.

There are things we all hate to do, mowing the lawn, painting, cleaning, food shopping.  Or maybe you’re a weirdo who loves those things.  That’s okay. Takes all kinds.  How do you decide if you should do these kinds of things yourself or pay someone to do them for you?

Math, that’s how.  The simplest way to get a yes or no answer is to work out how much you make an hour, even if you’re not paid hourly.  You’re worth $20 an hour, it costs $5 a week to have Fresh Direct deliver your groceries.  It would take you two hours to drive to the store, shop for your items, pay, drive them home and bring them inside.

Unless you’ve turned food shopping into a speed sport like Matt has and can bang the whole process out in fifteen minutes.  If you hate food shopping, then it makes sense for you to pay for Fresh Direct.

But it’s not always just a matter of dollars and cents and time.  Maybe you work from home you lucky duck.  And you have plenty of time to clean your house.  You’ve done the math and financially it doesn’t make sense to pay someone to do it for you.  But you really hate cleaning your house.  So maybe from a quality of life stand point, it does make sense for you to outsource a hated but necessary task.  That’s okay too.

Or on the flip side.  You loooove cleaning the house.  But you make thousands of dollars an hour.  While you’re happily mopping the floor, you could be making bank by spending those two hours working.  By all means, clean that house you freak!  Come do mine too if it will make you happy.  I want the best for you.

So while you can easily answer this question with math, life is a bit more complicated than that.  As long as you’re not putting yourself in a hole, outsource what you don’t like to do and spend your time doing something you enjoy.

Show Notes

Red Hook Audible Ale:  Today’s tipple of choice.

Rescue Time: A resource to help you eliminate time drains.

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