Concept of valuing your time and nuances

[marriedwoman]

The theory goes - if you earn £/$20 per hour (after tax), you should pay someone to do a job that costs less than £20 p/h.

This makes sense if you own a business or work in a commission-based role. What if you earn a fixed salary? If I pay a cleaner on a Saturday, you could argue that even though it costs less than my per hour wage, I can’t earn anymore than my fixed salary and don’t work on the weekends anyway?

Anyone have any thoughts on valuing your time when working in a job with a fixed salary?

FYI - I know lots of other stuff will go into these types (willingness to do the task, sense of achievement, monthly budget after expenses etc.).

 

[angie826]

@marriedwoman I think it's a useful construct even in a salaried role just for having a value on your time and giving you a decision point to ponder, after all what's the point in working Monday-Friday if you can't then enjoy your weekend because you have to then be cleaning, or mowing the lawn, or doing maintenance if these things are, compared to your take home, relatively cheap.

I think for the average person though things such as having a cleaner, gardener etc are more budgeting decisions, "can i afford to spend this money on a cleaner? do I want to spend this money on a cleaner, or invest it, or go on a holiday?"

I'd also like to add its a fairly arbitrary rule. Just because a gas engineer costs £50 an hour and I only earn £20 an hour doesn't mean I should try and fix my boiler myself.

 

[justin017878]

@angie826 If you're like me in your final example what a tradesman could do in an hour for £50 would cost me £100 in tools I'll never need again and 8 hours of frantic Youtube video watching trying to fix it

 

[michaelbtc]

@justin017878 Yep always going to fork out for the big jobs like repairs and mechanics, but personally I’ll probably always clean, do my own laundry etc. and not pay for these services.. probably because I really don’t feel that short on time and I don’t hate these chores enough to feel like paying for it. In fact, they help me feel productive..

 

[santidad320]

@michaelbtc Yea, whereas I always feel like I don’t have enough spare time to do my hobbies and constantly feel stressed knowing how much housework needs doing.

I recently got a cleaner to do the basics (bathrooms, kitchen etc) and I feel so much better. I would compare it to buying a few extra days holiday.

 

[bdawson]

@michaelbtc Tradesmen coming round to fix a boiler £100 every 5 years let's say. Cleaners coming round to clean the house £20-40/week minimum. It's the annualised cost of using and reusing this service that should matter, not the hourly.

 

[mir2017lma]

@justin017878 Probably why I have thousands of pounds worth of tools and experience in most trades, because I actually enjoy those 8 hours of frantic learning.

 

[justin017878]

@mir2017lma Yeah it just needs to be a conscious decision really. When I take on a job I do so because I'm content with the fact it'll cost as much, take longer and I'll possibly need to get someone in anyway if I mess it up.

At that point it's just a hobby like any other really but I wouldn't ever take on any job bigger than a few hours to save money alone.

 

[resjudicata]

@mir2017lma This. It's an expense that pays itself back many times over during your lifetime. And for most people they'd only use those 8hrs to sit on Facebook or watch some shite on TV so its wasted time.

 

[abomb]

@resjudicata Any need at all to be judgemental about how people spend their time?

If someone wants to watch TV with their free time to recharge instead of exhausting themselves further after a 48 hour week trying to save a few quid in car repair bills, more power to em. To each his own.

 

[kookie80]

@justin017878 Haha this me too

 

[cinamon]

@angie826

can i afford to spend this money on a cleaner?

Not only that, but it requires effort to shop around and find a reliable service provider that is going to do what you need. Just throwing money at a problem or inconvenience can sometimes leave you with a lot less money but only slightly less inconvenience.

 

[fleurdelys]

@cinamon I've had friends spend more time complaining about a cleaner than I've spent cleaning on a per week basis. Granted I've cleaned every week but they've claimed about cleaners multiple weeks!

 

[seekingholyadvice]

@marriedwoman The first step is to dissasociate the £ from the £/h since, in that situation, if you can't work more/less hours easily it's irrelevant.

The second step is to consider the opportunity cost of both the £ and your time which is a highly personal question. Your willingness and ability to do a task, as well as the cost for someone else to do it, are all relevant factors.

 

[logankahana]

@seekingholyadvice This summarises everything pretty well I think.

Willingness is also a really important point that gets overlooked and is highly subjective.

If I earn £20 an hour, one could argue anything that I can outsource for £10 an hour I should do.

But some tasks I’m more than happy to do to save the extra money I would have spent on outsourcing, some I would gladly pay the money, if not more, as I hate the job.

I would never bother outsourcing daft little things like washing, cleaning, tidying as they are somewhat trivial to me… flatpacks however are stressful so I’d rather pay someone else to do it for me.

I watched two people put up my ottoman bed in probably no more than 30 minutes and it cost me £40, I definitely do not earn that much an hour, but to me that was money well spent.

 

[kmccune1]

@logankahana The question with the bed is whether YOU would have been able to do it in 30min. Probably not, and that's why it was money well spent!

 

[nickjmcclure]

@logankahana I have different preferences to you but I agree with the rule.

 

[hperry924]

@marriedwoman Many many variables in it for me.

Is it work that I'll enjoy?

Is it work that I'll hate?

Is it work that will be good for me? (i.e. exercise, sense of achievement)

Would I take longer to do the job than the person I can hire? (efficiency)

Do I have the skills needed? Am I confident of my skills?

Will paying get the job done quicker? Or will doing it myself be less hassle to arrange?

Can I afford the cost? Is it in my budget?

 

[lwphilbeck]

@hperry924 This is it

 

[planetarylight]

@hperry924 Absolutely. I would rather pay a cleaner because I don't enjoy cleaning, am not that good at it and it'll take me far longer.