How to Value Your Spare Time

Ljonnyspizza on 22/03/2017 - 00:11
Last edited 22/03/2017 - 00:11

Hi all, I've been thinking about a bit lately about what kind of value I should put on my spare (outside work) time. It's a pretty complex question with no "right" answer that I can come up with, but I'm sure some people on this site have come up with good ideas/rules for themselves about this. A few examples to explain:

  1. I often spend quite a while trying to find the best deal on something, e.g. flights, electronics. I sometimes think I spend too much, to the point that I would have been better off just paying possibly $20 extra and using all that research time for something else.
  2. I'm not a very fast cleaner and I don't enjoy it. How much should I pay be willing to pay for cleaning services in order to free up that time for something else?
  3. Should I take the toll road or take a bit longer on free roads?
  4. I will rarely buy a book for more than $10, but will then sink many hours of my life into reading it, time which I'm sure should be valued well and truly beyond the dollar cost of the book. This seems irrational, should I be more willing to pay more for something which I accept is going to cost me so much in time?

Things I know it will depend on:

  1. Disposable income: obviously this determines how much flexibility you have to pay extra in order to free up time.
  2. Amount of spare time: If you have only a few hours of free time per week, every minute feels precious and not to be wasted.
  3. Quality of the time: several consecutive free hours on the weekend are probably worth more than 5 minutes on a weeknight, more than just the proportional difference in time, because you can do more valuable stuff with that time.
  4. Value beyond time/money: I would probably be better off buying dinner from a time + money perspective, but cooking for myself is better for my health and I enjoy it as a hobby which is a frustratingly intangible value. Also, assigning a dollar value to something like a leisurely walk in the park with your partner sounds like a miserable way to live.

Some things I've found:

  1. Norwegian Gumtree Calculator: Found this not super useful, as it didn't suggest to me better ways I could value my time.
  2. Opportunity cost method: Base the value on how much I could be earning with the spare time with work overtime, some entrepreneurial pursuit, etc. I don't think I like this as I place some sort of value on having a signficant amount of my life not working or trying to earn money, e.g. pursuing hobbies, volunteering, relaxing, holidays.
  3. Clearer Thinking Calculator: Haven't done this yet but looks better than the other quiz.

I'm not expecting anyone to come up with all the answers for me, just interested in any philosophies you all might have!
Cheers

General Discussion

Comments

  • retiredfeline on 22/03/2017 - 00:14
    +1

    Maybe you're asking the wrong question. Time and money are not always fungible.

  • try2bhelpful on 22/03/2017 - 00:20
    +5

    You don't need a calculator or any comparison charts - what you need to remember is that you have a finite time on the earth and every minute you waste you don't get back. You also don't know if you are going to get hit by the proverbial bus tomorrow so make the most of the time you do have. Yes, you have to spend your money wisely but don't be penny wise and pound foolish when it comes to your life. Several years ago we took my mother on a tour of Europe and America - she devoured travel programs and had never been out of Australia/ At that time she was fit as a mallee bull and did everything we did. We all had a great time. 5 years later she was dead of lung cancer. If we didn't take her when we did she would never have gone and that would've been a great shame.

    • retiredfeline on 22/03/2017 - 00:41

      Poignant story, thanks. When I think of the people that I've lost recently I think back 5 years, 10 years. Did I think then they'd be dead by now? Not much.

      • try2bhelpful on 22/03/2017 - 09:20
        +1

        Carpe Diem. If I ever open a restaurant I want to use Carpe Diem for "fish of the day".

        We studied "Our Town" by Thornton Wilder. I recommend people read the text or look at the play on You Tube.

        This is a quote from it. - BTW the character is dead and has been allowed to relive one day of her life as an observer.

        “Let's really look at one another!…It goes so fast. We don't have time to look at one another. I didn't realize. So all that was going on and we never noticed… Wait! One more look. Good-bye , Good-bye world. Good-bye, Grover's Corners….Mama and Papa. Good-bye to clocks ticking….and Mama's sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new ironed dresses and hot baths….and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth,you are too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it—every,every minute? (Emily)”

  • Scrooge McDuck on 22/03/2017 - 00:32
    +10

    Did you conduct a Cost Benefit Analysis before posting this thread?

    • jonnyspizza on 23/03/2017 - 22:45

      It came out marginally positive

  • Scrooge McDuck on 22/03/2017 - 00:38
    +1

    I'm not expecting anyone to come up with all the answers for me, just interested in any philosophies you all might have!

    Here's some relevant reading:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_supply
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backward_bending_supply_curve_…
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_economics#Neoclassical_…

  • Scrooge McDuck on 22/03/2017 - 01:06
    +4

    I often spend quite a while trying to find the best deal on something, e.g. flights, electronics. I sometimes think I spend too much, to the point that I would have been better off just paying possibly $20 extra and using all that research time for something else.

    You need to value the enjoyment, knowledge and skills you derive from bargain hunting. For me personally, that's a substantial value.

    I'm not a very fast cleaner and I don't enjoy it. How much should I pay be willing to pay for cleaning services in order to free up that time for something else?

    What is the minimum someone would have to pay you to perform that task for them? Pay the minimum for which you can negotiate so long as it is not greater than the previous amount. Otherwise, do it yourself.

    Should I take the toll road or take a bit longer on free roads?

    If neither route had a toll, what is the minimum someone would have to pay you to take the longer route? If that amount is more than the toll, take the toll road. Else, take the longer route.

    I will rarely buy a book for more than $10, but will then sink many hours of my life into reading it, time which I'm sure should be valued well and truly beyond the dollar cost of the book. This seems irrational, should I be more willing to pay more for something which I accept is going to cost me so much in time?

    Calculate the purchase price, plus the opportunity cost of the time taken to read the book, minus the value of the enjoyment, knowledge and skills you derive from reading the book. Read the book with the lowest total cost, so long as it's negative. Else, don't read any of the books.

  • captobvious on 22/03/2017 - 01:07
    +3

    Have children, good for wasting spare time on.

  • VEPeezy on 22/03/2017 - 01:34
    +1

    Disposable income: obviously this determines how much flexibility you have to pay extra in order to free up time - Very true

    Amount of spare time: If you have only a few hours of free time per week, every minute feels precious and not to be wasted. - Or try to have more of this time, reduce commuting time or OverTime work (whether paid or unpaid)

    Quality of the time: several consecutive free hours on the weekend are probably worth more than 5 minutes on a weeknight, more than just the proportional difference in time, because you can do more valuable stuff with that time - quality time is much better than having a lot of time but not making use of it, I agree.

    Value beyond time/money: I would probably be better off buying dinner from a time + money perspective, but cooking for myself is better for my health and I enjoy it as a hobby which is a frustratingly intangible value. Also, assigning a dollar value to something like a leisurely walk in the park with your partner sounds like a miserable way to live. - Agree, assigning dollar values for everything means you're not really living.

  • [Deactivated] on 22/03/2017 - 01:45
    +1

    Fun to read this with a Patrick Bateman accent.

    • altomic on 22/03/2017 - 02:16
      +2

      Oh my God. It even has a watermark.

  • Diji1 on 22/03/2017 - 02:02

    It seems like a crazy question to me. Are you already tracking your life down to the last detail everywhere else and now it's the time to micro manage fun?

    I've hired cleaners that did a small 2 bedroom unit for $40 previously. I think having a (very part time) cleaner is much cheaper than people realise. You can also invite random strangers into your house using the various magical apps like Airtasker that pay cleaners much less.

  • altomic on 22/03/2017 - 02:20

    don't look at value. it inherent when you adapt a mindfulness approach. track the wastage instead.

    eg. sitting on Ozbargain at 1:15 in the morning when I have work in 7 hours (and have been going to and fro with Ozbargain since 10pm) and I need sleep. I'm wasting my time.

    get some rest.

    or most of that time I could have been doing some thing productive such as installing windows on a couple of desktops or laptops so that I can flog them on ebay for cash money to pay off the credit I used whilst in overseas last week. -that would be value (not just earning, but being productive, and channeling my energy properly.

  • Mumbles on 22/03/2017 - 05:49

    The OP has already answered their own question.

    Some things I've found:
    1. Norwegian Gumtree Calculator: Found this not super useful, as it didn't suggest to me better ways I could value my time.
    2. Opportunity cost method: Base the value on how much I could be earning with the spare time with work overtime, some entrepreneurial pursuit, etc. I don't think I like this as I place some sort of value on having a signficant amount of my life not working or trying to earn money, e.g. pursuing hobbies, volunteering, relaxing, holidays.

    I interpret this to mean OP has no idea what they'd do if they had time to kill. Prioritises free time as #1 over substitute activity such as overtime/entrepreneur.

    Simple answer is maximise your highest utility. ie. increase free time via spending disposable income, then volunteer/hobbies/holidays. Otherwise find your passion, then life will revolve and be filled with passion.

    I'm not expecting anyone to come up with all the answers for me, just interested in any philosophies you all might have!

    I'm a cheerful, non-religious, pragmatist so my advice is to enjoy life: eat, poop, sleep, anything above basic needs is a bonus. My pragmatic advice to philosophers is to enjoy their free time in philosophy.

  • ihbh on 22/03/2017 - 09:41
    +1
    1. I'm not a very fast cleaner and I don't enjoy it. How much should I pay be willing to pay for cleaning services in order to free up that time for something else?

    I've thought about outsourcing the mowing/gardening and other manual work like hauling groceries but there's an important consideration. For your general health you need to get movement and physical exercise in your life (e.g. Okinawans tending to their gardens in their 80-100s). If you choose to outsource, make sure you don't just replace the time with sitting in front of the TV. You might enjoy it more, but you're cutting some time off your life.

  • narcoleptic-haze on 22/03/2017 - 10:53
    +1

    how much of your spare time have you used up trying to value the use of your spare time, and is the loss of that spare time trying to value your spare time worth using up your spare time to value your spare time?

    • jonnyspizza on 23/03/2017 - 23:49

      I'll do some calculations and get back to you :P

  • narcoleptic-haze on 22/03/2017 - 11:04

    on a more serious note, it's definately something to think about for some people. with my work, I maybe get 2 to 3 hours at home (when I'm not sleeping) and it's easy to waste the time away. before I got this job I used to make music as a hobby, but lately I just don't have time to do it. if I managed things a bit better maybe I'd have time to get a tiny bit done each night, but it's hard.

  • btech on 22/03/2017 - 18:55

    I can certainly understand where you're coming from and I commend you for thinking about this stuff. However, as many others here have said, you need to figure out what you value in life.

    For example. I know I personally spend too much time researching and bargain-hunting sometimes as well. There is a point at which you've definitely wasted too much time on the "savings". Try to put a limit based on the possible impact/value of the research and the saving. I.e. saving $2 on a $50 item - very little value. Researching the safety and running costs of cars - potentially large value. "Waste time" proportionally to the possible benefit. Give yourself a time limit. E.g. I will spend 1 hour to research/find best price on this $50 item and no more.

    I also don't like cleaning. Get some quotes and then decide if you are willing to pay that to not have to do that task. Do stuff you like instead. Definite value there.

    Take the toll road when you're in a hurry, take the longer road when you have the time to spare anyway. Will you really use the extra 10 minutes with highly valuable stuff? If so, you have your answer. I suspect unless you're super driven you'll probably waste it with something non-high-value anyway. You could listen to audiobooks on your longer drive.

    You enjoy cooking and eat more healthy? How much is that worth?

    What are you getting out of the books you're reading? Enjoyment, knowledge? If you're getting something out of it, then it's worth the time. And the money.

    It's only worth being so concerned about time wasted if you are really going to do something 10x (or 100x) more valuable/important/enjoyable with every minute you are saving. I doubt you will because you wouldn't be asking the questions in the first place. An this is OK, because you're no different to the vast majority.

    Again, figure out what you value in life (not $ value, but personal value.) What do you enjoy? What do you want to do with your time? And don't be so hung up on measuring every minute. You're over-analysing things. Simplify the problem. Don't sweat the small stuff. Worry about the big things. What are your dreams/goals/interests you want to achieve/do/spend time on/with? The small things will fall into place.

  • jonnyspizza on 24/03/2017 - 01:33

    Thanks everyone for your comments! It's definitely helped me organise my thoughts a bit more.

    In response to the common theme of a lot of the comments, I'm definitely not looking to micromanage fun-time or cost every minute of my life. The question is basically driven by the fact that my free time is precious and I don't have a huge amount of it, and I'm trying to make sure I don't get 10 years down the road and regret frittering a lot of it away on things that I realise don't bring me much happiness or help me develop as a person, e.g. menial chores (there's definitely an argument to be made that these could help me develop as a person but I am still fairly uninterested…). If it hypothetically cost $10,000 per hour to hire a cleaner I would do cleaning myself, and if it was $1/hr I would hire one without a second thought. Somewhere in there is a line or grey area where the decision goes from no to maybe to yes, and I'm trying to work out where that line should be for me (not just for hiring a cleaner, but for anything which needs to be done in my life that doesn't make me happy or feel fulfilled but would take up spare time if I did it myself).

    My desire isn't to end up with some generalised cost of time so that I could say "this weekend away in the wilderness is costing me $x in money and $y in time", it is more just to maximise time/money available to do the things I really want to do, without spending more than I should on things like outsourcing chores.

    I'm definitely over-analysing (I'm an engineer)!

    • retiredfeline on 24/03/2017 - 13:47
      +3

      I suggest that you are approaching this from the wrong angle. Instead of optimising for money you should be optimising for time. Time is something that's finite and fixed. Figure out what you want to do more of then how to get that time, by giving up other activities, or paying somebody to do it for you.

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