Your time is not free

[jgrreed]

I consider it free especially if I enjoy doing it. It's my time, what does it matter if I don't charge myself for it?

I agree. If I'm going to learn something new, or really enjoy what I'm doing, I do it. If it's going to take too much time away from something else important, like family or friends, I hire it out, or just wait until I have time. Lately I've been 'pulling strings' to get someone that-I-know "knows" to help me and teach me new things.

Everyone's time is valuable, as are the "years off your life" that occur when you get in over your head!!! No one will lay on their deathbed and say "I really wish I had packed my own bearings back in '97", nor with they say "I wish I had saved that 55$ the shop charged me to repack my bearings"

-Jer.

 

[o2batsea]

just curious where you come up with the $90 hourly rate?

granted...this is what you might pay a fabrication shop owner (with overhead) etc. but the actual fabricator that is working for the shop owner is likely seeing $20-$25/hour out of that $90...
...So the question is...what makes your fabrication time worth more than the $25/hr the fabricator that works for a shop?...do you also pay yourself $90/hr when you are out buying materials and supplies?

Same thing as Mr Fab Shop: overhead.

 

[smstonypoint]

Your point is only valid if in fact you had real income generating work you could be doing instead.

At the risk of being flamed on this, as an economist (actually an agricultural economist) I have to disagree. "Opportunity cost" is an important concept in economics (one that too often managed to elude my former students) and need not be restricted to monetary terms. Accountants don't consider opportunity costs, economists do.

The time you devote to an activity (say, building a pond aerator) is time that you could have spent on another activity (e.g., working for pay, time with your family, fishing, whatever). The opportunity cost of that time is the benefit that you forgo in the next-best use of that time.

Steve

 

[Marveltone]

I tried paying myself for projects I've done for myself. I took the money out of one pocket and put it in the other. Come bill time, it didn't seem to make any difference. Maybe I should've taken it out of savings and redeposited it back into savings.

Maybe I'm just a little dense, because I still haven't figured out how to pay myself yet. If you're taking time away from a paying job to do these projects, then yes, you're losing money. If you're doing them after hours, or on your days off, when you're not getting paid anyway, you're not losing any money. In fact, you're likely saving money by not paying somebody else's labor for an already finished product.

Then again, what do I know? I was an art major.

Joe

 

[tungularafishcamp]

Lets see, best I ever did solo fishing was 23,000 lbs of halibut in 24 hours x1.35 a lb makes my time worth 1200something$ an hour. Dang at that rate I can't afford to play my wife a game of cribbage much less have a little fun in the shop:laughing:

Rick

Of course I won't mention all the seasons I have spent fishing where I barely if ever made it to the black or is it green that might make my time almost worthless and it's all the time I have left so might as well use it as I want.

 

[W7XYZ]

My personal rate is $90/hr.

Is that with or without benefits? The question for DIY, am I rich or broke?

 

[smstonypoint]

Then again, what do I know? I was an art major.

Joe

Joe,

Didn't you have to take at least one economics course? But you may have been like some of my former students who used my lectures to catch up on their sleep.

Steve

 

[o2batsea]

Is that with or without benefits? The question for DIY, am I rich or broke?

I'm only gonna answer this one time, regardless of how many different ways it gets asked.

 

[Dr_Zinj]

Most of us only get 41,340,614 minutes of life to live on the average. You use 9,467,280 minutes just getting to age 18.

I'm almost 52, which means I have about 13,990,694 minutes left on the clock.

You personal time is worth whatever pay level a job had that would make you drop whatever you are doing at home (i.e. give up your personal time) to go work at. I make roughly $41/hr at work with everything added in; but it would take at least twice that for me to give up my personal time for work I didn't care for; which makes o2batsea's figure of $90/hr pretty much on the money. (No pun intended.)

Most hobbies cost money, if you can reduce the cost, that's money in your pocket. Education costs money (Oh boy, does it ever!). If you can learn it on your own, you're making money doing it. Most therapy and vacation packages cost money. If you're doing something that takes their place, you're making money.

If you're building, doing, or making something on your own, and you can't stand it, then you're wasting money and your life time. If you're enjoying yourself, learning something, or staying in shape doing it, it's worth it.

 

[ihuntbear]

I can't beleive someone needs to pay them self to do the things that need to be done around the house that they like doing.If thats the case why do we buy lawn mowers,tractors ,shovels etc to get the things done.We may as well just keep working for somebody else to pay somebody else to do the things we like doing.Does that make any sense,90.00 an hour.Wow this world is gone to sh.t....sorry just my .02 cents:confused2: