Your time is not free

[o2batsea]

After reading through 8 pages of this thread, all I have to say is: Where are the pictures of the wind powered pond aerator??????

It's still in pieces. As of last weekend I am still waiting on some critical components to arrive such as the tower sections, bearings and a check valve.
Turbine is a Lenz2 which I have finished the wings for, but that's it so far. If you want pics you'll have to wait until the Admiral gives me some shore leave. It's over on the Eastern Shore in the barn.

 

[grnspot110]

I don't get paid for my time, so it must be free!!!!

 

[o2batsea]

C'mon folks, read the post again. You all need to understand the difference between paying yourself $90 per hour and valuing your labor towards building a project at $90 per hour. I actually think I'm being quite cheap at that rate. I should skew it up a bit for inflation and the shabby economy.
If you all feel like that's outrageous, you probably aren't considering the cost of your tools, materials, labor, vehicles, mortgage/rent on your property, utilities, the taxes you pay on all that, the loss of time from having to take time to work on the project, the cost of your education, and your overall cost of living. I am probably leaving some factors out, but I think I have the major stuff in there.

So far I have not seen any viable arguments that would make me change my mind in any way. If anything you are all reinforcing my point.

 

[LD1]

C'mon folks, read the post again. You all need to understand the difference between paying yourself $90 per hour and valuing your labor towards building a project at $90 per hour. I actually think I'm being quite cheap at that rate. I should skew it up a bit for inflation and the shabby economy.
If you all feel like that's outrageous, you probably aren't considering the cost of your tools, materials, labor, vehicles, mortgage/rent on your property, utilities, the taxes you pay on all that, the loss of time from having to take time to work on the project, the cost of your education, and your overall cost of living. I am probably leaving some factors out, but I think I have the major stuff in there.So far I have not seen any viable arguments that would make me change my mind in any way. If anything you are all reinforcing my point.

These factor in regardless of wether I do the project myself or not. Now if I had to go buy a special tool that I don't have to complete the project, then of course that could count, but I already have the building, tools, I have to pat taxes and utilities, etc regardless.

I am not sure what your capabilities are or what kind of shop you have, but If you could build something(insert item/project here) yourself in half a day, say 5 hours, and do it with a material cost of $400 less than what you could buy a new item for, are you saying you would NOT do it because your labor is worth $450 and that would make it more expensive???? Even though you are still paying taxes/utilities/overhead on your things even if you buy new.

I would be more inclined to agree with your side if you value you time at $20-$30 per hour. Again, because you time is the ONLY thing it is costing you assuming you already have tools, etc.

 

[HiTechTed]

C'mon folks, read the post again. You all need to understand the difference between paying yourself $90 per hour and valuing your labor towards building a project at $90 per hour. I actually think I'm being quite cheap at that rate. I should skew it up a bit for inflation and the shabby economy.
If you all feel like that's outrageous, you probably aren't considering the cost of your tools, materials, labor, vehicles, mortgage/rent on your property, utilities, the taxes you pay on all that, the loss of time from having to take time to work on the project, the cost of your education, and your overall cost of living. I am probably leaving some factors out, but I think I have the major stuff in there.

So far I have not seen any viable arguments that would make me change my mind in any way. If anything you are all reinforcing my point.

Solution: do not buy tools, do not do projects for yourself. Do not buy vehicles. Live in a cardboard box out on the street. Do not get an education. Do not buy eggs. Do not live.

And how does nearly 9 pages of disagreement "reinforce your point?" And since this is your way of thinking, why are you even doing your project in the first place? You have already declared that you are in too deep, as if you now regret even doing it at all. So are you just looking for attention or something? All you are doing is complaining against yourself so what's the point?

I beg to differ with the title of this thread. My time is mine, to do whatever I want to with. If he wants to believe that he's so great that he has to count his own imaginary wages against himself, so be it. He's probably unbearable to be around at dinner time...probably sits there and counts each grain of salt he uses and weighs chicken bones just to see how much of the meat he's actually paying for...

 

[smstonypoint]

If you all feel like that's outrageous, you probably aren't considering the cost of your tools, materials, labor, vehicles, mortgage/rent on your property, utilities, the taxes you pay on all that, the loss of time from having to take time to work on the project, the cost of your education, and your overall cost of living. I am probably leaving some factors out, but I think I have the major stuff in there.

Uh oh!! I try to look for teachable moments when it comes to economics. Here we are mixing costs (sunk versus prospective, fixed versus variable) and ignoring how those different costs should affect decisions.

Given my apparent lack of success in trying to explain the concept of "opportunity cost," I will take a powder on this one. There is no need for you to express your thanks.

Steve

 

[Iplayfarmer]

C'mon folks, read the post again. You all need to understand the difference between paying yourself $90 per hour and valuing your labor towards building a project at $90 per hour. I actually think I'm being quite cheap at that rate. I should skew it up a bit for inflation and the shabby economy.
If you all feel like that's outrageous, you probably aren't considering the cost of your tools, materials, labor, vehicles, mortgage/rent on your property, utilities, the taxes you pay on all that, the loss of time from having to take time to work on the project, the cost of your education, and your overall cost of living. I am probably leaving some factors out, but I think I have the major stuff in there.

So far I have not seen any viable arguments that would make me change my mind in any way. If anything you are all reinforcing my point.

Here's another way to put it... We're still charging ourselves $90/hr. (or whatever the number is), but we're getting more value back in fun and enjoyment. It's a wash, so we don't count it against the project.

I think I understand your point... Time is valuable. Don't flippantly put time into a project that would have more value somewhere else. But, keep in mind we are all different. I return to my original question regarding paying someone else to drive your boat around the lake so you don't have to. I'm guessing that even the idea sounds absurd to you because it's something that you enjoy doing. That's why you have a boat. That's why you make time to go boating. I had a boat for a summer and it wasn't for me. I'd pay someone else to drive the boat around.

Consider that some of us enjoy fabricating building and repairing as much or possibly more than you enjoy boating or napping. You don't have to understand it. You just have to accept it. I'm not building a backhoe because I want a backhoe. I'm building a backhoe because I want to BUILD a backhoe. I've already passed up many opportunities to buy a backhoe for less than it will cost me for materials to build one. Many of us do it just for the fun of it.

It's not that we don't value our time. It's that the value we get out of the experience is worth more than the time. On that note. I may have charged myself $90 for the 30 hours I spent rebuilding the transmission on my tractor, but the experience and satisfaction was worth twice that. I bought the tractor for $2000, so in the end my tractor paid me an extra $700 worth of value.

I predict that this thread will change the character of TBN a bit. I guess that future build threads that don't put a dollar value on time will make some justifications regarding the value of the experience.

 

[Denwa]

Who IS John Galt???

John Galt is the mysterious protagonist, or more accurately anti-villain, in Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged. For much of the novel he is merely a name without a face, about whom people ask, "Who is John Galt?" without knowing what or whom they're talking about. Eventually John Galt answers them directly, in a manifesto for individualism and capitalism. More to the point, he is an inventor, a philosopher, and a political movement leader, though not a politician in the usual sense, because he functions neither as legislator nor as administrator.

John Galt resembles Henry Galt, the main character in a 1922 novel by a Garet Garett (1878?954), a leading conservative economics writer of the day. It tells the story of a Wall Street financier, Henry Galt, a shadowy figure who stays out of the limelight as much as possible until he unleashes a plan that had been years in the making: he uses his extraordinary entrepreneurial talent to acquire control of a failing railroad.[1]
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Guess this is who he is. Or is it that WE are JG?

T-shirts are availble, just Google...

Dennis

 

[Denwa]

C'mon folks, read the post again. You all need to understand the difference between paying yourself $90 per hour and valuing your labor towards building a project at $90 per hour.......

Ones time IS worth considering. I gave up on deer hunting for this reason, though I much enjoyed the activity. Going to the grocery just makes more sense to me if I want meat.

In a more On-Topic vein, If one's a "keeper" and not particularly organized, how about the time costs in looking for something in your accumulation, that you KNOW is there somewhere, that you need at the moment vs. just going out and buying another one. I submit that in many situations, the just go buy it option will be quicker, and at $90 an hour or even $10/hr, your probably money/time ahead.

Dennis

 

[beppington]

I see so many threads where the poster claims they only have a few bucks worth of materials in a project. I always calculate my own "shop hourly rate" into my projects to see whether I am actually saving money by doing some of these things myself. My personal rate is $90/hr.

Most guys on here like doing stuff themselves, & don't need to "pay themselves" to do so ... especially $90 an hour.

I always figure guys that don't like doing stuff themselves are either lazy, not very handy, yuppies, or somebody I'm gonna need to help out during the next hurricane season ... or all of the above.