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Most people will use time to save money. However, your time on earth is limited unless the Silicon Valley weirdos happen to be right. Money is infinite in that

Most people will use time to save money. However, your time on earth is limited unless the Silicon Valley weirdos happen to be right. Money is infinite in that you can earn more or get a second job or get a better paying job or whatever. (Obviously only to a point but stay with me). Also: your time does have value or it should since it is limited. What would you pay for an hour of your life "back"? Or an hour to do whatever you wanted? The truly smart play is trading money for time. I've been a freelancer for a while but there was a point when I got laid off from my full time job so I ramped up to make ends meet. And I was fortunate enough that I was basically able to work for myself full time... But when you are doing that, especially in the early stage...like I know that if I burn a couple hours at my billing rate of $50 an hour trying to save a few dollarydoos on a TV by standing in line for a big sale, am I really saving that much money when I effectively paid $100 to stand in line for two hours, something I don't like doing anyway, instead of just paying a bit more and getting a TV right away and not having to do that? Another example. Changing the oil on my car. Could I? I'm pretty sure I could. I know the process. I'd probably want to watch some YouTube videos and there's tools I'd need to pick up, but I could be a real manly man and change my own oil and not get screwed by the shop. But... Let's say it costs me $40 at Autozone for oil and filter. Let's say it costs $80 at the shop. A real shop not a jiffy lube. PFFT THOSE GUYS ARE SCREWING YA JUST DO IT YOURSELF. I'd save $40 doing it DIY. Most people would be on their way to Autozone...but on the other hand, I am not a mechanic that does 20 of these a day. Between watching videos and trying to figure out where everything is and inevitably covering myself in oil and whatnot. Let's say it takes me 2 hours and the shop 1 hour. Doesn't matter, I saved 40 bucks! Whadda ripoff! Would you pay 40 bucks for an hour of your life back? Maybe you like tinkering on cars and thats legit. Satisfaction is another benefit. But for me, I am effectively paying some other person $40 to get dirty and bang his knuckles and whatnot while I sit in the AC and watch cable and dick around on my phone (which I enjoy much more) AND a lot of places will check and top up your other fluids and top off your tires and do an inspection to see if anything else will need work, which I don't know how to do and obviously they know what they are looking for. AND because the guy knows what he's doing, it's done faster. So effectively, yes, I will absolutely pay 40 bucks to hang out and watch basic cable in the air conditioning and make sure my car is good to go and all my fluids are topped off and also I get a whole hour of my life for doing whatever I want. Don't trade time for money. Trade money for time.

robbiep 4y ago
I agrée and it’s a bit of a maxim of mine, but the extreme of this is absurd. There’s lots of life that is worth doing for the pleasure of just doing. Sometimes that might be learning how to do an oil change (to follow the thread!) but sometimes that’s the exact absurd trade off you’re talking about
- posix86 4y ago
  I think that's his point. The point in life isn't to have money, it's to spend time on things you liked. Thus, trading time to save money is a bad trade, but trading money for time that you enjoy is what you should do. Which in his case means spending time on your phone instead of changing oil, but it might look different for you.
  - robbiep 4y ago
    And my point is if you pursue that thread too aggressively, without knowing what you want to do - and I’ve seen quite a few friends do this especially after moving to the valley and getting into ‘always be optimising’ mode - they don’t actually take the time to make mistakes
dominicdoty 4y ago
While I broadly agree with this, you have to be careful you don't slide too far into this mindset. Vacations become hard to justify if you view them as both the price of the vacation+lost income opportunity. It's easy to find yourself in a place where it's hard to justify doing anything but working.
- tomcam 4y ago
  Well I looked at it like this. A good two week vacation in Paris costs at least $10,000. I could instead bill out approximately $12,000 during that time. Therefore, the best thing to do is for me to pay a Parisian $2,000 to have my vacation for me. I stayed at home, and earned a lot more money. I can then spend that on another vacation. You can thank me later for this gem.

robbiep 4y ago

I agrée and it’s a bit of a maxim of mine, but the extreme of this is absurd. There’s lots of life that is worth doing for the pleasure of just doing. Sometimes that might be learning how to do an oil change (to follow the thread!) but sometimes that’s the exact absurd trade off you’re talking about

posix86 4y ago
I think that's his point. The point in life isn't to have money, it's to spend time on things you liked. Thus, trading time to save money is a bad trade, but trading money for time that you enjoy is what you should do. Which in his case means spending time on your phone instead of changing oil, but it might look different for you.
- robbiep 4y ago
  And my point is if you pursue that thread too aggressively, without knowing what you want to do - and I’ve seen quite a few friends do this especially after moving to the valley and getting into ‘always be optimising’ mode - they don’t actually take the time to make mistakes

dominicdoty 4y ago

While I broadly agree with this, you have to be careful you don't slide too far into this mindset. Vacations become hard to justify if you view them as both the price of the vacation+lost income opportunity. It's easy to find yourself in a place where it's hard to justify doing anything but working.

tomcam 4y ago
Well I looked at it like this. A good two week vacation in Paris costs at least $10,000. I could instead bill out approximately $12,000 during that time. Therefore, the best thing to do is for me to pay a Parisian $2,000 to have my vacation for me. I stayed at home, and earned a lot more money. I can then spend that on another vacation. You can thank me later for this gem.