“In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.”
-Benjamin Franklin
Given the Bush Administration’s policies, I’m not sure we can be certain of anything anymore.
Propositon: If you earn X dollars per year then every productive hour of your time is worth approximately X/2000 (before tax).
In real numbers a salary of $50,000 a year values each productive hour of your time at $25. Of ourse if you work too many hours then you burn out; too few you lose your skills, but 40 to 80 hours a week are considered productive. Given an appropriate balance it’s fair to say that every hour you might otherwise be productive you are spending approximately $25. When you go to see a movie, you’re not just buying a $10 ticket because those two hours could otherwise be productive and expensable.
It’s easy to see how this kind of thinking could make a person a workaholic. Indeed when you begin to see things not in terms of time but rather in terms of money you’re liable to drive yourself crazy over what you might otherwise be earning. They key to managing your time is to understand that all this capital – all this time – is yours to spend. In fact you get another $25 every hour for the rest of your life (that’s not counting raises). If you have $60 to spend on a movie and you’ve decided you want to see a movie, it’s yours to spend and there’s no reason you shouldn’t profit from your innate wealth.
You should also consider how much or how little you need to spend to finish all those things that have been piling up. Most importabtly you should consider how much you would like to spend on your family and friends.