A post completely stolen from an email from a friend

I would like to clarify a statement I made about my position on valuing my time and how and why I do it. "Dude, what is your time worth?" It is not a money thing at all.

When I was 25, I made like $20/hr. The guys that did things like change brake pads and landscape my yard would charge me more than double that. Additionally my time was "cheap" because I felt like I had lots of it. The big dirt nap was far, far off - 50 years away which might as well have been 1000 years away for as much connection as I had to it. I changed my own brake pads because it held intrinsic satisfaction for me since I am a gearhead and my time was "cheap" i.e. I had lots of it left in my life. The money piece of it confirmed that equation because I would have to work 3 of my hours to make enough money to pay for 1 hour of the guys that could do it for me so I would actually be decreasing my net output at that time by paying them to do it.

When I was 35, I made around $35/hr. The guys changing brake pads were only charging like 1-1/2 times that rate to do it for me. The dirt nap loomed closer but I still did not give it much thought. I worked many, many hours, up to 75/week for months at a time and so sometimes it made sense to hire out some of the more mundane tasks simply because I didn't have the time to do it after work. I wanted to spend what little time I had left after work with friends and family (looking back now I would say I didn't spend enough time with them although I had some great times with you and other friends in Laguna and in Irvine)

Now, approaching 45, I make somewhat more than what I have to pay the guys that change brake pads. I am feeling the dirt nap peaking around the corner at me, who knows, maybe as little as 15 years away (both my grandfathers passed by age 60). I have a lot of shit to get done before I meet my maker - traveling, raising a family, spending time with friends and family and maybe squeezing off one more major project, my Taj Mahal, my swan song. I don't want to spend 1/8 of a second of those 15 years changing brake pads or even thinking about changing brake pads. It is not in the top 10,000 things I want to do before I leave this rock - I am going to run out of time before I even complete 10% of my list. I can afford to pay someone else to change my brake pads while I do some of the many things that are on my to do list. In fact, I can afford to pay guys $20 - $25/hr to do many of the mundane tasks I don't want to include on the list on my headstone and still be way ahead. What's more, that is how I can multiply my output in my life. I will get a lot more done in the 15 years remaining by working and making the money I can make doing so and paying for as much other stuff as possible so I can spend more time doing the things that are really important in this life like spending time with my family and recreating. Life is not about working man!

Donald Trump doesn't even know the name of the guy that changes his brake pads. Well, he probably doesn't own a car long enough for the brake pads to wear out before he buys a new one, but he makes yooge money doing what he does best, developing real estate, and he buys everything else he needs or wants and still puts large stacks of casheesh in the bank. I, like the Donald and everybody else, whether they know it or not, use money to normalize the simultaneous set of equations that must be solved to tell me when to work and when to pay someone else to work - thus the phrase "what is my time worth". It is not a money thing at all, it is a balance thing. Balance work with play and family. I want to spend as much time on family/friends and play time as possible before I wind up in the obits.

So my point to you when I said "Change brake pads? Dude, what is your time worth?" is that you make way more per hour than what you have to pay the guys that change your brake pads, your pride is in tact since you have proven you can change pads having done it many times, and it probably isn't even that fun anymore, if it ever was for you. Make your money doing what you do so well, pay the knucklehead guy to change your brake pads and spend the afternoon with your girlfriend at the beach or on a bike ride or on a hike while he does it. You will be multiplying your output while increasing your life enjoyment. "Dude, what is your time worth?"