I used to do this conversion when I was contracting at hourly rates and my time was the bottleneck: should I fix the toilet myself or call a plumber? It no longer makes sense on a 9-5 job. The fungibility options (have I used this term right?) are different.
There was an article a while back about how time doesn’t convert directly to money, at least in terms of an hourly wage. It’s essentially the same problem that shminux mentioned.
It’s still in principle possible to put a monetary value on marginal increases in available time, though, and might be practically possible in some situations (like shminux’s contract work). In cases like that, one could convert the table to money.
I wonder if you could get a time/money conversion with a revealed preferences sort of method—listing all the tradeoffs you already make and looking for a pattern. It seems like it would at least be useful for noticing if you’re being “money pumped” (although consistent does not necessarily equal correct, and time does not necessarily always have equal value).
There was an article a while back about how time doesn’t convert directly to money, at least in terms of an hourly wage.
Unless you put yourself in a situation where you can work any time you want, and earn hourly incremental dollars.
I was working two contract jobs at the same time, as I transitioned from one to another. Both sides had an attitude of “give me as many hours as you can”. I did a lot of work, because making X dollars and hours usually seemed like time better spent than what I would have otherwise done.
It’s hard to manage that kind of situation, but I should find at least something similar—some kind of project or side business where the money was fairly linear and incremental with time.
Is there any reason this doesn’t also naively enable conversion to money? (If you make $N/hr should you be willing to spend $N in lieu of one hour?)
I used to do this conversion when I was contracting at hourly rates and my time was the bottleneck: should I fix the toilet myself or call a plumber? It no longer makes sense on a 9-5 job. The fungibility options (have I used this term right?) are different.
There was an article a while back about how time doesn’t convert directly to money, at least in terms of an hourly wage. It’s essentially the same problem that shminux mentioned.
It’s still in principle possible to put a monetary value on marginal increases in available time, though, and might be practically possible in some situations (like shminux’s contract work). In cases like that, one could convert the table to money.
I wonder if you could get a time/money conversion with a revealed preferences sort of method—listing all the tradeoffs you already make and looking for a pattern. It seems like it would at least be useful for noticing if you’re being “money pumped” (although consistent does not necessarily equal correct, and time does not necessarily always have equal value).
Unless you put yourself in a situation where you can work any time you want, and earn hourly incremental dollars.
I was working two contract jobs at the same time, as I transitioned from one to another. Both sides had an attitude of “give me as many hours as you can”. I did a lot of work, because making X dollars and hours usually seemed like time better spent than what I would have otherwise done.
It’s hard to manage that kind of situation, but I should find at least something similar—some kind of project or side business where the money was fairly linear and incremental with time.
What jobs were these, and did they pay well? (Of course, feel free to not answer if you’re concerned about privacy or similar.)