

Invoice yourself – What are you (really) worth? - KentHealy
http://dontgetburnedblog.com/invoice-yourself/

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jedwhite
This article makes the mistake of equating the "cash value of time" with the
real value of time.

If you're Warren Buffett, a dollar when you were 20 years old could have been
worth $10m now. If you're building a startup, saving every penny you can on
ramen noodles might give you an extra month you can survive with no funds.
Thinking "I'm worth so much more than this" because you could be charging $100
an hour for Java development to some enterprise while you're coding The Next
Big Thing is a disconnect.

Time has no cash value. Productive output has cash value.

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muerdeme
I think I agree with the gist of what you're saying, but saying "Time has no
cash value" is overly broad and a bit silly. Do you think interest rates only
exist to hedge against inflation?? What is the value of angel investors??

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jedwhite
I think you're confusing the time value of money with the cash value of time
:)

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sthomps
Interesting premise, I don't think people put enough stock in their self-
worth. I was having this discussion with someone this morning. We talked about
how mothers, after 20 years of raising children, have very low self worth
because they have not "done" anything. This is a cause of media and society in
general, with the importance of Ivy's and pretigious careers.

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ddlatham
It's also very interesting when you begin thinking of how it affects other
people's value or money.

In his example of bargain hunting and collecting coupons, he spent 8+ hours to
save $20, which he realized was a poor return on his money. (That must have
been some serious bargain hunting). Not only that, if he purchased some goods
for $20 less than he would have without the coupons, then the vendor ended up
$20 poorer than he would have. So he spent 8+ hours to effectively transfer
$20 of value from the vendor to himself, which is even worse than spending 8
hours to create $20 of new value.

It certainly depends on how you view other people's money and value compared
to your own.

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bobf
Don't forget that a penny saved is not truly equivalent to a penny earned,
because saving a penny actually requires earning enough to cover taxes and the
extra costs (travel time, gas, etc) you incur to earn it. Saving $20 on a
purchase is equivalent to earning $30-40.

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Periodic
I find pieces like this often leave out a very important piece of the
equation: what you do with the time you gain. The value of your time isn't
constant.

You haven't gained much if you pay someone $20 to mow your lawn because you
think the hour you would spend is worth $100, but then spend that time
watching soaps on TV. Is an hour of soaps worth $80 for you? Is that
relaxation you need in order to $80 more productive later? I've seen people
justifying purchases and luxuries by saying, "My time is worth it." but then
they waste the time on other busy-work and still don't think they have enough
time in their day.

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moonpolysoft
Offtopic, but am I the only one who finds it incredibly annoying when blogs
like this disable the back button by overwriting the last item in your
history?

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DarKnight
Never looked at it this way... Great new way of thinking!

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sweetdeal
This is exactly why I will NEVER work for an hourly wage! Im worth way more
than anyone could pay me... I create my own value!

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ams6110
Funny -- I have been working for an hourly rate the past year or so, having
been salaried for all my jobs previously. Being paid by the hour really opened
my eyes to the "cost" of almost everything else I do. Why, just responding to
this post "cost" me a couple of dollars....

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wheelz
Yes yes yes! finally we are getting somewhere. I LOVE THIS

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Deskie
People waste so much time everyday. Maybe if we looked at time differently
we'd all be better off

