Investing money to get back time

Sep 11th, 2023

personal

The time and money trade-off was never an issue for me before. In college and at my previous job, time was abundant, and the things I wanted to do (or had to do) were few. I can’t recall many instances where I had traded off money for time. These days, however, I am met with a time crunch — too many things to do, at work or personal, friends to catch up with, books to read, etc., so I’ve started to put a monetary value on my time. It’s not a fixed value yet, but the idea is that if the ratio of time it will save me from having the task outsourced to the money it will take is high, I would trade off money to save time.

Putting a monetary value on time raises the bar on how you would spend your time. If I can get my clothes ironed for 7 rupees a piece, which otherwise would take me 5 mins of ironing, it’s a straightforward trade-off. It also means if I could take a cab and relax instead of driving in traffic myself on a busy Friday evening, I would choose the former. The goal is to save time to do more of things that are really important, which is work, spending time with family and friends, doing more of fitness and writing. Solely looking from a money point of view as well, this trade-off is beneficial. If I invest more time at work, I increase my earning potential. By spending time with friends and family or doing things that bring me joy, I am increasing my happiness and well-being (which eventually has a very high monetary value if one could calculate)

I have started to invest money in two categories of things to regain time in my life. The first is simply the mundane tasks that can be outsourced or eliminated easily.

• Not optimizing for buying something at the cheapest if it takes time to compare and the price difference is little. For example, not checking the price of an item on three websites or two apps before buying. Not commuting across the city to buy something cheaper
• Outsourcing chores such as cooking food, ironing clothes
• Living closer to office to save time in commute and paying a higher rent

The second category of things with tremendous returns in time is getting external help to speed up the process.

• Getting a trainer at the gym. I’ve been going to the gym for two years but started working with a trainer last quarter. I’ve progressed more in these three months than in the remaining year and nine months. Thus, by working with a trainer, I could have saved months of going to the gym and doing things improperly.
• Therapy and Career Coaching - I’ve taken therapy in the past and also started consulting with a career coach recently. With the help, if I can gain more clarity about my future career path, it would save me months or even years of being at places that are not a good fit. Same for therapy. If it helps you process a bad situation sooner, it will lead to vastly saved time in the future.
• Basically investing in learning something in a structured way with external help would considerably save time.

The hope is that this saved time amounts to a much fuller life in the future. Time will be scarcer, so every time saved would be valuable.

Read related article - The value of time