Personal Finance Friday - What is Your Time Worth?

I struggle with this question personally. I know what I make at work, and some people consider that what their time is worth, but that is definitely not how I live my life. If I thought each hour was worth say the average hourly wage in the US of say $26, would I really spend 2 hours watching TV at night? $52 worth of time... Say my time was only worth $10 an hour, would I spend the $20 watching TV? Maybe.

I think it’s useful to think about things a little like that... What is your time outside of work worth to you? Maybe a way to value it is, how much would you spend to have 1 hour of free time? Seriously, try to come up with an actual number. I think mine is worth maybe $10 - 20 an hour. Is that a good number? Honestly probably not, I should probably value it much higher.

At least having a number can give you a different perspective on things. Is that event worth the dollar value? Is wasting your 1 hour on Facebook worth what you just paid for in your time? Saying I wasted 1 hour on something meaningless seems like just another thing, saying you wasted $20 kind of makes it hurt more!

I'm always struggling with how I spend my time. I feel like I could be much more efficient and thoughtful about it. Time is precious, it’s good to enjoy things and that’s worth something, but make sure your really enjoying it and it’s not just something to waste an hour on. If you want to spend an hour then at least spend it on something that will build up your life in someway. Investing an hour just like dollars is a super important part of making a better life.

Your time is worth something, make sure you are getting value out of it!