The Value Proposal (Part 2)

Last week we spoke of the idea around “Life Essense” and how it can help shape our thought process on value. Naturally, the process itself can lead to more frugal decisions, particularly if you don’t love your job. Is that meal membership really worth 5 hours of your life essence? Is a new video game system going to be worth a full week’s worth of work?

This week I want to reverse the idea of life essence in a way that will bring more value into your life. Most of us aren’t going to nickel and dime our way to happiness, let’s explore how to use this framework to establish values.

Let’s continue with the same example we used last week. We added up ALL hours for work related activities, along with ALL expenses due to work. Turns out our above average $80k salary really only pays us $13.34 per hour. 😬 We’ll want to take the time to work on the MFC! (or budget of your choice), to cut down on those expenses that don’t actually bring us that value. For those of us in a rough financial situation, the fixed costs section might need to get skinnier than others. 👀

However, for those of us that have worked our way out of high interest debt and have some level of an emergency fund; I do want to caution against cutting everything down to the bare minimum just because you can. We all have some sort of limitation on funds, but we also have a limitation on time.

We all have 24 hours per day. So, we are spending 67 hours per week on work related activities (including time for decompression), which means 13.4 hours each weekday. Despite everyone I know who has sleep issues 🤪, let’s give ourselves a full 8 hours of sleep per night. We are now looking at 2 hours 36 minutes per day. Figure 90 minutes for cooking/eating dinner and/or a bit of cleaning around the house. Mind you, the extra hour for relaxing might not be needed every day, but let’s roll with it for now.

We have one hour 5 days a week to play with. ONE HOUR! How do you want to use this one hour each day? Maybe one day a week you spend it at the grocery store, and another day spend it on cleaning the bathroom, and the next day do a week’s worth of laundry. Then we can get into the weekend completely free!

Personally, I spend an hour each day throughout the week on personal development (reading books, researching ideas, working on new processes, etc.) and leave all those errands for Saturday, but the choice is yours! Guard your free time with your life!

Depending on your situation, it might make sense to outsource some of the things that are sucking up your time. This would be considered only after tackling the major financial concerns in our life and generally have some financial leeway. It’s a privilege to be in the position to consider this for most; and should be treated as such.

Keeping with the same theme, we are paid $13.34 per hour. If we happen to find a wash and fold service for our laundry that costs $15 per week, it could free up one hour per week for us! Now we have 6 full hours per weekday (not even getting into the weekend yet) to spend time doing something we love or will benefit us in the long run. Start working on that side gig to bring in extra cash, consider getting that next certification that can justify a raise at work, or take that time to work on your craft to make you a more viable option for that next promotion!

Whatever you do with this extra hour, please don’t spend it mindlessly scrolling on social media or spend an extra hour watching TV. Time and money are limited resources. If we are buying back our time, spend that time on something productive, or on something we absolutely love to do!

That vacation you are planning is going to cost you 2 weeks of “life essence,” is it worth it? Maybe it is! Maybe it is without a single doubt in your mind the greatest use of those funds. To that I say go for it! Sometimes life experiences compound early on at a greater rate than the invested dollar.

Naturally, you’ll want to be sensible with how much you are spending on new adventures. In my experience, there are very few things worth going into debt for (even at a low interest rate). No sense in mucking up your future fixed costs with past experiences. Allocate some of your freedom $ now to a “travel savings bucket” so that you can actually have fun on the trip instead of wondering how you’ll pay for it the whole time.

Knowing that $13.34 equals one hour of our time helps make these value questions a bit easier. In this case, buying a new vase for $100 feels pretty silly if the actual trade is 7.5 hours of work! Not to mention however much those flowers are going to cost! Or maybe having that vase with new flowers once a month is going to put your mind in a place to be more productive, thus raising the value of said vase.

Flying to a random city on a whim without any due diligence might cost $2,000. Hell, traveling is one of our core values, right? Ehhh, not really. If the trip costs $2,000, that means it really costs us 149.92 working hours, or (in keeping with 67 hours of work per week) 2.23 weeks of work. Not a real gamble I’d take on a flyer honestly, but absolutely worth it if you have done the research and still want to go!

Spending time with friends and family? We don’t always have to go out to a nice restaurant, or an expensive event to spend time with those that we love. Host a potluck, a board game night, have a picnic at a local park, or better yet find a volunteer activity and invite everyone to come along! There are a ton of free or near free ways to get fulfillment in this area.

Everyone’s core values are going to differ; thus, everyone has a different value system to base their purchases on. Utilizing the template for life essence can be a little disheartening at first for some, but it sure helps identify where to spend wisely!

Don’t forget, we all have 24 hours in a day to play with. Do your best to utilize the limited free time you have with either things you love to do, or in a way to better your future self. A good coach can help in this area if struggling and never be afraid to ask successful people in your life for advice.

Stay classy Solos! ✌️