Your time is worth less (or more) than you think it is.

Time is a funny thing.  

None of us know how much of it we have left.  Once a day is gone, there is nothing you can do to get it back.  We all make decisions about how to spend our time.  Work, family, hobbies, side hustles, sleep, and entertainment all fight for our attention.  They all call out and try to draw us in.  Choose me, choose me.  You need to make more money don’t you?  You’ve worked hard, you deserve to just vege out for a while.  Everyone needs a hobby.  That new season of Cobra Kai isn’t going to watch itself!

For something so limited and so in demand, it is amazing to me how little effort we put into valuing our time properly.

So How Much Is My Time Worth?

Good question.  

It depends.

I think we can start with some basics which are sufficient in some scenarios, but then I want to take it a step farther to allow you to go a level deeper.  

The starting place for most conversations on the value of your time is the hourly pay rate for whatever you do to earn a living.  If you earn the equivalent of $25 an hour, that’s a good starting point for what an hour of your time is worth.  However it is only that, a starting point.  There are more things we need to take into consideration if we want to truly make the most of our time.

When trying to value your time, I would suggest you also need to consider Opportunity Cost, (or what else you could be spending your time on), and the harder to quantify Enjoyment Value of the activity you are considering.

Let’s talk about Opportunity Cost.  

Whenever I discuss the idea of buying collections, sorting them, and then listing and selling on Sportlots, it is almost a guarantee someone will tell me that the effort isn’t “worth my time”.  I’ll answer a question about how much revenue the site generates for me, and then someone will chime in with the “Yeah, but how much time did you spend on it?” question.  After I respond, I frequently hear something like, “That sounds like a lot of effort.  My time is worth more than that!”

It is a valid question, but a short sighted response in my opinion.

Is your time really worth more than that?  Is it?

From a purely financial perspective, I would suggest that unless you are deciding between another activity which could generate even more money, then no, your time isn’t worth more than that.

Whether its mowing yards or selling cards, if your alternative to a money making activity is to sit on the couch and binge Netflix, then your time is worth less than you think.

In reality, this is a convenient excuse and a rationalization from some who aren’t willing to roll up their sleeves and put in the work necessary to get what they want.  Often times, these same individuals share frustrations about expensive the hobby is and how it must be nice to be able to afford all those cards.  The reality is if you are willing to put in some work, most collectors could create a self sustaining hobby through things like buying and selling and/or content creation.

However, if the alternative to selling on Sportlots is to work overtime at your job that pays even more, or to do another side hustle that is more lucrative, then yeah, it may not be worth your time to grind out profit selling .25 cards to set builders on Sportlots.  My point is you can’t just use how much you make at your “day job” to determine how much an hour of your time is worth for the other 16 hours per day.

“Yeah Mike, but I don’t like doing those types of activities at all!”  Ok, that’s fair.  If we’re talking about optional activities that aren’t required for you to meet your basic needs, then by all means, choose something else to spend your time on.

And that brings me to the second thing I want to talk about.

Enjoyment Value

Not every waking moment can be (or should be) spent working.  There is more to life than money.

Going on a hike with my daughter isn’t going to allow me to retire early.  Gardening with my wife and canning a whole bunch of salsa together isn’t going to pay for that 1968 Topps set I’m working on.  Those activities may not make me any money, but they sure are valuable!

Just because you may not make any money from the time you spend with someone or on some activity, doesn’t mean your time on that activity does not have value.  Yes, I know I just got done saying some people overvalue their time when considering two activities, but it is also possible to undervalue your time.  

There is value to the time spent relaxing.  There is value to the time spent building relationships with friends and family.  The time spent sleeping also pays dividends to everything else we do. 

The Best of Both Worlds?

Honestly, the most challenging part of a conversation about the value of my time spent working on the hobby is the fact that it is the best of both worlds!  For me, Sports Cards are a collision of the financial gain that comes from work and the pure enjoyment I get from buying, selling, and creating content about cards.  I love making money, and I love cards.  Even though my “hourly” on card activities may not always seem like a lot, I feel like there needs to be some kind of “enjoyment premium” added on to get a true value for the time I spend collecting.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to achieving a proper balance in how we spend our time, and acknowledging we own the choices that allow us to set that balance.  The priorities we set for ourselves and through conversations with our families influence where those lines need to be drawn and which activities provide the most value towards achieving those goals.

You can’t complain about not having enough money if at the same time you choose to reject any activity that can make a side income for you.  You can’t complain about deteriorating relationships with your spouse and other family members if you spend all your time digging through piles of cardboard and posting messages on the Blowout Forums.  And you can’t complain about being constantly stressed if you don’t take time to relax.

There is a value to everything we choose to do.  Some of those activities have a financial value, some have an enjoyment value, and some have no value at all.  I want to challenge you to put in the effort to think through these questions and find the balance that is right for you.  

So how much is your time worth?

I started this post by saying “It Depends”.  The good news is, it doesn’t have to.  You control your time and with a little effort can clearly define the value time spent on certain activities provides to you.