Punching the clock

Finding out what your time is worth, and other things

One of the concepts in Your Money or Your Life (covered in the last issue of the newsletter) is the idea of your true hourly wage. You take your salary and the value of your benefits, subtract taxes and the costs of working (commuting costs, coffee, lunches, clothes, childcare, pet care, therapy), then divide that by the number of hours devoted to your job (including commuting time). The book’s author says to compare this to your “life energy”, but I prepare to compare it to the best alternative.

Knowing your hourly wage is vital for successful freelancing, and it’s important to making career choices. I pay all of my taxes (including FICA) and benefits, as well as buy my own supplies and equipment. I need to charge more per hour than an employee to cover the higher costs, and to offset the time that I spend marketing. Before I take an assignment, I think about how much research is involved, how many revisions will be required, and whether the client is likely to have more work for me in the future.

Understanding wage rates helps for figuring out if different money savings activities are worth it. For example, I spend about five minutes a week going through my grocery store’s app, clipping the coupons. This saves close to $20 a week. The value of my effort is $240 an hour, tax free, which is totally worth my time. If I were a big-deal partner at a big-deal law firm, it would not be worth it.

Take some time this week to figure out your hourly wage and how that compares to alternatives, especially if you aren’t happy with what you’re doing or how much you’re making now.

Other things to do this week:

Things to Read

• Fight FOMO spending: A subscriber sent me this link, with advice for how to spend less money on things that you don’t really care about—except that they help you feel like you fit in. It’s a common problem. (Bloomberg)

• Fight an earworm: Whether you’ve been Rickrolled or just subjected to a few too many Empire carpet commercials, it can be hard to get a song out of your head. Science has a solution! (Wired)

• More ChatGPT ideas: Chat GPT can do more than you conquer earworms. I just found this website that collects prompts. See if any help you. Also, this feels a lot like the early days of the commercial Internet, when my employer encouraged us to include interesting websites in our research reports. (ThePromptIndex.com)

Things to Do

• Ditch your printer: In January, my printer finally died, and I decided to see how long it would take before I missed it. It’s July, and I still haven’t replaced it. I send things to the FedEx Office near me for those rare occasions when I want a hard copy. You, too, may be able to get rid of your printer and all its frustration. (Washington Post)

Things to Hear

• 100% Endurance: This song came out last year, and we all need to hear it. Gimme that good stuff, that human spirit.