Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Paying With Time
300 Plays3 years ago
In this episode’s Simple Step, we’re talking about the power of thinking about your spending through the lens of time. How many work hours does it take to cover that car payment, the grocery store visit, or that bocce ball set your spouse is certain you will lose your passion for in a few weeks? And perhaps on the other side, are you getting joy from the time you’re trading to get these things? It’s possible!
Enjoy this week’s episode, do the exercise, and let us know what interesting things you found out by shooting us an email at podcast@uncommonwealth.com.
Recommended
Transcript
Defining an Uncommon Life
00:00:02
Speaker
Everyone dreams about living an uncommon life, but how we define that dream is very different for each of us. And for most, it's a lifelong pursuit.
Purpose of the Podcast
00:00:11
Speaker
Welcome to the Uncommon Life Project podcast. We're going to introduce you to people who are living that life or enjoying the journey to get there. We're going to also give you some tools, tricks, and tips for starting or accelerating your own efforts to live an uncommon life.
00:00:27
Speaker
A life worth celebrating and savoring.
Meet the Hosts
00:00:30
Speaker
Please welcome your hosts, Brian Dewhurst and Philip Ramsey.
00:00:35
Speaker
Hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode of your favorite show, The Uncommon Life Project. Might not be your favorite show. I don't know. But thanks for turning in. This is Phillip Ramsey. And I'm Aaron Kramer. Thanks for tuning in.
Reframing Expenses as Work Hours
00:00:47
Speaker
This is a simple step. It's five minutes. We got to go quick, because we got a lot. Here's the overall concept. I think it is powerful to start thinking about things, at least for a week, in terms of hours. How much things cost in terms of hours that you work
00:01:03
Speaker
For example, let's just say you make, you know what you make. Yeah, we can do that, but let's do work, like if you work at, I don't know, $22 an hour is what you make. You go to the store or you go out to eat. You take you and your spouse,
00:01:19
Speaker
And it's $22. You spent an hour working to go out on the date. Like, oh, maybe great. Well spent. Okay. The interesting thing is when people are salaried, right? How much do you actually make an hour? And are you really being true to the hourly work? Usually people work a lot longer.
00:01:36
Speaker
when their salaries and they get paid less. But for this purpose, we have to start helping people drive it
Align Spending with Core Values
00:01:43
Speaker
down. Cause my call to you and Aaron's call to you today is think about how much you, how much you make per hour and then start thinking about how much things cost in terms of time. Yes. That's the challenge. I think it brings you so close to like your core values in life, making sure what you're spending, you really care about.
00:02:02
Speaker
It's so true. Okay. So here's the deal. If you make a hundred thousand dollars, this is how we came up with this calculation. There's 52 weeks in the year and normally people work 40 hours a week. So that's just the assumptions we're making, but people don't always work 52 hours. We're assuming they have two weeks paid vacation and then two weeks for like per like company holidays or something. Now, if that's not right, we'd have to do something. So 48 work weeks in the year.
00:02:31
Speaker
and 40 hours a week. So that turns into 1,920 hours a year that you're working. That's a lot of time. 1,920 hours, yep. And if you get paid $100,000, you take $100,000 divided by 1,920.
00:02:49
Speaker
$52 an hour. Yep. Very interesting. So you can do the math, figure out how much you're making and then take that and divide it by 1920. That's your hourly wage. Okay. So for this example, we'll just say that you're getting paid $52 an hour. It's actually $52 and eight cents. We'll just say $52 an hour.
Time-Cost Calculation Examples
00:03:08
Speaker
So what are things like, just think about it. You go to the grocery store, you spent $200. That's.
00:03:13
Speaker
3.8 hours, but yeah, four hours, half four hours, four hours you're spending. You go, you have a, let's say car payment, car payment, $500. Let's go with, yeah. So over a day that you have to work for that car payment in the month, 9.6, it's more than one day. It's very interesting.
00:03:28
Speaker
Okay, then, I don't know, what else is there? Let's think about mortgage. Oh yeah, good one. Yeah, like I don't know, average mortgage, $2,000. $2,000 with like taxes and insurance. Yeah, all that in there. It took almost a work week, 38.46 hours. Gosh, isn't that interesting? One week to just pay. Or like I just took my kids out and we had a shake. We just shared one shake. It was $7.50. Think about that. That's like, okay, 10 minutes I spent.
00:03:58
Speaker
to buy the shake.
Do You Enjoy Your Job?
00:03:59
Speaker
Now, what you said at the beginning is it really puts things in perspective. Are you spending money that's valuable time for you or not? Yes. Right? But here's, I guess, my challenge to you. When you start thinking about things in hours, things start getting in perspective quickly, like you said. So much. Then you really have to think of, do you even like what you're doing vocationally? That's a really important question. Because you're spending, we all have bills. You might as well enjoy what you're doing to make the money to go pay the bills.
00:04:27
Speaker
Now we're talking about an uncommon path.
Challenge: Think in Hours Worked
00:04:30
Speaker
So that's our challenge to you. Start thinking about things in time. Do the exercise. I know it's kind of hard. It's kind of clunky. Figure out how much you get paid an hour and for one week, start thinking in your head how many hours it took for you to buy something. Get it. It's going to be so great.
00:04:47
Speaker
It is. And we stayed under five minutes. Feel pretty good about that. All right. Well, Hey, you've been tuning in. I hope this encourages you on your own uncommon path. That's what we want to try to do is try to get you down there, get down the path. We appreciate you guys until next time. Go be in common.
Encouragement and Resources
00:05:01
Speaker
You've been listening to the uncommon life project. I've been your host, Phillip Ramsey. Have a good day.
00:05:08
Speaker
That's all for this episode of The Uncommon Life Project, brought to you by Uncommon Wealth Partners. Be sure to visit uncommonwealth.com to learn more about our services. Don't miss an episode as we introduce you to inspiring people who are actively pursuing an uncommon life.