A few weeks back, I wrote about my efforts to try and calculate what my time is worth. Thankfully, I just read an article in Real Simple magazine about quick and easy way to estimate the value of time. To get a ballpark idea of how much your time is worth, cut the last three zeros off your annual salary and then divide the number in half. For example, if you earn $40,000 a year, you would take 40 and divide by 2 to get a time value of $20 per hour. So now, when considering a $40 purchase, you can ask yourself if it is worth 2 hours of your work.
Obviously, there are a number of factors left out of this equation, such as the number of hours you work and the value of benefits. While this little exercise isn’t perfect, it can be a good reminder of how hard your work for your money.