I see too many people living like there's no tomorrow; driving new cars, living in a house they can't really afford, going on frequent expensive vacations (because they deserve it). Most of them will be on the work-til-you-die retirement plan.

I got the very strong impression that was my Exes goal. I was to work and pay and she would get that life.

Worst part is now she wants to go back to Turkey to visit (her home country) to visit family for a few weeks being she has not been there in ~3 years since I flew her and her/our daughter there for three weeks. The last time she brought it up I told her if I could go I would pay for my and kiddos tickets plus travel expenses and pay for renting a good vehicle to get around with while there too if I could come with. ~$5000 - $7000 outlay on my part and all she would have to do is pay her ticket and misc expenses while there. ~$1400 - $1600.

She makes over $50K a year on a 40 hour a week job and can't swing her part of the trip expenses and by her definitions I am the lazy ass who doesn't have a job or money!

 

I got the very strong impression that was my Exes goal.

You keep reminding me of my Ex. Three times the cash flow I had and owed more to her credit cards every month for 10 years.
She actually thought that when I sent our money to her credit card companies each month, I was stealing the money from her.
She never figured out that she stole the money from herself every time she whipped out the plastic.

 

Patent research and writing of applications: $250/hr

Creating designs and writing for magazines: $0.75/hr

A huge dynamic range.

I cannot put a price on time with my children (rare these days), time with my girlfriend, and working out my ideas with respect to electronics.

 

I cannot put a price on time with my children (rare these days), time with my girlfriend, and working out my ideas with respect to electronics.

For everything else... there's credit cards...

 

I cannot put a price on time with my children (rare these days), time with my girlfriend, and working out my ideas with respect to electronics.

My wife only lets me do 2 out of those 3 things.

 

Many of those who take the shooting sports seriously hand load their own ammunition. This may be for a number of reasons ranging from making the most accurate ammunition for a specific rifle to saving on the cost of ammunition. When figuring cost of hand loading ammunition we can figure the cost of brass, smokeless powder, the primer and the bullet. Essentially all of the components involved in making ammunition. There are people who actually try to make an argument for figuring in their time.

Coming to this lately, so this is in response to the OP and not the subsequent meanderings (several of which are interesting).

The bolded parts are highly relevant. When I was young (starting in 7th grade) I was an avid reloader and I did it for both reasons. Factory loads at the time absolutely sucked, particularly Remington (Winchester Western was much better, but nowhere near the quality of my reloads). But we also didn't have much money, so we simply could not have afforded to shoot as much as we did (I put over 1000 rounds through my dad's .264 Win Magn in one summer) were it not for reloading. The lowest savings were 50% on .30-30 and the highest was on the .264 which saved us over 80%. Those figures didn't include the value of my time since, as a 12 year old, it had very little.

But the main point is that the value of your time has to be placed in the context of the value of the alternative. If you are reloading for the sake of getting accurate ammunition, then the value of your time has to be weighed against the value of accurate ammunition to you. So in that case you might not take it into account at all. The same would be true if you reload because you enjoy doing it or the results of having done it. But if you are reloading for the sake of saving money, then the value of your time can be a very relevant factor.

I use two points of view on those occasions when I want to consider the value of my time.

The first is for things I do because they need to be done, not because I want to do them. For that I ask what I could otherwise be doing, at that time, instead that would take its place. Could I actually be doing something else that would bring in enough money to pay for someone else to do the thing that needs to be done? Of, if not, what would the difference be and would I prefer to make it up out of pocket. A similar evaluation considers how much it would cost to have someone else do it so that I can then do something I enjoy instead. Say the oil in the car needs changing but I would rather go to the range and do some shooting. If it would cost an additional $40 to pay someone to change the oil, would I be willing to pay an additional $40 to go shooting? If the answer is yes, then it's time to have someone change the oil. Admittedly, this is a bad example since the amount of my time that it takes to have someone else change my oil can actually be more than if I did it myself since I have to take the car to them and then wait while they get around to doing the work, but you get the idea). A reversal of this viewpoint is when I am considering doing something I don't want to do for the sake of saving money. Back when I was an undergrad I needed to have camber shims installed in my Bronco and the cost to install literally $1 worth of shims was $250. Not doing the work was not a viable option since I had just torn up my tires down to the cord in just a few hundred miles. At the time I was living on $300 a month and so money was extremely tight and I could free up the time. The shop was even willing to loan me the tools to do the work. So the guy explained what I needed to do and I asked myself what my response would be if someone offered me $250 to put those shims into their truck. I quickly concluded that I would tell them to go fly a kite, at which point I found a way to make the $250 to have them install the shims.

The second is for things I do because I want to be doing them but have other things to do, including things that I should be doing, instead. In this case I asked how much someone would have to pay me in order to get me to do something else. If I'm playing with electronics and having a good time, would I be willing to set it aside if someone offered me $100 to do so. Sometimes the answer would be yes and sometimes it would be no -- that serves as an indication of how much value I place on being able to do that activity at that moment in my life.

 

My wife only lets me do 2 out of those 3 things.

You just need to set your foot down and explain to her how important electronics is to you.

 

I cannot put a price on time with my children (rare these days), time with my girlfriend, and working out my ideas with respect to electronics.

My wife only lets me do 2 out of those 3 things.

For your own health, I strongly suggest you don't try to tell your wife to let you hang out with your girlfriend...

 

An engineer, a philosopher, and an artist were having lunch and the topic turned to whether it was better to have a wife or a mistress. The philosopher preferred the wife because it afforded stability and the opportunity to put down long lasting roots. The artist preferred the mistress because of the mystery, danger, and passion. The engineer stated that he preferred having both. The other two looked at him in shock, "Both?!" To which he pointed out that if he had both, each would assume he was spending time with the other and, consequently, he could get more quality time in at the lab without being disturbed by either.

 

WBahn, many thanks for an enlightening post as well as some humor tossed in. Really good material.

For me a relaxing day spent on the rifle range affords me the same satisfaction that many are afforded playing 18 holes in the morning and a back 9 in the afternoon. I really can't begin to place a monetary value on that time anymore than time spent with my grandchildren.

Thanks
Ron

 

I value my time and make it sure that each day is indeed worthy for myself, family and friends. I manage my time wisely. I'm into balancing it between my work and personal.