What is your time worth?

at one point in my life, I worked out that my time was worth $X amount per hour (I want to say $20). And I would base all time vs. money decisions off of that. I did that for a few years until I determined that it was a complete waste of effort.

Now I just go with gut feel.

For me, it's a matter of choices, and when I can do certain things.

For example, right after the kids go to bed, it's not uncommon for my wife and I to spend maybe 30-45 min doing work-related stuff. For her it's grading papers, for me it might be research on a tax issue, writing a bid proposal, researching a potential new client, working on meeting prep, developing a presentation, etc.

But, we still close the laptops after about 45 min and spend the rest of the evening together. I don't care how much additional work I could get done, it's not worth it.

Now take something like cutting the grass. I have not cut my own grass in years. I pay a guy $35 to do it. If I did it, it would take up 2-3 hours of my time, plus the cost of gas, equipment, etc. I'd rather spend those 2-3 hours with my family.

I actually value my free time more than I get paid. I plan to work a very long time, and burning out now would be quite the impediment to that.

For a salaried employee, divide the salary by 2080 to get the hourly rate. This is how my company pays salaried employees. You get paid 8hrs for every weekday in the pay period. Pay periods are 1st-15th and 16th-EOM.

My free time is worth double my hourly rate at work.

What my time is worth depends on the reasoning I'm even contemplating the question. Something extremely tedious or something I hate doing, then I won't hesitate to pay someone else to do it even if it cost more than what I am paid at the office on an hourly basis.

A lot less than I think it is