| Always remember that your labor isn't free. It's | | | | The Value of Your Time |
| worth something, sometimes a great deal. The best | | | | Let's say, however, that you do the renovation work |
| example I can give is of my own foolishness. About | | | | only on week¬ends or in the evening or during your |
| 25 years ago I was renovating a home. In it was a | | | | vacation. In other words, you don't really take any |
| big, old, abandoned refrigerator that needed to be | | | | time away from your regular job to do it. Does that |
| removed. Being young and strong at the time | | | | mean your time is free? I don't think so. There is still |
| (headstrong, that is), I decided to remove it myself. | | | | a cost involved. If you weren't renovating, could you |
| I succeeded, at the cost of a hernia, which put me | | | | be taking in other work on the side and making extra |
| out of action for a month—not to mention doctor | | | | cash? Or could you just be sitting on the sofa and |
| and hospital bills. It might have cost me $20 to have | | | | enjoying the television? |
| someone who did that sort of work for a living haul | | | | My own feeling is that although it's difficult to pinpoint |
| the refrigerator out. So how much did it really cost | | | | the exact value of time spent away from your |
| me do it myself? | | | | regular job, that time is still valu¬able. To my way |
| Calculating Your "Wages" | | | | of thinking, the only realistic way to bill it is at your |
| How much is your own work done on a renovating | | | | regular hourly rate. If you are a programmer, even if |
| project worth? The temptation is to say it's not | | | | you aren't tak¬ing time away from your work, you |
| worth anything, because it's done in your spare or | | | | are still worth at least $25 an hour. |
| extra time. Or to say that it's worth so much that | | | | Thus, we arrive at a working wage for you when |
| you can't put a price tag on it. Both claims are | | | | you do your own renovation work. The time you put |
| evasions. Your work is worth something and you | | | | in is worth what you otherwise earn, on an hourly |
| should be able to figure out how much, or pretty | | | | basis, at your regular work. |
| close to it. | | | | I'm sure that some readers are thinking that my |
| The best approach is to think in terms of time, of | | | | method of calcu¬lating "work worth" is arbitrary |
| hours spent, and to calculate what you might | | | | and perhaps even unfair, particular¬ly when it |
| otherwise be doing and how much time (and money) | | | | comes to extra time. Those of you who feel that |
| you are losing by not doing that other job. Let's say | | | | way may be right. But I would argue that, if I'm |
| that you're a computer programmer and that you | | | | erring, it's probably on the side of not claiming |
| gross about $1000 a week. (You might actually make | | | | enough! |
| much more, or less. We're just picking an arbitrary | | | | How much is time spent away from the family |
| figure.) Your hourly wage is $25. | | | | worth? How much are you willing to sell your extra |
| If you have to take any time at all away from work | | | | time for? Shouldn't it be sold for more than regular |
| for the renova¬tion, you should bill yourself at $25 | | | | time spent at work? After all, aren't you worth more |
| an hour. If you work at renovat¬ing in the evening | | | | when you work for yourself than when you work |
| and this causes you to be tired and sluggish at your | | | | for someone else? |
| regular job, resulting in errors or lost time or clients, | | | | My point here is that most people terribly underrate |
| you should bill that evening's work at $25 an hour. It's | | | | the value of their work. Chances are your time spent |
| taking time away from your regular job in the worst | | | | on a renovation project is worth far more than you |
| possible way. | | | | think. |