Everyday is a bank account, and time is our currency. No one is rich, no one is poor, we’ve got 24 hours each. –Christopher Rice
DISCLAIMER: The content provided on this blog is for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views expressed are solely those of the author(s) and do not constitute financial advice. Readers should not consider any information on this blog as a substitute for professional financial, investment, or legal advice.
Any actions taken by the reader based on the information provided on this blog are taken at their own risk. The author(s) and/or publisher(s) of this blog will not be held responsible for any losses, damages, or consequences that may arise from following the information, advice, or suggestions mentioned herein.
Please consult with a qualified financial professional before making any financial decisions.
How much is our time worth?
Take a second and truly think about it. If you had to put a dollar amount on your time, what would it be?
If you are feeling brave, you can also share it in the comments below. I’ll share mine at the end of this post.
In an article by EMPOWER (Time is Money), 2,204 people were polled and on average, they said their time was worth $240 an hour.
For a traditional 40-hour work week that would be just under $500k a year ($240 * 8 hours * 52 weeks = $499,200).
I think about this from a business perspective where we have a buyer and a seller. We as employees are selling our time to a business that can satisfy a buyer. The business pays us X dollars in exchange for Y time. They use our time to sell products and services to make a profit, reinvest, give back, etc.
There is a huge difference between a $500k perceived salary and the average salary in the US of $59,384. That would make the average person’s working hourly rate $28.34/hour (Forbes Average Salary By State In 2024).
But what about the other 16 hours a day? Most of us are generating $0 for those hours and using those non-income-generating hours to relax, go shopping, spend time with family, or work on tasks. If we expand our average salary to include a full 24 hours a day, our hourly rate would be $6.78 ($59,384 / 24 hours a day / 365 days a year).
The reason I bring this topic up, we’ll be diving into several posts about how we cut and saved thousands of dollars a year in our expenses.
- Shopping
- Utilities
- Food
- Car
- Health and Beauty
But, there is always a trade-off. How much time did it take to save that amount of money?
If we invested an hour’s worth of our time and only saved $5, then maybe it wasn’t worth it.
If we invested an hour’s worth of our time and saved $5 every month, then maybe it was worth it. Having a defined dollar amount gives us this metric.
This topic also makes me think of the quote from Warren Buffet,
“If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.”
If the average American just needs $6.78 per hour to live, what are some ways we can generate that money that doesn’t require us to work 24 hours a day?
Going back to the post where I detailed our early retirement strategy, I said we would need $50k to live off of without a mortgage, after taxes. Taxes are an interesting topic when it comes to living off investments, but that is a separate post for a separate day. Let’s put that one on hold and assume a traditional income-generating employee who is filing jointly, married couple, using the standard deduction, $30k in 2025, and not including 401k or employer-provided health insurance. That would total $52k per year not including state tax (($50k – $30k standard deduction) * 10% tax bracket for making less than $23,850 as a married couple filing jointly = $2k in taxes). That would make Anna’s and my hourly rate $2.97 ($52k / 2 people / 24 hours / 365 days).
My final parting thought, if the average person does value their time at $240 per hour, when they place their head on their pillow at night, would they be willing to Venmo the “social media department” for the amount of time spent on social media each day? Was it time well spent?
