Comments on: How Much Does It Cost In Life Energy?

By: Bob

Bob — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 22:52:37 +0000

YMOYL is a great book and I like the life energy idea. Regarding the car oil change, you have to look at your net pay/real hourly earnings. (Of course the explanation in the book is more detailed. ) Gross hourly pay- social security and taxes and expenses of working. So the $20 oil change costs you surprisingly more life energy than you would guess from your gross pay. OTOH, if you hate doing it and don’t mind paying more you should go ahead!

By: Earning More or Spending Less? Plus Helpful Financial Guides

Earning More or Spending Less? Plus Helpful Financial Guides — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 17:59:49 +0000

[...] Frugal Dad: How Much Does It Cost In Life Energy? [...]

By: marci

marci — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:36:10 +0000

Kristy – if you have 460 @ $15 each, and $15 equals one hour’s take home pay – then you have 460 hours tied up in the collection. At 40 hr/wk, thats 11.5 weeks of work, or over 2.5 months. If it’s important to you, then that still may be fine.

By: Kristy @ Master Your Card

Kristy @ Master Your Card — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 05:21:08 +0000

This is an interesting perspective, and one I’ve never really given any thought to, not having read the book. To break this down into what’s important to me, I’d have to look at my DVD collection. I have roughly 460 (thanks to a recent spending binge where I bought 10 of them). I’ll average the cost at around $15 a piece, some were more and some were less; but, a nice average is about $15. My real take home is about $15 give or take, so that’s 30.6 hours of work for my entire collection. To me, that’s not a bad way to spend my time. First, I really do like my job, so it isn’t a bad thing to go in to work. But second, I love movies. Since I want to write screenplays, I’ve always considered this collection an investment in my future. As such, I don’t really see this as a waste of my time or money. But, there are other things I could use this thought process with and I’m sure it would change my opinion on whether or not to buy it.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 02:58:34 +0000

I make this kind of calculation in my head fairly frequently.
Once I put things in perspective of how many hours of my job it will take to pay them off, the decision for me is to frequently not spend my money.

By: Isabelle

Isabelle — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 08:06:53 +0000

Sorry, I forgot to say that my husband started to work out how long he had to work to pay for things about five years ago when we started to be frugal – it was often quite an eye opener.

His favourite is how long he would have to work to bridge the gap between a new car and a two year old car, which is what we buy.

It really sharpens the mind to know how long has to be done to buy something ‘fancied’ rather than needed!

By: Isabelle

Isabelle — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 08:01:30 +0000

There is a Yorkshire saying ‘a penny saved is a penny earned’, it is absolutely true.

About five years ago we started to live frugally, having no debt we started ‘clean’ as it were. That was when I started caring for my mother and slowed down my work to almost nil over the time – I was self-employed. Two years later when we had time to put our heads above the parapet, we had saved about a third of our income. We could hardly believe it, but there the money was.

Spending a few pounds here and a few pounds there adds up to a whole lot of money.

Debt is slavery, but the inability to stop spending comes near.

By: Epicview

Epicview — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 05:45:34 +0000

Great article! Another great tool to help us resist the urge of those frivolous purchases and to remain frugal. Just asking myself if the new DVD or gizmo is worth the hour of work it takes to earn it helps put things in perspective.

By: Jill

Jill — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 04:04:10 +0000

I’m so glad you wrote about this. I also enjoy the same book – well written and so thought provoking. What I have been having a hard time with lately is helping my children understand this concept of life energy. I know it takes time to learn something new, and 10 – 13 years of being able to ask and be provided with many things they ‘need’ will take a while to undo.

By: MyMoneyMyLife

MyMoneyMyLife — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 03:27:24 +0000

It is good to put things back into perspective for people. Time really is money, and a lot of the time the trade off isn’t worth the minor Financial returns.