Who wants to be worth $8400 an hour?

[Shift]

I went ahead and did an experiment in October. The plan was to save/earn an extra $1000. I ended up saving $920, almost reaching my goal. Got lazy halfway through the month and stopped trying to earn more.

Here's the breakdown:

Busting my ass on eBay = $220. Hours spent researching, listing, packing, shipping, and communicating with customers. If I take into account what I paid for those items, I profited about $40. Take the hours into account and you're looking at $10/hour.

Two automatic transfers = $700. I get paid monthly, my wife gets paid bi-weekly. I set one up for my check ($400), two for hers ($150 each). The only difference between this month and last month is that there was less disposable income. We shopped less, made more meals at home, and used what we had. To save that $700, it took me five minutes. If I translate that into an hourly rate, it would be $8400/hour.

I just wanted to put that into perspective. I've spent a lot of time in this past year, working online during the evenings and weekends, trying to make some side income. Earning $100 meant a lot of work. Meanwhile, I could have had $700 a month by doing NOTHING.

Psychology, baby. Use it to your advantage.

[chadcharlie]

Yeah,
I completely agree. Summer of 2010 I started real estate brokering on the side in NYC. I matched my normal salary income of 7,000 a month, doubling my earned income that summer, BUT I had to work 4 times as hard for it, on top of my day job obligations, (being a RE Agent is being one busy hustler in the beginning!) and my free time went to zero, if not less by counting lost sleep.

My relationships suffered, the performance at my primary job slumped, I dropped three classes I was taking on the side, I neglected fitness and gained weight, I ate poor since I was always on the go, and didn't keep my "house" in order...it was a whole lot of negative sacrifice for extra cash that I spent a large portion of on advertising. A fool's proposition.

I moved recently and found myself tight on cash as an effect. I thought about picking up a side job again but then quickly expelled the idea! I've learned. There are better things I can do with time availabe It's chronicled here in the same fashion of breaking down $ per time and effort:
Chad Tabary is too good for your♥job! - The Blog Of Chad Tabary - This Blue Couch

Thanks for sharing! People forget about the value of time...especially important if you have current income that sustains you and provides for extra creative time!

Take care,
Chad.

[clove]

I really have no idea what OP is talking about.

[CoolBee]

I think basically he is saying him and his wife decided to save $700 out of their month's paychecks by setting up an automatic deduction from their checking account so they didn't have to make the decision every month.

So, basically, they have sufficient money to be able to set aside $700 a month between them so long as they cut back on expenditure.

So, actually physical act of setting up the automatic deduction = 5 minutes of time.

Because the $700 is gone, they are compelled to cut back on expenditure to meet that 'loss' if they don't want to go into debt for it.

So, having met that goal: $700 in 5 minutes work equates to $8400 per hour.

Great if you have $700 spare money every month! Not so great if your entire monthly income is less than $700!

I do know people who have used a similar method to accrue savings: they take £1000 on their credit card and put into a savings account and then pay off the credit card over a few months. Because they MUST pay off the credit card, the savings is made. OK, so it's one of those psych-illogical tricks humans play and OK so they lose out in theory on the interest/fees paid on the credit card BUT after say 6 months they have £1000 savings they wouldn't otherwise have and have paid off the card. So, each to their own as to their choice of method. I have been tempted to try this method myself but have no need at present!

On the basis of the OPs calculations, then I am worth a lot more per hour than him

Problem is, I only get about 0.5 hour work a year at that rate LOL

[Shift]

Lol, ya, it's kind of a different way of putting it. I wondered if it would motivate people more than the standard, "Here's a bunch of tips to save you $1000 a year!".

Consider as well that although not everyone has $700 to put away each month (I sure as hell didn't think I could), you might be able to put away $500 or $250 or $100. I'm talking about money that just kind of slips away had you not done that.

I highly recommend that you don't just say, "Ya right... I'm doing all I can!". For the love of Pete, try it. I did it as the ultimate challenge and it turns out I can easily continue it. Maybe some people out there will find the same thing.

[Ceoarob]

Originally Posted by clove

I really have no idea what OP is talking about.

[clove]

CoolBee explained it. Read the thread.

[MariconesUnited]

Took me a while to figure out what this thread is about

I get it now

Shift...You're doing a common 9-to-5er mistake. You can't multiply those 15 minutes. It's just a one time thing. I know it feels good to say you're worth 8400$/hour, but the reality is that it's not what's happening. Some people think I get paid well for the same reason. They think they can multiply my income for each contract (self-employed) into 40 hour weeks. The reality is much different. Trust me I can feel the difference

[Shift]

Feels good enough to me to continue doing it

It's just a reframe, based on the idea of loss aversion. For many people, saving money feels like a loss. They're losing their freedom, their disposable income, whatever. For a while there, I was happier making about $5/hour than I was with this system. Losing was bad, and any gain was better than losing.

I kind of expected people to scoff at the thread title, considering I'm not making $8400/hour consistently. I figured out of all these people trying to make extra cash, some of them would be able to implement this system.