I like your articles, however I find this statement to be emotionally loaded. Different people have different concepts of what an enormous debt hole is. Does this mean that those who are over thirty and have debt should think in this way?

It hardly seems like a proactive way of thinking. More down the “life is hard, and will be hard” stream. I suspect that at least a reasonable portion of your readers may be here to learn how to be better – not to commit themselves to a psychology of “digging” out of a hole for the rest of life after thirty.

More to the point for me is that I have no “salary” as a SAHM, unless I were to call it what I used to make or could make if I went back to work. Those feel-good calculations that went around a while back about the value of a Chief Cook & Bottle Washer at home being over $100 grand were good for a smile, but not much else (what, so my family, which includes me, owes me more than we bring home every week?)

Another way to look at the hourly wage is, I believe, how Amy Dacyzyn explains in The Tightwad Gazette – you start with X frugal activity rather than your day job salary, and determine how long it takes you and how much money it saves you (because those are different for everybody). Multiply it to an hour, and tada, that’s the hourly wage for that activity. Then, you can decide if it’s worth doing.

I know it takes a LOT of savings to get me to do something I hate, but something I enjoy as a hobby (super-shopping) will take less (although it usually doesn’t – I kicked so much butt at CVS today that I want to shout it from the rooftops!!! They might as well have given me cash to haul stuff out of there. Ah, good times!)

What slowed you down?

Trent from seven months ago can wash a plastic bag in six seconds and so:

“the total hourly rate for washing those Ziploc bags is $120.”

From http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/11/29/simple-frugality-by-the-hourly-rate/

If I have $200 in July once I’ve paid bills and funded savings, and a lanscaping job takes four hours, then I’d want to hire a lanscaper who charges less than $50 per hour. I’m no Will Hunting, but I think that makes sense…maybe.

I don’t mean to say that there isn’t a value to your free time, just that it isn’t tied to your salary. In fact, it is often the opposite, since higher paid workers often work less hard than the lower paid ones.

And no matter how much money you have, a bargain is still a bargain. It feels good to get a bargain.

I disagree on some points though. I think there are a lot of “closet” wealthy folks who do not pay anyone to do things for them. I think that is one of the signs of wealth…. that you don’t spend you money paying for things you can do yourself for free (although I DO get the concept of it not truly being free if you make so much an hour, etc. etc.)

I also decided long ago, that I will do all I can to save, be thrifty and build wealth, but not at the expense of having a fulfilling life. I think it was on GRS that I read about a man who was a millionaire having never made more than min. wage, but he lived like a caveman. Fine for him, but I would rather enjoy some things now even if it means never getting to that million dollar mark. I am not going to do without at least a few things that I enjoy (like I just bought a Wii Fit for example… had a $20 coupon though!!!) My husband and I made this decision together. We will do all we can to build wealth, but we will also enjoy some things NOW rather than later. I know that will set up back a bit more but to me it is worth it. I guess I probably fall in the middle of the continuum.

BTW, I find it very hard to place a value on an hour of my time. It is not nearly as simple as dividing my income by total hours worked, because one extra hour of work does not yield a predictable increase in income. The only case where that would be really truly is manual type work like factory production. IMHO.