Comments on: How You Spend Your Time, How You Spend Your Money

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:54:58 +0000

Ugh. I’m a lawyer. I keep track of what I do — in 6 minute increments — for about 10-14 hours per day. No more!!!

By: Paco

Paco — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:48:45 +0000

Is red beans and rice a great meal for the family?

A truly healthy complete meal for 4 for under 10 bucks, and the simple dollar would be on lifehacker in a second, probably on cookforgood as well. 25 – 50 meals, published in a heartbeat.

By: Diana @ frontyardfoodie

Diana @ frontyardfoodie — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:10:56 +0000

I love doing this. It’s incredible how much materialism has nothing to do with happiness.

Buying needs and enjoying people. That’s the key.

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:35:43 +0000

Hmm…I suppose this means I should invest in a decent bed?

By: littlepitcher

littlepitcher — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:25:30 +0000

Sounds about like my reading time. I spent more than any $200/year on books, even on minimum wage, and would go without everything except food so I could purchase reading. I estimate the computer paid for itself in 2 years on book expenses saved, and the iPod Touch will payback in no more than nine months.

I subscribe to ZNet and PC World’s newsletters. I can choose to read/not read the gadgets columns, while learning free procedures and softwares. Lifehacker-yes, Gizmodo-no.

Currently trying to figure out how to pry myself away from political newsletters which do not pay for themselves and cost me loads of time. This one, though, may take a twelve-step program.

By: ETF

ETF — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:02:13 +0000

I agree with #3 Tyler: It seems like you’ve skipped a step, namely “Look at where you spend the most time and see if that aligns with your values and goals.”

I did something similar, and I realized I spent far too much time surfing the web instead of interacting with other people. I also spend too much time shopping (including window shopping) rather than trying out new and different things offered in my city.

These are not necessarily money saving changes – but if you want to know whether the money you spend is being spent wisely, it is a valuable exercise.

By: Tonya

Tonya — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:51:38 +0000

While I’ve never sat down and made a list of how I spend my time, I’ve certainly given it much thought. That is why I no longer scrapbook and I write instead. I had too much trouble ignoring all the shiny objects vying for my pocketbook. Instead of overloading my son with piles of scrapbooks I can leave him with piles of stories of his memories. I’ve finally learned that photos can be enjoyed in albums just as well as scrapbooks. Now I just have to finish dealing with the clutter left from my abandoned hobby.

By: Walden Pond

Walden Pond — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:26:03 +0000

Thanks, this turns conventional advice upside down! Usually we spend on X to “buy time.” You remind us that when we spend time, we don’t have to buy a lot of X.

By: kristine

kristine — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:16:55 +0000

Very interesting idea! I like the idea of making the money/enjoyment relationship an inverse correlation, yet positive at the same time! In my head I already see it as a graph. Cool.

By: Serena

Serena — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 10:44:07 +0000

What a great idea! I will put this into practice and see what comes of it. Thanks.

By: David/yourfinances101

David/yourfinances101 — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 10:24:58 +0000

I had never seen it put in so many words, but its really true.

If you’re trying to improve financially, why wouldn’t you spend more time on the things that cost less money?

Its like going to the carnival with your children. Woud you rather them go on the roller coaster that costs $3 and last 30 seconds, or sit down for the puppet show that last 30 minutes and costs 50 cents?

By: Tyler WebCPA

Tyler WebCPA — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 02:25:36 +0000

Your time is so much more precious than your money. While money is important, it can be won or lost and yet you will still always have another chance to earn some more. Not so with time, our lives are inherently finite and every minute spent is gone forever. Trent, I think that it is a fantastic idea to weigh your spending in terms of time, just don’t let the tail (money) wag the dog (your time).

By: RobD

RobD — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:52:45 +0000

Carrying the pocket notebook is a great habit to build for other reasons, too…if you could manage this project, you could manage others the same way. I’m notorious in my circles for the notebook, which has expense tracking, reading lists, want lists, grocery lists, and journal entires all jumbled together. Might amuse some historian of the 21st century some day. (-:

By: KM at Long-Distance Life

KM at Long-Distance Life — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:50:44 +0000

Nice article. Lately I’d been feeling like a lot of the posts are just the same few ideas rehashed, so it’s nice to see a new-to-me concept. I think this would be a worthwhile exercise, particularly to uncover areas where you’re, as you said, spending a lot of money but not a lot of time (e.g. buying a $50 video game and then only getting around to playing it for an hour or two each month).

By: Alan

Alan — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:09:44 +0000

Your article makes perfect sense.

I noticed that the more I read Gizmodo/visit the Apple store, the more I spend on gadgets. That’s simply because the more time to expose yourself to being bombarded with “advertisements” the more likely you are to give in to the temptation to buy something!

And in this materialistic world that we live in, how hard is it to swim against the tide of meaningless consumption?

By: PMalik

PMalik — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:08:01 +0000

Though I agree with the idea that a person should evaluate his time spending habits and try to make them more efficient and align them with his goals. I think the conclusion drawn here that “the less money you spend on something and more time you spend on it is the best thing for you to do”. Take for ex, If I spend most of time, watching movies/tv, mostly downloaded from net (so free), it is still not the most productive thing for me to do. Maybe I will fare better spending some money doing a course.

By: Barbara

Barbara — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:48:38 +0000

Brilliant idea!!!! Spending diary is crucial… time diary may be even more important. we can make more money, not more time.

By: Ace of Wealth

Ace of Wealth — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:00:45 +0000

Great idea Trent. I think that this kind of reasoning applies incredibly well to things related to entertainment. Think about the amount of money you will spend on an activity and divide it by the length of time that it will entertain you, and you will quickly see many activities that are wasteful.

By: Tracy

Tracy — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:53:41 +0000

re commment #3: Isn’t it time to stop automatically trashing TV viewing vis-a-vis reading. The value of either depends on many things, not least the quality of the show/reading material. Both offer a lot of trash (by my standards) and some excellent entertainment/enlightenment. Let’s move on.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:44:32 +0000

Don’t unsubscribe from Gizmodo! What about gadget deals of the day?