“I don’t know, I feel guilty about hiring a housekeeper. It’s expensive. But I work all week and then end up spending an entire weekend day on housework. It seems like half of my weekend is just spent cleaning and getting the house in order.”
The person they were talking to chimed in: “We’ve had a housekeeper for a few years now. Best decision we made. They come in with a crew of four or five and get the whole house done in an hour or two. I don’t have to worry about it anymore.”
This is an actual excerpt from a conversation I overheard the other day. I don’t know the two people talking, so I have no idea about their financial situation, other than that it seemed like they could afford to hire out the work. Not rich, but able to hire it out.
Put a Dollar Value on Your Time for Things You Don’t Like Doing
To help with decisions like this, put a dollar value on your time for things you don’t want to do. Things like cleaning the house, changing the oil, or making minor house repairs.
For example, someone who places a $50-per-hour value on their time would not do any project they don’t want to do for less than $50 an hour. Going back to the intro example, if a housekeeper charges $200 to clean the whole house and it would take you five hours, your dollar-per-hour value is $200 divided by five, or $40 per hour. That’s under your $50-per-hour threshold, so you would hire it out.
If there were a home project you didn’t really want to do (but were capable of doing) that would cost $300 to hire out and that you could do in three hours, that’s $100 per hour, so you would do it yourself.
You Decide Your Threshold/Dollar-Per-Hour Amount and Then Live by It
$50 per hour is just an example. You decide your dollar-per-hour amount. It could be $25 per hour, $100 per hour, $500 per hour, or anything higher. Then hire out anything that doesn’t meet the threshold.
For things you want to do and are capable of doing, this doesn’t apply. But for the things you don’t want to do, assign a dollar-per-hour amount to your time and then figure out whether the task meets your time-versus-money calculation.
