World 11 · Wealth, work & life · Lesson 3 of 11

Money and time

You trade time for money and can sometimes trade money for time. Both are limited, only one renews.

6 min read · Level: Practical · Free — no account needed to read

The idea

Time and money are the two resources nearly every choice trades between. Work turns time into money. Spending can sometimes turn money back into time — paying for a shorter commute, help with chores, or a tool that saves hours. But the exchange is uneven: money can be earned again, while time spent is gone for good, and the total amount of time in a life is fixed.

Thinking of costs in hours can be clarifying. If you take home a certain amount per hour, a purchase that costs ten hours of work is worth asking about differently than one costing ten minutes. And some research suggests that spending money to buy time — especially time away from tasks people dislike — is associated with greater wellbeing than spending on more things.

Why it matters

Seeing money as stored time helps you judge purchases, jobs and commutes by what they cost in life, not just in money.

A real example

The situation

Raphael works extra shifts to afford a newer car, which leaves him exhausted and missing time with his children.

What happened

When he calculates the car in hours of work, he realises it costs him most of his free evenings for a year. He keeps his older car and drops the extra shifts.

The takeaway

Counting the cost in hours changed what the purchase was really worth.

How people actually behave

People tend to value money more carefully than time, spending hours to save small amounts while giving little thought to how their time is used.

Common mistakes

• Spending hours to save trivial amounts.
• Forgetting that commuting and extra work cost time, not just earn money.
• Never using money to buy back time from tasks you dislike.

Questions to think about

• What is your take-home pay per hour, roughly?
• What would you do with an extra five hours a week, and what would that be worth to you?

Try it: Price in hours

1. Work out your approximate take-home pay per hour.
2. Express your three largest planned purchases in hours of work.
3. Decide whether each is still worth it at that price.