Huge fan - I’m the guy that has read all your books. I agree with you generally about time vs. money. Time much more important. Disagree with you on pre-made burgers. Way too dense. I create my own out of ground beef and exponentially better and take a few minutes to form. If it’s a party I go pre-made or frozen pre-made, otherwise handmade are just so much better. F&&k the machine - lol.
My dad of 88 years old. Still mow’s his lawn, grows his own garden, cleans his house. He enjoys it. He cut his own wood on his 55 acres of land until he was nearly 70. If he would have held the land, he would have made enough money to have all that work be done by others as that land had fracking rights. But I still think he would be mowing his lawn.
When he comes down to Florida he’s going to help me put in electrical for lighted mirrors. It’s fun father/son time. I don’t care about the money saved, it’s his joy that’s priceless!
It is what you enjoy. I’m blessed having a great dad like that!
The key difference to me, after reading your post Jared ( great fan, btw) is that we should outsource low value activities IF we can use the time gained for high-value activities.
Good point overall. People who focus just on the money saving aspect end up burning time.
And the reverse. However, I think that is inefficient, a bit like an equal weighted index - you get the crap and the cream all in the same box.
Instead, spend money where you want excellence and save money on the rest.
Example. I like nice restaurants. I will pay $300 for a great meal. However, I drive a POS car, literally has the front cowling taped on. Because I don't care about my car-image or cars in general, except as transportation. If I need a nice looking car for an event, I can rent one for a weekend instead of paying $80k over 5 years. Do this across the things you care about and you will have a great lifestyle, within one's income, and not waste money on crap, out of the principle of 'time is money'.
Here's a place to spend time over money that is one of the best investments: exercise and mouth control over food. You will pay it now, or pay it later, no matter what (h/t Fram Oil filters...).
You WILL pay a fortune in health care costs, time -and misery - if you don't pay for good food and health today. Time spent going to a hospital and OT after the stroke or heart attack, or dialysis, learning to drive a wheelchair, etc. is far greater than the time spent in the gym and on healthy food.
Taking a GLP-1 pill is a great intervention. However, if that's all you do, you are no wiser than the man who makes his own coffee to save $5
Sometimes can’t find the % fat of burgers that are premade. Plus I like my burgers much thinner than the pre-made so I gotta fix them anyways. My decision to buy a lump of dead cow has nothing to do with money. It’s the type of meat/shape of burger driving my decision. And I just throw a pair of nitrile gloves on to shape my burgers.
Absolutely recommend taking that pound of ground beef, hand mixing it with a stick of butter (meat AND butter hands) and making the best, juiciest burgers you've ever had in your life.
Hey Jared - you miss a BIG difference between doing it yourself and paying someone else to do it for you. The guy making your burgers, taking care of your lawn or washing your car doesn’t give a flying f*#k if he or she does a good job. The machine doing it cares even less. Yes, time is money but if you have to re-do what is done when you’re not happy with the results, it’s less of a slam dunk - or you can always lower your standards…. (no thanks).
Usually buy pre-made patties, but went for the ground beef the other day to make smash burgers. Delicious and a fun use of the time. But my poor kitchen grill will never be the same.
Like most of your respondents I disagree about the burgers and I used to own a burger chain in the UK. Hand made, fresh each day on the premises from grass fed naturally reared beef was our game.
I still make my own, those machine made ones have additives you don't want to eat and are too dense.
Then again, if I live 3 years longer avoiding those additives, it will probably be 3 years in a nursing home. Best to please oneself.
If it ever takes me that long to make pizza from scratch I will be in trouble. I can cook faster than I can eat out. People don't know how to cook. For the yard, my landscaper does everything I hate, like the automatic watering and I do the rest. The real issue is understanding what is worth doing ourselves and what is not. Reading Jared for years has increased my spending considerably
1-Financial-Depends on what you earn per hour if it’s worth doing yourself (& pride of DYI).
2-Quality-Most “professional” lawn services suck in Atlanta. Charge $$$ and can’t keep Poa Annua (weed which infiltrates
and crowds out even Bermuda grass) from out of lawns. Purchasing “Barricade from Anderson Lawn I do much better than the lawn services. My next door neighbor fired his lawn service 2 years ago and followed my plan.
This sort of framing must be why aristocrats looked down on merchants. The time passes either way. Valuing your time at X dollars means you decide to spend your time based on an ephemeral fact about market demand for two behaviors from non-substitutible actors. It’s irrelevant, and you have to be money-poisoned to make the error.
The question should be what choice lets you spend your time doing what you want to do. And what’s the affective differential between stuff you’re excited about vs not. If you’re a Buddhist monk, maybe not much. And even non-monks enjoy the activities that make up a life outside labor market specialization. And maybe we have some influence on our affective experience of specific activities long term?
There might be a stronger argument for what you’re saying, about time being better spent pursuing great ambitious projects or vocations than performing chores, but that would require the rhetoric of a different class.
You can make much better burgers by hand. Also, quality of the burger meat in most premade patties is lower than the hamburger bought in bulk. When I started making them by hand I received more compliments from my guests. And once you are good at it, it doesn't take long. The fat is easy enough to get off.
“Maybe you just like the feeling of meat in your hands. You can come over to my house anytime.” 😂 Nice.
Huge fan - I’m the guy that has read all your books. I agree with you generally about time vs. money. Time much more important. Disagree with you on pre-made burgers. Way too dense. I create my own out of ground beef and exponentially better and take a few minutes to form. If it’s a party I go pre-made or frozen pre-made, otherwise handmade are just so much better. F&&k the machine - lol.
Jared has clearly never had a hand made an american wagyu burger with a premium seasoning blend and a splash of worcestershire. LOL
Can money buy you a ticket to flavor town? Only if you know a guy.
I can't get the quality of meat I buy premade. My burgers don't fall apart, it is all in how they are shaped. Now I want a burger
Exactly.
The time it took me to read this I could have made $35 but I got a giggle out if it and who's counting
My dad of 88 years old. Still mow’s his lawn, grows his own garden, cleans his house. He enjoys it. He cut his own wood on his 55 acres of land until he was nearly 70. If he would have held the land, he would have made enough money to have all that work be done by others as that land had fracking rights. But I still think he would be mowing his lawn.
When he comes down to Florida he’s going to help me put in electrical for lighted mirrors. It’s fun father/son time. I don’t care about the money saved, it’s his joy that’s priceless!
It is what you enjoy. I’m blessed having a great dad like that!
Al Cheech- Ladiesonfilm
You’re right, time is more than money because you can make more of one but not the other.
Reminds me of a very good, related post I came across from Wealth GPS
https://open.substack.com/pub/wealthgps/p/the-quiet-rich-dont-think-like-youand?r=m4ndu&utm_medium=ios
The key difference to me, after reading your post Jared ( great fan, btw) is that we should outsource low value activities IF we can use the time gained for high-value activities.
Good point overall. People who focus just on the money saving aspect end up burning time.
And the reverse. However, I think that is inefficient, a bit like an equal weighted index - you get the crap and the cream all in the same box.
Instead, spend money where you want excellence and save money on the rest.
Example. I like nice restaurants. I will pay $300 for a great meal. However, I drive a POS car, literally has the front cowling taped on. Because I don't care about my car-image or cars in general, except as transportation. If I need a nice looking car for an event, I can rent one for a weekend instead of paying $80k over 5 years. Do this across the things you care about and you will have a great lifestyle, within one's income, and not waste money on crap, out of the principle of 'time is money'.
Here's a place to spend time over money that is one of the best investments: exercise and mouth control over food. You will pay it now, or pay it later, no matter what (h/t Fram Oil filters...).
You WILL pay a fortune in health care costs, time -and misery - if you don't pay for good food and health today. Time spent going to a hospital and OT after the stroke or heart attack, or dialysis, learning to drive a wheelchair, etc. is far greater than the time spent in the gym and on healthy food.
Taking a GLP-1 pill is a great intervention. However, if that's all you do, you are no wiser than the man who makes his own coffee to save $5
Sometimes can’t find the % fat of burgers that are premade. Plus I like my burgers much thinner than the pre-made so I gotta fix them anyways. My decision to buy a lump of dead cow has nothing to do with money. It’s the type of meat/shape of burger driving my decision. And I just throw a pair of nitrile gloves on to shape my burgers.
Agree 100% about time vs money.
Absolutely recommend taking that pound of ground beef, hand mixing it with a stick of butter (meat AND butter hands) and making the best, juiciest burgers you've ever had in your life.
Hey Jared - you miss a BIG difference between doing it yourself and paying someone else to do it for you. The guy making your burgers, taking care of your lawn or washing your car doesn’t give a flying f*#k if he or she does a good job. The machine doing it cares even less. Yes, time is money but if you have to re-do what is done when you’re not happy with the results, it’s less of a slam dunk - or you can always lower your standards…. (no thanks).
Usually buy pre-made patties, but went for the ground beef the other day to make smash burgers. Delicious and a fun use of the time. But my poor kitchen grill will never be the same.
Like most of your respondents I disagree about the burgers and I used to own a burger chain in the UK. Hand made, fresh each day on the premises from grass fed naturally reared beef was our game.
I still make my own, those machine made ones have additives you don't want to eat and are too dense.
Then again, if I live 3 years longer avoiding those additives, it will probably be 3 years in a nursing home. Best to please oneself.
If it ever takes me that long to make pizza from scratch I will be in trouble. I can cook faster than I can eat out. People don't know how to cook. For the yard, my landscaper does everything I hate, like the automatic watering and I do the rest. The real issue is understanding what is worth doing ourselves and what is not. Reading Jared for years has increased my spending considerably
😂
This is the very essence of behavioral economics.
Gonna push back on the following:
1-Financial-Depends on what you earn per hour if it’s worth doing yourself (& pride of DYI).
2-Quality-Most “professional” lawn services suck in Atlanta. Charge $$$ and can’t keep Poa Annua (weed which infiltrates
and crowds out even Bermuda grass) from out of lawns. Purchasing “Barricade from Anderson Lawn I do much better than the lawn services. My next door neighbor fired his lawn service 2 years ago and followed my plan.
This sort of framing must be why aristocrats looked down on merchants. The time passes either way. Valuing your time at X dollars means you decide to spend your time based on an ephemeral fact about market demand for two behaviors from non-substitutible actors. It’s irrelevant, and you have to be money-poisoned to make the error.
The question should be what choice lets you spend your time doing what you want to do. And what’s the affective differential between stuff you’re excited about vs not. If you’re a Buddhist monk, maybe not much. And even non-monks enjoy the activities that make up a life outside labor market specialization. And maybe we have some influence on our affective experience of specific activities long term?
There might be a stronger argument for what you’re saying, about time being better spent pursuing great ambitious projects or vocations than performing chores, but that would require the rhetoric of a different class.
You can make much better burgers by hand. Also, quality of the burger meat in most premade patties is lower than the hamburger bought in bulk. When I started making them by hand I received more compliments from my guests. And once you are good at it, it doesn't take long. The fat is easy enough to get off.