What is your free time worth?
 

I have a friend with an intresting question.
What is your free time worth to you?
he has a good position with a company and makes "enough" but has a lot of free time..works about 30 hrs a week. He has been offered a position with another firm that will, as he said, double his salary but add about twenty more hours per week and totally change his current job freedom.

My position was, at double the pay, i would take the position.

What says the brain trust?

My free time is worth more than the pay raise being offered. A few years ago, for 6 months, I only worked on Tuesday-Thursday. Those 4 day weekends were great!

Would need to be more than double for me. A 30-hour week is nice. A 50-hour week gets busy in a big hurry

Depends on what "enough" means... Enough to live and save for retirement ? Then I'd value my free time way more... Then again double income, if it is saved, can mean quicker retirement... Really depends on our friend's capacity to save and defer enjoyment... I've found out over time that often, more $ equals more spending and more "stuff", not necessarily more joy.... I'd *gladly* take a pay cut for a 4 day week ! Yesterday !

If you were talking mid to upper 6 figures I would do it for a few years just to get the retirement account padded well.

We have time.

We all have things that bring us energy, and things that drain us.

The trick is to find the right side of the balance.

My situation.........................I work for a very large county govt here in Va. As you might imagine, I work 40 hrs week, but my commute is pretty long 50 mins on average each way. So basically 12 hrs per weekday is committed to work / commute = @60hrs per week

Saturdays, I usually spend working on my projects in order to make money and satisfy my hobby craving. Those hrs vary - @6 -7. Sundays I try to catch up with small stuff around the house. Like most people here, I have very little 'free' time.

That said, I value my 'free' time as a premium. I'm not sure how I would monetize it. I would depend on what I would be trading it for.........................

It depends on where you are in your life. If he needs the money because he has three kids in college he better take it. If he is 60 y.o. maybe not.

Take the position and negotiate additional PTO.

How much of that increase is going to Washington DC?

Growing up, my father was an insurance salesman. He would leave for work about 7:30 am, return home for dinner at 5pm. At 6pm he was back on the phone making calls or was back out traveling to meet clients. He would finish most of his days by 9 but some were later.

He did very well in the business. His time and efforts paid off for him in the long run. However, as his youngest son I will say is was not worth it. Family, life, living come first, all else is secondary. Get out and experience life. Go play with your kids, get active in their interests, spend quiet time with your wife, go for a walk/hike etc, etc, etc. Money helps is and is obviously necessary but its not everything.

Just my humble opinion. Now, I think I'll take off work and go for a motorcycle ride. :)

Not enough info.

I look at it differently, he's not doubling his income as much as he's increasing his hours and getting a ~10% pay increase.

FWIW, 50 hours turns into 60 PDQ.

Again, dependent on his unique situation but if he's young with few attachments, family, home, etc... he'd possibly be better served taking that 20 hours a week and starting a new business.

I am proud to say i'm not a corporate b!tch and I value my free time greatly.

This is an interesting topic I've been pondering a lot lately. We've been looking more closely at retirement and when that might be possible. I've been pleasantly surprised we are in decent shape. Can't get there yet but if our investments do ok in the next 5-10 we will be able to. I'm 52 and my fiance is 58.

I'm looking for work and going back and forth between highest paying job with benefits I can get and grinding for the next several years or taking a completely different role with a small company doing sales and business development (I'm an accountant by background) and helping my friend get his company to the next level. Hard work at first but if successful could settle into something more reasonable that I could do longer. No benefits and pay is going to be mostly commission oriented but I'll own my schedule and have more time for racing, riding and hanging out with family...........

What is this "free time" you speak of? Between work, school, and all my kids' activities, my "relaxation time" is between 1-2am, then I get a few hours sleep and start it all over again.

When the kids are grown, school is finished and work is my primary drain on time, I hope to be able to look back and see it was all worth it. More importantly, I hope the kids understand how much I love them and know I wouldn't trade watching them do dance, Tae Kwon Do, play the flute, or their various other activities for all the free time in the world.

If he is comfortable financially on his current 30 hour job....keep it forever, it makes having kids, marriage, and home project completion a whole heck of alot easier. No one on thier deathbed ever wished they had spent more time at the office.

You can always make more money.
You can never make more time.
You couldn't pay me enough to take more of my time away from my family.

Did this "offer" come out of the blue (fall into his lap), or was he looking? If he was looking, why? Not happy with current position? Not challenged?

If you gotta ask...

Also not sure of the industry, but having the flexibility to work from home on some days, also helps with work/life balance. Something else to negotiate. Of course many of these things are driven by policies, but over the years I have seen all sorts of exceptions.