Lifetime Economics

Lifetime economics is simple: value in use time; price in work time; use time minus work time equals real profit, free time.  What I would like to do here is collect examples from people like you who visit this blog.

Here is one example.  Suppose that you are earning $10 an hour and you buy a shirt for $20.  The work time cost of that shirt for you is 2 hours.  That’s pretty easy.  What about use time?

There are several ways that you could figure the use time of the shirt.  Here is one way.  Suppose that you wore the shirt 12 hours on the first day.  Your real profit by buying that shirt would be 12 hours minus 2 hours = 10 hours.  And that is profit for only the first day that you wore the shirt.  Every day that you wore the shirt thereafter would give you a real profit of 12 hours.  There are many complications you could add to the calculation, like the cost of washing the shirt periodically, but let’s keep it simple.  The point here is that you made a very profitable purchase by buying that shirt.

Here is an example of what I would like to receive from you.  How much work time does it cost you to live where you are living?  To answer, just divide your monthly rent or mortgage payment plus utilities by your hourly wage.  Say that your rent and utilities cost $600 a month and you are paid $20 per hour.  $600 / $20 = 30 hours of work time.  What is your use time?

Again, there are several ways you could figure the use time of where you live.  Keeping it simple, the place is available for your use for a month.  A month is 24 hours for 30 days for a total of 720 hours.  Your real profit is 720 hours minus 30 hours = 690 hours.  Do the math for your place at your wage and post it here.  That way, we can practice the method and identify issues that need to be resolved.