How Much is Too Little to Earn?

How much should you value your time is something I've always thought about. Do you value it by how much you earn per hour on average at your day job? Do you value it much more or much less?

It all comes down to what you do with your off work time hours. Even playing video games is worth while because it provides you a source of enjoyment.

Now lets think about how much it would take for you to do something for extra cash. How about $100 for sitting in a market study? What about shopping around for 30 minutes and you were able to get something for $20 instead of $30? How about those online surveys that pays you an equivalent of $1 for 30 minutes of time it takes to complete the survey?

At some point, it will feel like its not worth your time. Heck, perhaps even $100 for 1 hour might not be worth your time because you much prefer to spend every last bit of time with your loved ones. That is certainly agreeable to me and everybody has their own preferences.

For a long while I had this penny pinching and dollar hoarding attitude and jump at opportunities that even save or earn $0.25. I still think this is not a bad way to go because your hourly rate at work does not equal the rate during your off work hours. If that is that case, why not just double your 40 hour week to 80 and earn double? Unless you sneak in two full time jobs, you cannot do that.

Hence, if you use all your free time, that is, time you have left after you spend with your loved ones and leisure, you should use all of it to generate extra cash no matter the effective hourly rate.

Recently though, I was doing a transaction that effectively earned me about $1 and it take roughly 15 minutes of my time. After doing several, I started to realize that I could be doing something else that earns much more. Hence is the opportunity cost of applying my time in areas that are not the most effective.

Of course, if you do not have any other endeavors that earns more, then by all means, earn $2-4 an hour. On the other hand, if you have several things you could do that earns more, it might be wiser to prioritize the higher side income endeavors first. You may find that once you do so, there will never be a chance to tackle the $2-4/hour tasks. Frankly, I might prefer to just sit there and stare at the wall than busying myself for such a low rate.

Compounding on top of all this is if the extracurricular activity actually has a potential to expand. If it does, such as the scaling I mentioned in an earlier post, then even earning $2-4/hour might be okay. As of now, I earn nothing writing this blog post but I see a potential of a larger audience one day. Hence I choose to continue these posts for the time being.