21–30 of 159 posts
Of course, it also assumes that people can choose exactly how many hours they work at their regular hourly rate, which isn't usually the case, but that's a separate quibble.
For a long time I had an idea that "A real salary is what is left after expenses" so if you earn monthly £2000 but your expenses are £1500 then £500 is your salary. If you earn £1500 but your expenses are £500 effectively you earn £1000 month or more than those that are paid more. So, solution is to earn more or learn how to live more frugal? Of course it is not possible to reduce some expenses, and some expenses are…
The extreme savings/retire early website/guy (can’t remember the name and googling is failing me) essentially uses this for working out how early you can retire by focussing on the percentage of your take home that can be saved/invested rather than out right figures. It’s the thing we (my wife and I) focus on, the percentage left over as discretionary money to be saved, invested or spent as we see fit that matters th…
I suggest finding something you like, and do it. I like gardening and cleaning so I do those, but don't like changing oil so I outsource that. I would change my oil it I could stand up doing it!
There are specialist oil changers in my town. I drive in an 30 mins later I drive out. Paying about 150% of what it would cost me to do it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> wouldn’t such knowledge spread quickly and become common knowledge How to lose weight is open knowledge, but that doesn't make it easier, doubly so if you are also fighting other battles. Sometimes there is a solution, but it's just not attainable for everyone. > are there any real life hacks that are not obvious that result in significant quality of life improvements? I didn't want to make this post about my own l…
Any chance of you going into more detail about your website? I love those success stories.
I suggest finding something you like, and do it. I like gardening and cleaning so I do those, but don't like changing oil so I outsource that. I would change my oil it I could stand up doing it!
Me too, I've tried explaining this to people. The hard part of an oil change is getting to the oil filter. It's way easier in a pit. You also have to deal with oil disposal and potential spills in the driveway. It makes so much sense to pay someone who is setup to do this. There are specialist oil changers in my town. I drive in an 30 mins later I drive out. Paying about 150% of what it would cost me to do it.
Looking at net income makes sense, but when it gets into expenses I'm not sure I follow. The idea behind outsourcing is that you can spend additional hours doing paid work. You can't look at your fixed expenses in terms of a fixed amount of each hour's wage if you're increasing the number of hours worked. Of course, it also assumes that people can choose exactly how many hours they work at their regular hourly rate,…
After-tax income makes sense when income is what you’re taxed by; the day job creates the income and the tax.
But the day job shouldn’t be laden with all costs of living: only the costs of the day job.
The author must know either way more economics than me or way less.
This doesn’t make sense. If someone makes $10 an hour, then they would be better off if they made $20 an hour. That’s because $20 > (GREATER THAN) $10. However if it was only $5 (five), then they wouldn’t want to work for $5 an hour because $5 You can check it with your calculator if you’re skeptical. $20-$10 = + number so $20 is grater $5 - $10 = - number so $5 is less
I'm not sure if I understand your comment, or how it relates to the article.
Analyses like this just make me think Basic Income will radically shake up civilization more than most people realize. In particular, it will help divorce this ubiquitous cultural association between time and money. This reason alone may explain some of the hostility toward implementing even a rudimentary form of UBI. Some of the most rewarding human experiences have zero financial value and subsequently are dismisse…
So roughly, the author is saying something like: if ( outsourcing_cost * alpha > opportunity_cost ) { outsource(); } and discusses how that alpha should be calculated. The author also mentions some side benefits of doing some tasks and getting better at them. Does HN have any thoughts about living a smaller life by doing fewer things and having more time to just live and enjoy life? If spending time figuring out how…
Analyses like this just make me think Basic Income will radically shake up civilization more than most people realize. In particular, it will help divorce this ubiquitous cultural association between time and money. This reason alone may explain some of the hostility toward implementing even a rudimentary form of UBI. Some of the most rewarding human experiences have zero financial value and subsequently are dismisse…
What this doesn't account for is drive. People who enjoy a slow pace will do so. People who are successful now will still be successful then. This is just American exceptionalism thinking it will be different. We already have many countries with social policies better than UBI.
As an example: mastering any activity takes years of dedicated practice. Programming, writing, making origami, cooking, you name it. Very rarely does this training align precisely with making a lot, or even any, money. The mastery might itself then lead to actual financial gains, but our current system doesn't optimize for this at all.