How Much is Your Time Worth?

I was reading the great blog Internet Duct Tape the other day, and came across this statement: "One of the handiest 'life hacks' is to figure out how much money your time is worth (after taxes) and use that to as a basis for deciding if a time saving service is worth its cost (assuming you have disposable income)."

So how much money is your time worth? According to a (very old) article in CNN/Money, it's about half of your pre-taxed hourly wage. (The actual formula the writer comes up with depends on your tax bracket and where you live.)

But if you take the basic thought—that you should be willing to pay someone half as much as you make to save you the hassle of doing it—you can have a pretty handy (and rough) guide to decisions like:

1) should I outsource the boring parts of my work?

2) should I do my own laundry?

3) is it time to hire a secretary?

Overall, it ooks like I need to revisit my decision to hire a butler--

(Image courtesy arokan.co.za)