And I imagine it makes yours pretty stupid too.
Money makes my brain short out. I have a hard time keeping track of:
A) How much I have
B) How much I NEED
and
C) what my TIME is worth.
I’ve realized that I’ll do ridiculous, difficult, painful things for almost no money,
and if I’m not careful, I’ll burn real hours of my real life chasing literal pennies.
One of my bigger problems is that I manage to see “Money saved” and “Money earned” as entirely different concepts. When in reality they have the exact same effect on my balance, ‘Money Saved’ being even slightly more advantageous because I avoid several layers of taxes.
My one major example is my Condo – it has been sitting idle, languishing and honestly probably depreciating in value for the last 6 months. Not only is it losing value, It’s also sucking money through:
a) Condo administration fees
b) property taxes
c) utility bills
d) mortgage and mortgage interest
e) insurance
(Not to mention the ongoing stress and headache of knowing that I have a major responsibility that I’m neglecting)
On top of this, selling the condo will give me a good deal of my equity back in cold hard cash. It might take me a total of 15 hours to get it ready for sale.
15 hours of labor. .
For ~$20k in cash and an extra ~$375 per month!?
Assuming I can clear $20k in the sale, that’s $1333 per hour! and an extra $375 every month forever (in fees avoided – assuming I never sold or rented the place). At a job I can show up to late, Can show up to hungover, a job in which I can drink while working, with unlimited coffee breaks and unlimited smoke breaks (had I not quit) – Labor on my own terms, on my own time, with no boss breathing down my neck
And yet I find myself sitting on my ass looking through the gigs section on Craigslist. and I’m not sure why.
Seeing this observation written down is enough to move me in the ‘right’ direction. I’m going to start work on selling my condo this evening. What high-paying “job” are you putting off and avoiding? Let me know in the comments.
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