Paying for Time

Regardless of the situation, payments are for time. Buying a smart phone costs more than a not smart phone because it takes more time to make. A latte costs more than drip coffee from the pot because it takes more time. The same goes for cars, houses, and as far as I can tell, everything else. For example, even though corn and steel and coffee are all commodities, priced on the open market, each price is determined by the relative amount of time needed to take it from field or rock to a useful form.

The same goes for you, you are paid for your time. Whether that is through a pay check or dividends from holding stock, whether you are officially paid hourly or are salaried, you are paid for your time.

All of this begs the question, how much is your time worth? In my mind this is not a strait single number. Time at work is probably economically worth a little more than time spent sleeping, yet all time has a cost. In short,  while life is not all about money (it's about relationships), how can the use of that money improve our time (spent in those relationships)?