Time-Wealth Career Conversion

Dharmesh Shah shares his perspective on the relationship between time and money throughout one's career, and how to think about valuing your time.

Core Time-Money Philosophy

• First half of life: Convert time into money
• Second half of life: Convert money back into time
• Most people significantly undervalue their time

Personal Evolution of Time Value

• Started at $3.65/hour as an immigrant
• Jumped to $125/hour as an engineer in 1990s Birmingham
  • This was the first pivotal moment in thinking about time value
  • Made decision to outsource any task that could be done for less than $125/hour
• Current calculated time value: ~$10,000/hour
  • Based on 60-hour weeks over 30 years
  • Would pay premium above this to buy back time

Framework for Valuing Time

• Put an actual number on your time's worth
• Evaluate all activities against this number
• Delegate anything that can be done for less than your hourly rate
• Exception: Activities you genuinely enjoy
• Consider future value and opportunity costs when making time decisions

Key Principles

• Time is a finite resource
• Be objective about time value calculations
• Regularly audit how you spend time
• Willing to pay premium to buy back time
• Question any activity not worth your calculated hourly rate