[timr]

"I can develop loan disbursement software and ecommerce stuff, surely I can handle changing the radiator in my car, and did, saving myself hundreds of dollars."

Only if your time is worthless.

I say this not to be snarky, but because I found myself having to re-think these same decisions as I moved on from graduate school (where my time really was almost worthless...on a monetary basis), to having a real job that consumes most of my week. Life is too short to spend part of a weekend day (or more) changing a radiator. Much better to pay someone skilled at radiator replacement to make the problem go away (or in my case, to outsource the problem of owning a vehicle to Zipcar).

More generally, the older I get, the more stuff I try to outsource in an effort to viciously guard my spare time. Sometimes it feels a bit bourgoise (e.g. am I really so important that I'd pay someone to clean my apartment?) but it definitely helps to be able to put a dollar value on each hour of your life, and answer the question "would I pay someone $X an hour to do this?" If the answer is no, it's probably better to outsource.

[burgerbrain]

You unreasonably discount the possibility of someone deriving enjoyment from working on their car.

I personally find it to be rather cathartic.

[sliverstorm]

Indeed. Working on a car can be pleasant. Admittedly I do not currently- partly because bikes are more fun to work on, partly because I don't have a good space in which to work- but I hope someday to resume doing some repairs.

[timr]

A fair point. If you find something enjoyable, then I agree the economic calculation is obviously different.

[philwelch]

On the other hand, if you don't enjoy working on your car, presumably a professional mechanic would enjoy it better. And he would certainly enjoy the money.

[eneveu]

Zen and the Art of Car Maintenance.

[leviathant]

Ah, I thought I addressed that when I mentioned that I don't wash my own car. I don't do my own oil changes either.

The last decade of my life has been incredibly busy. It's nice to take a half hour and mow the lawn, or walk to Pep Boys, chat with the folks behind the counter, walk home with a radiator, and spend an hour figuring how to replace the old one without spilling coolant all over the driveway.

With all the coding I do, there's a satisfaction I get out of physical assembly and creation in things like home renovation or working on my car that doesn't, for me, ever feel the same coming from an LCD screen. Wiring up a three-way switch on both ends of a light bulb, throwing the breaker back on and having it work the first time, or buying a "broken" drum machine, opening it up and soldering the power connector back on, or tuck-pointing the stone foundation in my house.

I agree that spare time seems more and more fleeting as the years pass by. And though I'm sure there are interesting things for which you're saving your time, your not having mentioned them reminds me of a poem by Ogden Nash, "The Strange Case of Mr. Artesian's Conscientiousness" which Google shows me is quoted in full at http://www.paceadvantage.com/forum/showthread.php?t=69657&#3...

[gridspy]

The trap here that I fell into during my youth is to ask this question at the wrong time....

Is going out on a date with my wife worth $X/hr ?

Is helping someone by giving them a lift worth $X/hr?

Is sitting down to read a book / watch a movie worth $X/hr?

Drove my wife crazy.

[cperciva]

Is helping someone by giving them a lift worth $X/hr?

I've done that calculation from time to time, but I've always ended up concluding "yes, because I'll enjoy talking to this person for half an hour more than I would enjoy having an extra $50".

... which, depending on your perspective, either means that I understand that money really isn't worth a lot, or just that I'm desperately lonely.

[mahyarm]

And if you get 2 u-turn tickets and hit someones car by mistake before zip car, you can't use it or many of the other zipcar like services out there.