[benmanns]

True, but by working for "roughly X/hour" you've established that the typical exchange rate for your time is roughly X/hour. If I were to ask you to do some work for my during your off time, I would have to pay about X ± X/2 depending on how you guarded your time. So what if someone only values their time at X/4? That's still $200 worth of spare time.

[shadowfiend]

That's fair, if we're continuing a monetary analogy (which I did do).

My spare time is worth happiness/distraction to me. Not money. I will confess that in that particular regard, I may differ from some, or perhaps even most, others.

[tjoff]

Doesn't make much sense anyway. So you make $40/hr, 40 hours a week. Well there is 168 hours in a week, subtract 40 from that and you have 128 hours those 40 hours must pay for.

As if that wasn't enough you have a lot of expenses that are flat-rate that you must pay regardless of how you spend your time (such as your rent).

All this is further assuming that your goal is to spend everything you make every month. Most probably put away some money to be able to buy a new car, travel etc. (or even just to be able to repair the car when it breaks)

[argv_empty]

by working for "roughly X/hour" you've established that the typical exchange rate for your time is roughly X/hour

Well, I've established that I'm willing to work that many hours for that rate. That doesn't mean I'm willing to work more hours at the same hourly rate. Most people I know value their spare time enough to expect a higher rate for working more time.

[__abc]

Damn. I've totally been ignoring the cost of sleeping. Son of a ....... I better update my personal finance models ... stat!