One thing I try to be mindful of are the different tradeoffs I'm implicitly making. For instance, there's a bunch of yard and house maintenance I could do, or I could pay someone else to do it. The nature of my job is such that I work a lot of hours, and so, even though paying someone money to do this stuff really bothers me, there's a larger question afoot: is this what I want to spend my life on? Is this the best use of two hours, or whatever?
Often the answer is no. The two hours are worth more to me than whatever it would cost to get someone else to do it. And that's time I can allocate to things that are precious. This is very obvious but it took me decades to figure it out. And, to be fair, the answer changes over time. At 20 it would have made no sense to pay for the stuff I now pay for.
Anyway, point is, this is such a common thing that I figured I'd raise it. If your wife loves cooking, maybe that's great. But maybe going to the store is less great. And while it would be a great indulgence to pay for it, maybe it's actually a good investment, given the other things that you've said. Maybe an hour of time spent doing something that fills your cup is really valuable. Only you can know.
Or pay my son sats to do some of the household chores I would rather outsource. Thanks, mate, for detailing your thought process and money-time philosophy
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