Time is our most valuable (and scarce) asset.

Yes? Agreed? Cool.

But we always seem to forget this.

We spend a few hours of our day cooking, doing laundry, assembling furniture, arguing with customer service, shoveling snow, managing our calendar

(because paying someone else to do any of those would feel like “a waste”).

And then we have zero time at the end of the day to focus on things like learning new skills, building businesses, creating new opportunities.

It might feel like you’re saving money.

…But you’re not building wealth.

You see, in order to build true, generational wealth?

You must value your time more highly than the cost of outsourcing things.

Let’s dive in…

CONTEXT

Naval Ravikant famously shared this wealth advice on Twitter:

“Set a high personal hourly rate, and stick to it… If outsourcing a task will cost less than your rate, outsource it.”

Let’s unpack this— What is a “personal hourly rate”?

It’s how much you value an hour of your time.

Here’s how it works:

THE METHOD

Step 1.

Decide the value of 1 hour of your time.

Let’s say you earn $100 an hour now?

And maybe it takes you an hour to drive across town and pick something up… but you can get that thing shipped to you for $15? Do it. Always.

(Outsource any task that will cost less than what you could earn in that time.)

Step 2.

Enforce your hourly rate.

If you purchased an item for $30 and it stopped working, you could spend an hour on the phone with customer service.

Or… you could buy a new one for $30, and spend that hour earning $100 instead.

See?

“But Jaaaade… why would I spend another $30 on it when they’ll replace it for free after an hour of arguing?”

I know, I know. It’s tempting to get free stuff.

But is that the most effective use of your time? Really?

You won’t build wealth by penny-pinching.

Your time is more valuable than that. (Literally. $100 > $30).

Step 3.

Ok. Now that you’re comfortable with the idea…

Make your hourly rate absurdly high.

(Stay with me. Let me explain.)

WHY IT WORKS

Naval famously set his aspirational rate at $5,000 an hour

(even though his time wasn’t worth anything close to that back then)!

Why did he do this? Because all those hours he saved (by outsourcing tasks)?

He spent those hours creating businesses.

And those businesses eventually earned him an hourly rate of more than $5,000.

Keep in mind— this method is more of a mindset than a precise calculation. If you never feel like you have enough time, it’s probably because you’re not outsourcing as much as you can afford to.

Just because you can do a task yourself, doesn’t mean it’s the most strategic use of your time to help you reach your goals.

TL;DR—

1. If you can outsource something for less than your hourly rate, do it.

2. Stick to it. Especially in the moments when you’re tempted to penny-pinch.

3. Make your hourly rate aspirationally high. If it doesn’t make you feel uncomfortable, it’s not high enough.

Remember: no one will value your time more highly than you do. Make sure you’re pricing it at what it’s worth.

Jade

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