Why you should have a high hourly rate

The average Singaporean tends to be sensitive to how much money they have to spend on something.

This is understood given that we have a high cost of living.

At the same time, what surprises me is that many are generally not as sensitive about how they spend their time.

Time is more important than money. It cannot be gotten back once spent.

How a person spends their time really influences how successful he is.

We all have the same amount of time in your youth. Yet, when we look at our peers who are 30 years old who graduated from the same university, the differences between them are huge.

Some still look like they are in their early 20s, have successful careers and able to afford a great standard of living. This is a huge contrast to others who aged a lot faster, are struggling to find a stable path and far behind financially.

How fast you progress ultimately boils down to how well you spend your time.

Naval Ravikant suggests we assign our time a high hourly rate.

This is a mental model for deciding if something is worth truly worth it.

In his words:

Say, you give yourself an hourly rate of $800. That will make you value your time so much more.

To value your time is also to value yourself.

When you recognise how costly time is, you will act differently.

⏰ Avoid spending time with toxic friends: You will not want to spend that additional hour with friends who always complain; bring negative energy or try to one up you when it comes to career and financial achievements. You cannot achieve bigger things if people are being an emotional burden to you by not valuing the same things. Or, creating many highs and lows in your life.

⏰ Avoid dating people who want “something casual” and “not sure yet”: If someone is in their late 20s and 30s has not gotten their life together, that is worrying. The cost incurred and rewards of spending time with them simply does not make sense. Why not spend time with better looking, more successful people who know what they want instead?

⏰ You will not be stingy about buying someone important lunch because you know the time and advice they give you is worth much more than that.

⏰ You will want to optimize your time. This means waking up earlier to maximize the hours in your day and prolong your health span so you can have more active years with the people you love and doing the things you want. You will spend less time on doom scrolling.

⏰ You will start spending money to save time. For example, hiring a helper once a week to do housework or someone to assemble furniture.

How much money is your future-self sacrificing by spending hours on unproductive tasks that don’t get you closer to your goal?

Everything you spend time on has an opportunity cost.

It takes away time from our elderly family members or young children, improving our fitness and to advance in our career.

We can never ever turn back the clock to be three years younger, five years younger.

Use your time wisely.

There is a lot to improve on

Singapore is a global city. We have a global city standard of living and tons of opportunities.

The trade off is being exposed to global competition, and the need to constantly be relevant and competitive.

When I attended Founders Forum last week and also engaged with some of my leaders at work, I am reminded that there is a lot for me to work on.

When you are in a high growth company in the forefront of a high growth sector, you get exposed to really solid talent. This raises your bar of what good looks like

Upon reflection, here are some things I want to improve on this quarter.

🚀 Job related skills: Champion building, forecast accuracy and building a better presence.

🎤 Soft skills: I feel like my speaking skills could be improved. Use less “erms”, be more succinct with my points, phrase things better. I mainly watch my own calls and media interviews, and get feedback from colleagues. It is a painful process but I know it helps me get better.

💄 Grooming: First impressions matter so much. Looking better increases one’s opportunities at work and in one’s personal life. This applies to both mean and women. I hope to improve the way I look i.e. fitness, skincare, hair.

Recommendations: Youtuber Wanhee

Appearance matters so much. Looking and dressing better can improve one’s romantic and professional opportunities significantly.

Changing your looks can really change your life.

Even simple things like investing in a hairstyle that suits your face shape can make a massive difference.

I recently chanced upon this Youtuber, Wanhee, who managed to change his looks drastically through hardwork and discipline.

If you’re keen to learn from Wanhee, watch his inspirational video here. I’ve also followed him on YouTube!

I am a Singaporean tech worker and content creator. Every week, I share ideas on how we can become our best selves in our career; finance; health and relationships.

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