How Much Is Your Time Worth? (The Time and Money Equation)

If your time is worth money, then how much? This is an important question for anyone to consider, and particularly field Quality Assurance persons looking to advance their Special Inspection certifications.

Interestingly enough, some people place very little value on their time. Time during work hours equates to direct earnings – a paycheck every week, or bi-weekly. Hours worked equate to an hourly rate, regardless if a person is paid salary or not. But what about hours spent outside of work? What about the time you spend off the clock?

Time is an incredible concept. We know from Einstein’s theory of gravitational time dilation that time is directly related to the observer’s position in relation to mass. For example, time moves slower for an observer in a stronger gravitational field (let’s say for someone sitting at home in Irvine, California). Move away from the Earth (and thus its gravitational field) and into space, and time moves more quickly. Einstein’s theory has been repeatedly verified to be true.

No matter a person’s wealth, social status or influence within a company, community or government, we all share an equal amount of time. Time, like our other resources, is limited. There’s never enough time available to do everything we want to do. This never changes, and as we increase in age, time appears to move more quickly.

This begs of the reflective person to do one thing: place a higher value on one’s time, and then maximize one’s available time. It’s actually quite baffling when you think about how quality assurance guys and gals will delay for months and even years getting a certification such as ICC Reinforced Concrete Special Inspector or ICC Structural Masonry Special Inspector. In most cases, this delays a pay raise. Delayed pay increases equate to loss of revenues. Loss of promotions. Loss of a key position on a special project. Loss within a pecking order. The list goes on and on.

Some people don’t want to pay the money for a study course that will prepare them to pass the very test that will provide them a lifetime of more pay, and a better position within the market. “That’s too much money.” This could be a rational choice, but most of the time it comes at a cost of delayed certification at best, and too often no certification, at worst, years later. Years of lost revenue.

Others may decide to study, but without direction, spending hours and hours reading lines of code that may or may not be pertinent, and at best, based on someone’s educated guess of what people should study.

Our ICC courses take 25-30 hours to complete, but a do-it-yourselfer will more than likely spend at least twice as long attempting to study on their own, or perhaps more quickly at the cost of neglecting the best and most important information. One should return to and face this question – what do I value my time? In the case of certification, how long is it acceptable that I forego revenue increases?

You can read more about our courses, and how much time you can save in the test preparation process. With our online course instruction, you could position yourself to be due for a raise.