517 a month

"Your trip costs about $10 per waking hour. Your time is valuable."

--Rick Steves
  American Travel Writer

Applies to life really.

When we were preparing for "Cent' Anni" (our trip to Italy over the summer), I read the line above. Steves' thought struck me because I'm the kind of person who feels the need to run around town for an hour and half to save three dollars (and lose much more in doing it).

It made me wonder how much my waking hours in normal life cost me.

Here's the math for several different monthly household budgets (assuming one sleeps an average of 7 hours a night there are 6,205 of waking hours in a year or roughly 517 hours a month)...

• $2,500 - 4.83/ hour
• $5,000 - 9.67/ hour
• $7,500 - 14.50/ hour
• $10,000 - 19.34/ hour

Sleep more and the cost of your waking hours goes up.

Your trip through life costs something per waking hour. And, time is the only thing you can never get back.

Are you investing yours wisely?

(great no-fluff travel advice here... Steves' travel philosophy here-- I found it to be a motivational "live life real" message)

another view: Value of waking hours based on earnings...

• $50,000 - $8/ hour
• $100,000 - $16/ hour
• $150,000 - $24/ hour
• $200,000 - $32/ hour