Here we are on the eighth day of October already, 23 days remaining in this hypothetical scenario. So back to some deep thoughts as to how to handle these final days. Today I am thinking about outsourcing tasks. You may wonder why I would outsource if I choose to work, but it is all about a return on time. I would get over $400 an hour staying at work just for the group life insurance and I make no where near that amount of money now.
So if I am going to work, I need to get the most out of my remaining time. That leads the topic to outsourcing. I am thinking just about every mundane task. Mowing the lawn, dishes, and cleaning in general. For the last month I would hire lawn service to take care of mowing and raking while hiring some sort of housekeeping service. I also considering eating out at a greater rate, but considering the time to travel to a restaurant, then wait to sit, then wait to eat after ordering, I don’t see this as a huge time saver. Especially if I am paying someone to do my dishes daily while cleaning the house. I think I would probably eat out more as a social occasion to meet up with family and friends, but I am not sure if a restaurant is even the place where you would want to have a deep conversation regarding your last days if you choose to tell that person.
There isn’t alot of other activities that I see would free up alot of time for me to spend with family. But even at an unreasonable cost, it is worth it to outsource these tasks since I am choosing to work in this scenario. I can basically deem any task less than $400 an hour worth it to outsource to make up that time at work. Thus, freeing up as much time efficiently to enjoy those last moments and weekends. So even more costly DIY repairs to cars or your house become affordable in comparison.
What kinds of things would you consider worthwhile to outsource if you were dying? Is there something I am missing?
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I think some of those daily, weekly chores are good to out source to feed up time as you stated. We have neighbors who husband recently and unexpectedly passed away. The wife has no idea how to take care of the lawn. A group of neighbors chipped in and paid for a year of lawn care for her.
That is very nice that the neighbors are coming together to help her out!
Kipp,
I still can’t believe you value your time at $400/hr if you know you’re going to die in 30 days. You could pay me $1,000/hour and I wouldn’t be going into a jobby job and clocking in. No way, no how
And I also know my significant other would rather see me more those last 30 days than collect the cash.
It’s like “Hey honey! I’m dying in a month. But I gotta go get that cash for us. Maybe I’ll take off my last day so we can spend the day together.” Avoiding a silly scenario like that is exactly why we do what we do.
Best regards!
I had a thought today as a work around to still receive the benefit without working. More on that later, maybe Monday :).
But that said… as I discussed before, we trade our time for MUCH less than $400 an hour. It comes down to a sense of sacrifice I suppose. The only thing that truly matters in the short period of time is who you are spending the time with, not how much money is being spent to you. But with others involved, the money can be of value to them.
Are you coming up with the $400/hour rate because that’s how much the health insurance covers?
If I were dying in a month I’d either quit my job or go on long term disability.
I talked about that on day 2, if I wouldn’t qualify for medical leave or disability and I had to stay employed to maintain the group life insurance. So I figured out my work hours for the month after taking out the vacation, and determined that just the life insurance proceeds will provide a return over $400.00 on top of whatever compensation I receive working.