I read about a supersaver who turned repairs and maintenance of his house and vehicles into hobbies. In this manner he learned how things worked and honed new skills. Additionally, by keeping items maintained, they operated more efficiently and he saved on costly repairs down the road. Finally, by performing repairs and maintenance himself, he saved and invested the money he otherwise would have spent on handymen and technicians. He attributed his utilitarian approach to hobbies as being contributive to his status as a millionaire next door.
Utilitarian Hobbies
Hobbies provide personal growth benefits such as intellectual stimulation, physical activity, social interaction, stress relief, and community contribution. Yet, most hobbies don’t provide a monetarily quantifiable return. In fact, most hobbies entail a quantifiable monetary loss. Seeking out utilitarian hobbies offers the best of all worlds: personal growth and a financial return.
Sure, the opportunity cost of performing home maintenance, for example, might be higher than simply hiring someone. You could work at your regular job, pay someone else to do the home maintenance, and pocket the difference. However, we must acknowledge that most hobbies are a total financial loss versus with home maintenance, at least you can minimize the outflow of cash and reduce your time value loss by what you saved by not paying somebody else.
Even better, there may be times when you come out ahead financially either because the time value equation and/or returns on amounts saved and then invested yield greater returns than had you paid someone to do the work. Also, I have experienced that sometimes when I handle maintenance or a repair myself, the end result is better than when I’ve paid someone else to perform the same task.
At any rate, there is a balance to be found in turning repairs and maintenance into hobbies versus hiring them out. That’s the beauty of it. If I want to channel my inner Bob Villa, Martha Stewart or Ray Magliozzi, I can choose to do so. If I don’t, I can outsource the work.
Water Heater Case Study
Our water heater is illustrative. I deemed installing a new water heater myself unwise and thus hired a licensed plumber to do it last year. All things considered, the cost benefit analysis weighed in favor of outsourcing the installation. However, for the annual drain and flush, I recently did that myself. I found the process interesting to study and to execute and thus enjoyed traditional benefits of a hobby. With YouTube, a project like this one was doable for a hobbyist such as myself.
These YouTube videos were instructive:
How to Drain & Flush a Hot Water Tank, by AMRE Supply
How to Flush a Hot Water Heater to Remove Sediment, by AmplifyDIY.
In regard to quantifiable monetary return, I completed the drain and flush on a Saturday. I usually don’t like to work my regular job on Saturdays, so the income loss attributable to working on the water heater likely was zero because had I not been doing that, whatever else I would have been doing likely would not have generated income. Accordingly, since the monetarily quantifiable opportunity cost was zero, the amount that I saved by not paying the plumber actually put me ahead. I think I’ll buy a few more shares of Intel with the money I saved. Speaking of, investing is another hobby that provides monetarily quantifiable returns over time!
With Love,
P. Gustav Mueller, author of The Present