Money can’t buy happiness, right? Well actually, money can buy us things that help us get back the one thing we can’t make more of….TIME. As you progress in your career and meet financial milestones a natural realization is that our time is finite and we must find ways of preserving it. Once you reach a certain point in your career, time affluence is a goal you should be working toward and measuring versus just trying to make more money.
In their book, Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending, co-authors Dr. Elizabeth Dunn and Dr. Michael Norton have all sorts of great ideas for using your money to create more happiness in your life. One of their biggest research findings is that outsourcing creates space to get your time back so that you can focus on more happy activities (or at least offload the tasks you hate).
One cool thing about outsourcing? It’s a great way to support small businesses. Sure we all love to be able to order from Grubhub or get things delivered via Instacart. These are huge time savers, right? We may also have someone to help with the cleaning around the house. These are the basics of outsourcing. Many of the lesser known things to outsource are often done via solopreneur or small businesses rather than large conglomerates. Investing in others is another tip from Happy Money — supporting small businesses is a great way to do just that.
One interesting challenge to outsourcing according to the research by Dunn and Norton? People often feel guilty outsourcing tasks they don’t like or take pride in the “do it yourself” aspects of daily life.
This is certainly something to wrestle with. But, I think there are other challenges too. Have you ever typed in “what else can I outsource” and came up with the same article written 10 slightly different ways talking about all the child-care aspects of people’s lives that can be outsourced? I did it and I was frustrated, so I can imagine it’s frustrating to other child-free women. The ways we conserve time are going to be very different when kids are in the picture versus when they’re not. It may even bring up guilt feelings, just like what Dunn and Norton found in their research.
Push pas the guilt and start exploring. Here’s a child-free list of things to look into outsourcing:
- Travel planning: Post-Covid travel planning is having a moment. We don’t have travel agents anymore, but we can hire travel consultants to help us design and execute on our travel plans. Often they have deals on excursions unavailable elsewhere or access to extras like refundable reservations, amenity gifts, or special restaurant reservations. But beyond that, its such a relief to prepay and pre-set everything so you’re not planning on the fly when you touch down. This saves up so much brain space for other activities pre- and post-trip. Find someone local to you (typically a solo shop linked to a larger booker network). They are typically paid a flat fee per trip and may also make a commission on some of your bookings. Potential time saved? Hours per trip.
- Personal Trainer, but make it mobile: Many of us belong to a gym and some of us even work with a trainer or teacher of some sort, but the ultimate time saving is having a mobile trainer come to you. If you have a gym in your building or a set-up with some weights at home, you can find local trainers who will come to you. I suggest Thumbtack.com as a place to find them locally. More than the time saved not driving to/from the gym a trainer/teacher can help make sure you stick to your goals and push you just enough to keep making forward momentum. No slinking out part way through your normal routine. And when you know they’re going to show up at your house, you can’t decide last minute to cancel. They are typically paid per session or monthly. Potential time saved? 20-30 minutes driving every session.
- Body work, but make it mobile: Love getting spa and bodywork treatments like massage, acupuncture, assisted stretching, or chiropractic? Ask your practitioner if they ever do mobile appointments. If they are currently linked up with a spa, gym, or other type of facility they probably have overhead or they are employees earning a fraction of your typical fee. If they come to you, they don’t have to pay that overhead and can instead build a more sticky relationship with you. During Covid mobile services like these sprung up everywhere. Practitioners are typically paid per session. Potential time saved? 20-30 minutes driving every session.
- Personal assistant for doctors visits, appointments, gift research, and random to do items like finding someone to do maintenance on your home. All sorts of personal/virtual assistant apps and services have been popping up lately. I’ll admit, it’s hard to “train” someone to do things when explaining it takes time too, but eventually the dividends start to pay your time back. I’ve found they work best on research projects (like what is the best appliance? or where are the top vacation destinations of 2023? What’s the best gift for my mom?) or appointment booking. This person could be virtual or local. Services like ChatGPT can also help bridge the gap for some of these tasks.
- Personal Organizer: We all collect stuff. Sometimes it gets out of hand. Sometimes we have a strange space in our house where things start to pile up in a way that has you wondering, “I swear I had this somewhere?” Enter the personal organizer. This person will come to your home, listen to your goals and ideals and help create a system to keep it organized once the work is done. They may even be able to recommend storage techniques or types storage/furniture to get the job done. Time saved? Endless hours culling and searching cluttered spaces. They typically charge a project fee or hourly fee for the work done and the work can be completed in a couple sessions.
- Car Broker: Did you know you can hire someone to negotiate your next car purchase? They are called “car brokers” and have the relationships and experience to get you the best deal. You let them the make model and color you’re looking for and they will go find it for you and the best price. They typically charge a flat fee. Time saved? Endless hours of searching and calling around and negotiating. No need to sit around a dealership for hours to get your new car.
- Charitable Giving Consultant: did you know you can hire a philanthropic advisor to help you design a strategy and maximize the impact you have through your charitable giving? One designation this consultant might hold is the CAP® — sometimes financial advisors hold this designation and other times it might be someone who works for a donor advised fund. Either way, they could do this work in conjunction with your financial planning or refer to you specifically to a consultant. This is typically done with higher dollar amounts being donated to charity ($100k or more – but not necessarily all at once).
- Driver on vacation: It’s not always cost effective for every location, but when you travel look into hiring a local driver to take you on excursions or show you around. They often have local insights you wouldn’t get anywhere else, and they can save you tons of time because you won’t have to be beholden to the whims of a large tour guide group. You may choose to have the driver the whole time you’re on vacation or just one or two days when exploring certain areas. Tripadvisor can sometimes have suggestions for local drivers, or you can also ask your hotel concierge or travel planner to book someone for you. Time saved? Hours of headaches trying to navigate directions or transit options while traveling.
- Financial Management: Work with a financial planner, tax preparer, and/or bookkeeper to automate your finances, track expenses, invest wisely, and plan for long-term freedom. Since I’m a Certified Financial Planner®, I’ll note that comprehensive financial planning is something that everyone can benefit from. While you can spend hours researching some of this stuff on your own, you have a day job that keeps you busy. It’s much easier to consult a certified expert than to wade through mountains of news articles. We provide our clients peace of mind by providing a road map for moving your finances forward and we answer all your questions along the way.Some additional benefits of working with an advisor are that we’ll find ways to help you: 1) Make more money by optimizing your salary, investments, account types, and cash. 2) Save money by making sure you’re not overpaying for fees, insurance or debt. 3) Avoid making costly behavioral mistakes with your finances.We can also help you spot issues that you might not be thinking about at all. There is no one-size-fits all approach. The recommendations you receive from North Financial will be customized based on your values around money and reflect your own unique goals and priorities.
- Coach / Mentor: Why spend hours reading or taking courses when you can just ask someone to help you learn or level up in a certain area? A paid coach or mentor can be a great way to have a sounding board on important decisions you’re making in life and career. The best thing about hiring a coach versus trying to learn everything you can on your own — they can often connect you with other important people you should know. You may want an executive coach or mentor that specializes in your industry or a general life coach who can help you think through other aspects of your life/career. Look for someone with an IFC designation.
What do you think? Is there anything on this list you want to try to outsource next?
