[Disagreeing with my boss on the internet, but after chatting over lunch]
Inflexible life outside of work seems to be the problem. There are monetary and non-monetary examples of ways to become inflexible:
1. I spent $500 on my weekend plans. I can only that infrequently, so I really don’t want to miss it.
2. I’m leading a group on a road trip this weekend. If I bail they’ll be disappointed.
This echoes Gordon elsewhere in the comments, but I claim that non-frugality can be quite slack-constraining. This post has updated me towards keeping more slack in my budget. I’d like to not spend a significant portion of my spending money on any single adventure.
Follow-up thought 2: An expensive life outside of work would be worse than a frugal one if the increase of the temptation of one’s time off outpaced the increase in relaxation.
income effects in preferences, in which leisure becomes more valuable when income rises, … income effects are the main driving force behind the decline of average hours worked with GDP per capita.
Follow-up thought 1: This model implies that frugality is budget-dependent. A trader at a hedge fund is much less constrained by $500 weekend plans. In fact, thinking about this model might make the trader seem less frugal, as she wantonly cancels expensive trips. I’m tempted to say this means I should be paid more (Hi, boss! 😛) but I actually think it’s income-neutral, and mostly about my budgeting.
[Disagreeing with my boss on the internet, but after chatting over lunch]
Inflexible life outside of work seems to be the problem. There are monetary and non-monetary examples of ways to become inflexible:
1. I spent $500 on my weekend plans. I can only that infrequently, so I really don’t want to miss it.
2. I’m leading a group on a road trip this weekend. If I bail they’ll be disappointed.
This echoes Gordon elsewhere in the comments, but I claim that non-frugality can be quite slack-constraining. This post has updated me towards keeping more slack in my budget. I’d like to not spend a significant portion of my spending money on any single adventure.
Follow-up thought 2: An expensive life outside of work would be worse than a frugal one if the increase of the temptation of one’s time off outpaced the increase in relaxation.
For supporting evidence, see this study:
https://​​www.nber.org/​​papers/​​w26554
Which I’ll quote Robin Hanson’s quote of
That sounds right to me
Follow-up thought 1: This model implies that frugality is budget-dependent. A trader at a hedge fund is much less constrained by $500 weekend plans. In fact, thinking about this model might make the trader seem less frugal, as she wantonly cancels expensive trips. I’m tempted to say this means I should be paid more (Hi, boss! 😛) but I actually think it’s income-neutral, and mostly about my budgeting.