Money, Time and Cost

Time is money. Perhaps this is one of the most quoted proverbs. How much are you willing to pay for the time? HK$1,000? HK$1,000,000? Or countless?

Sometimes, maybe we are too naïve to believe time is valuable that we ignore the price we set for it at each different time.

I went to China Travel Service (Hong Kong) Limited to extend my passport last week. When I took the photo, waited for half an hour and was finally served, I was told that I came to the agent too early. My passport would go expire in August. But now it was only July. If I insisted to get it done on that day, the duration for extension was 2 years rather than 1 year and another $50 was needed. Well, if I came one month later, then I have to pay about $10 more for traffic fees and would wait for another half an hour and about one hour for traffic. $50 was a good deal, I thought. “I’d like to extend for 2 years then.” At that time, I was paying for time, $40 for saving about one and a half hours in the future. At that time, I was sure that the price I pay was much lower than my reservation price.

But what in hell is your reservation price? Really countless?

If the additional fee is $100, will I accept it? What about $500? What about $1,000?

Actually, I may probably reject the idea to continue the process before I reach the amount of $100. The price I set for time may probably be related to some other things, for example, the opportunity cost. Probably, I can earn $100 by working as a private tutor for one hour and a half. Then I would be just indifferent to the process if it only asks for $100. However, if the additional fee is $200, then I would just be willing to waste the time. If I don’t pay the fee, I only lost $100 equivalent of time; otherwise, I would pay $200!

In the traditional concepts, time is so valuable that it does not have a price. However, it does exist a price for exchange.