For me, the financial independence movement has a lot to do with efficiency. Efficiency of your dollars and efficiency of your time. All too often I’m seeing people make choices that aren’t the most efficient use of their time and resources and I have to wonder, have people forgotten about their most valuable asset? Their time here on earth? The opportunity costs that go along with their time?

Now if you want to DIY something to gain a new skill or be more proficient in something, that’s wonderful. But encouraging everyone to fix their own hot water heater or install their own tile backsplash just doesn’t make sense. And it seems like all the DIY posts I’m seeing all make the same mistake: you’re not paying yourself for the work you’ve done.

What I mean is, not literally taking money out of an account and paying yourself but when you’re looking at doing something, you need to figure in the cost of your hours in trying to understand what makes sense financially.

I put this kind of a mistake on par with the mental trap of “this item is 50% off so I’ll buy it”, even though you might not have purchased it previously had it not been on sale. I think we’re all guilty of this mistake, myself included.

Recently I saw a post for someone who’d taken on the project of installing their own backsplash, which I applaud. But looking at their post, I couldn’t help but think they were absolutely insane. This person took 50 hours to learn and install their own backsplash. 50 hours!

I don’t know about you and what your time is worth, but 50 hours is a lot of time. I also don’t know if you’ve ever had to portion your time out, in a freelance kind of way, but I have for design or drafting work and you’re looking at paying me a minimum of $50 an hour. This is because I’ve got to pay taxes on this income and my effective rate goes down as a result of this. Now also keep in mind that your time, your precious time that you’ve been given on this earth, is the most valuable “item” that you possess.

There are significant opportunity costs that come with time, even for those of you that have already reached financial independence- your time is still your most significant asset to this life you live.

So let’s say that this DIY guy was charging himself a modest $20 for his time (unheard of for skilled laborers in my area, even at side work prices), at 50 hours he’s looking at $1,000 for labor alone to install his backsplash, plus the cost of materials! In my area this would completely cover the labor AND materials for a modest ceramic backsplash (depending on what you choose, I’m talking basic white subway tile), for a professional installer.

THIS IS INSANITY.

You are much better off spending your time with your family, your friends, going for a walk, taking a bike ride, reading a book, than you are sweating over a backsplash.

I know, I know, I can hear you right now- but “he’s gaining a skill” and “he’s improving his abilities”. Maybe. But maybe he’s also wasting his time fumbling around with a trowel and a tile saw when he should really be devoting his life to something more enjoyable and more productive for the future.

Maybe this is particularly hitting close to home for me being the Fi Kitchen Guy and all- maybe I wouldn’t be on this rant if he was for instance learning to do his own brakes on his car- a skill that would be quite useful as this is a repetitive exercise he’d need to do over and over, but installing a backsplash? He’ll probably never need to do this again and if he does it’ll be few and far between, he’ll have lost the knowledge and skill he’d previously gained and have to fumble around all over again. Remember, a skill is only useful if you actually use it.

The Fine Print: Sometimes its better to just pay a professional

What I really want to convey with this post is just don’t fool yourself. If you’re attempting a project, make a list of materials AND labor that you think you’re going to expend. Then double that labor or at least multiply it by 1-1/2 times, because on a new project you’re going to be learning as you go. It’s going to take you much longer than it would a professional and you really need to account for that- all of it. All the hours scratching your head, all the extra trips to the big box store when you forgot that piece of edging or grabbed the wrong color grout- ALL of this needs to be accounted for.

This is the reality of the remodeling industry. I’ve spent 10 years in this world and I’ve often seen these kinds of mistakes erode profit and make a builder/remodeler think they’re making “X” on a job only to sit down after the dust has cleared (literally) and realize they made “Y” on the job.