Life Economics 101

Everyone has scarce resources that they must allocate.  I need to get dinner tonight.  I could go to St. Marks Market and get a potato or I could get pineapple chicken curry (my fav) from the thai restaurant.   Obviously, the potato will cost less... but I have to cook it.  I have to take time and prep my food.  My time!  Which has a certain value to it.  I could be doing something else while making that potato.  I could be playing soccer, studying, writing, programming, whatever...  But now I have to stop and make my potato.  What happens if I'm not comfortable in the kitchen?  What if I don't know how to cook.  I'd most definitely have to pay the extra money to have my food prepped for me and in that case, it might be worth it.  For me, its all cool though, I know how to cook and I feel pretty comfortable with a chef's knife.  I'll sacrifice my time for the money which I can then use to buy something cool later on.


That's "opportunity cost" (you'll hear me toss that term around):  the cost of taking or passing on an opportunity.  Now, this seems like a pretty simple example of an opportunity cost, and it is.  It really only took a couple of minutes to cook up a delightful dinner with my potato (and chicken, kalamata olives, peppers, garlic -- still all cheaper than the curry) so the cost of my time was negligible.  Also, it started raining out, so no soccer...  you get the point.  So how do you measure the opportunity cost of starting over?  There's no right answer.  Here is what I learned:

Comfort is overrated.  What was more important?  Feeling comfortable in a familiar place that I could make a lot of money or my happiness.  I chose the later, hoping that the former will follow eventually.  So the trade off... comfort.  Stepping out of your comfort zone is a very difficult and scary thing to do.  Yet it can be so rewarding as well.  Now, I understand that the cost changes depending on your situation.  I luckily have no mortgage, no dependents, no financial burdens except for a boat loan.  So to me... my happiness took precedence.  My point is, you may not be able to start over or make drastic changes in your life, but once in a while... step outside of your comfort zone...  Go try something new.  Join a local sports league or club, go to a bar and watch a soccer match in the midst of 100's of screaming german soccer fans.  Try a new hobby like brewing or blog writing.   Go for a walk in a place you never have before.  Tell someone you have a crush on that you like them or just tell a friend that you care about them.  You might discover something awesome and it may very well be worth the opportunity cost of maintaining the status quo.

Exploring Central Park for the first time