Why You Should Pay Someone Instead of Doing It Yourself

One of the most generous acts we can do is to pay someone to help us with everyday tasks.

Here’s the thing, many tasks we freely hire help without a second thought. We don’t hesitate to let that guy with a big stinky truck go to the dump for us each week, do we? And these days, it’s easier to see the value in not pretending to be a plumber, electrician, or especially an auto mechanic.

But for so many others, most of which we aren’t very good at, or outright despise doing—those are the ones we resist paying someone to do them for us. You know…

Cleaning. Painting. Fixing. Hauling. Moving. Ugh!

Why would I pay someone to do something I can do myself for free?

Well, for starters, there’s an obvious error in that kind of thinking. It’s not free. Our time, arguably our most valuable asset, and the universal thing we all want more of, is the same thing we squander for who knows why. So that we can do something ourselves? Why?

I believe part of it is a small version of a superhero complex… 

If I can do it, I’m not paying someone else to do it.”

—too many of us

The ‘I can do that’ syndrome robs us of free time with family and friends, and other activities we love. When do you think we’ll begin to understand we lose a lot of precious time doing things we don’t particularly like, just so we don’t pay someone else some money?

How well does that perspective work?

One guy who worked for me would pay himself the equivalent of a few bucks an hour before he would ever consider hiring someone to do something at his house. 

He would come to work exhausted on Monday mornings, bragging about how much he saved by slaving away on various home improvement projects he obviously didn’t enjoy.

Here’s the lesson in that story… think about your average hourly opportunity cost. Most projects won’t survive that scrutiny alone.

Jason spent his entire weekend working on a project only to avoid paying someone else to do a better job in a third of the time. 

Some of us need to learn the hard way.

I’m a big do-it-yourselfer, too. And I’ll admit I’ve been guilty of the same time and life robbing value equation myself.

Lanette was the first member of our household to recognize a more rewarding proposition. As my list of projects kept growing beyond my time available to attack them, she posed a very reasonable question.

“Why don’t you do the projects you like and pay a handyman to do the rest?”

I resisted at first. I wasn’t going to allow my manhood to be threatened by hiring someone to do my projects in my castle. But as I kept slogging away, I kept pondering the question. Until one day—EUREKA!—I finally got it.

Now, only fun DIY projects are allowed in our house. As a result, our weekend trips are now a lot better than trips to Home Depot ever were!

Let’s be honest. We either don’t ever get to everything that we want done and if we do, we usually don’t finish them. And if by some chance we do, we waste so much time that could have been spent living a little more of this life.

And here’s another cool thing… Other people love doing the same things we despise. The first housecleaning service Lanette and I hired was a married couple. They sang arias and ballads to each other as they cleaned our home in record time.

Plus, it gives them a job. A job they want! One of the most generous acts you can do. 

Did I mention that we don’t like to clean? 

“Hey, my love… your turn to scrub the shower!” Let’s call this one marital bliss through hiring a cleaning service. By the way, we agreed on this strategy upfront.

Pay someone… it’s worth every single penny.

Be untucked.

p.s. Oh! One last thing, if you know someone who’s bogged down trying to do everything themselves, maybe consider sharing this post with them. 

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