“The real price of everything, what everything really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it.” ― Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
“All the things which cause complaint or dread are like the taxes of life—things from which, my dear Lucilius, you should never hope for exemption or seek escape.” — Seneca
According to Wikipedia, opportunity cost is the value of the choice of the best alternative cost while making a decision.
Every thought has an opportunity cost. Each decision is a transaction. What taxes of life are you happily to pay? Would you trade your life for the ones you read about in books?
If you choose to use an hour of your life on one thing—you can’t use that hour for something else. Choose wisely.
”List Price v.s Real Price” by Sahil Bloom
Three factors:
- The things we want: Financial success, healthy relationships, physical and mental health, etc.
- The price of those things: The obvious and non-obvious inputs required to buy or earn those outputs.
- The willingness to pay those prices: Whether we are willing to pay the price to buy or earn those things we want, or if we try to go “bargain hunting” for cheaper alternatives. Most people focus on (1) but very rarely think about (2) and (3).
- List Price: The actual, direct price to pay for the thing you want. The effort, hard work, discipline, and energy required to buy or earn that thing
- Real Price: The List Price, plus the hidden, indirect price in the form of the tradeoffs and opportunity cost of the pursuit. The Real Price incorporates the price of the things you said “no” to by saying “yes” to this one thing.
There’s the List Price (what it costs on the surface) you see, and the Real Price (what you have to give up to get it) you don’t.
There are many things in life that look like a great deal based on the List Price, but a ripoff based on the Real Price. Before you go after anything, make sure you’re willing to pay both.
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