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Often I find my clients focusing on only one aspect of money: their dissatisfaction of how much money they make. For example, one of my clients, a successful couple who make together around $150,000 a year (a significant amount to most) and yet they were feeling like this was not enough and they still needed to make more money. One of the reasons they felt they needed more money was because they had two children and the oldest had just started college. In addition, the second child was starting college the next year. They were in a bit of shock about all the unexpected costs. On top of the financial pressure they felt from college expenses, they had not seen any raises for several years because of the downturn in the economy. They were feeling a lot of financial stress and they could think of only one way out, which was to increase their paychecks. The husband had applied for a new position that would provide the increase in pay they both thought would solve all of their money issues. When the couple came to me for their regular financial review, I asked them what they thought this new job was going to cost them? They paused for a moment and said, "Probably just a few more hours of working time a week." I then asked if they had ever gone through an exercise that would calculate what those few more hours a week would really cost them. I further explained that it costs money to work, and sometimes it’s a lot more than just your time. So, it’s important to know your REAL hourly wage not what your paycheck says, not the one you think you’re worth... you want to know the real return on your investment of time. They both agreed they had never really looked at their pay this way and were willing to run through the exercise of calculating the "REAL Hourly Wage." The formula I use with my clients is the following: [Your Real Hourly Wage] = [Your Adjusted Income] ÷ [Your Adjusted Job Hours]

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