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It is Monday and most of us are all back to work. If you rather be somewhere else right now, then this article is for you!!

Everyone knows (and probably complained before) that lawyers charge us per hour of their services. However, there are many other professions that do the same thing. If we think about it, most people that have a job technically do. We work 40 hours a week (hopefully), and get paid for the work that we do during this time. If we don’t feel that we are charging per hour, then we should not complain ever again about how many hours we are working because we would otherwise be paid to get things done and not by time!!

If you have complained before, you should have a value of your time (divide your salary by the hours you work). For the rest of the article, let’s assume that our story character Joe earns $30 per hour (equating to $62,400 per year before tax at 40 hour work weeks). This means that every time Joe works 60 minutes during work hours, it is worth $30.

Joe complains about his work because he thinks he is underpaid. He is also a very driven person, working side jobs like freelance web design for $1,000 per website on the weekends. He tries to do a really good job, and roughly spends 30 hours on each website. Joe also reads Personal Finance with Money Ning and was convinced that buying a Wii is the best investment he could make in 2007. Since he is so happy with the game console, he spends about 1 hour each day on it.

If someone asked Joe whether he wanted to design a website or play on the Wii instead of working his primary job, he would pick the first two choices instantly. However, Joe only earns $33 per hour on website design! He is so happy playing on his Wii but the opportunity cost of doing so every day is $40! Would he still pick the same choices if he was asked whether he wanted to work for $40 or play the Wii for the next hour?

The above scenario might not fit everyone, but I am sure you can come up with your own version of this. Why have Monday Blues? We choose to work, so let’s continue to be happy with our choice. If we cannot be happy, we should do something about it. If not, let’s think positive and start off the week positively!

People who have a better attitude towards work will end up being more successful in his/her career. More success eventually leads to more income; more income means a greater flexibility to save more!

Have a great work week!