So here’s a little secret you may or may not know. I am very analytical of everything i see or do. One of those things i tend to analyze alot is purchases. No I’m not cheap, i just like to think about what i’m spending money on. One of the ways i do this is look at entertainment.

Take the movies for example, I see movies as a worthwhile expense, they are fun, and not too expensive. So I compare other outings to the same cost ratio as movies. To watch a movie it costs roughly $10 for a ticket nowadays. So $10=2 hours of entertainment. Now when I go to buy a video game, I think to myself: how many hours of entertainment can i get out of this? Usually the games I purchase for the 360, offer up a good 20 or so hours of entertainment before I get bored. So $50/20hours=$2.50/hour, a 50% savings over the movies. Poker is one of my favorite past times, I enjoy the competition, and the possibility to end up making money enjoying myself warrants the risk of spending on entertainment. This isn’t a mindset any would be poker pro should take though, as it will probably not work if you compare it this way.
This same formula can be modified to any of your activities. Look at a business lunch, if you think your ultimate returns can exceed your target return on time/cost, then you need to be doing more networking, and lunch is the perfect venue for this. Hopefully you’ll look at some of these things in a different light.