By nature, I’m frugal. I love getting a great deal, and getting the most of out of my purchases. When I was fifteen I got a new MacBook Pro for free by working those “get a free MacBook pro” ponzi schemes online: my obsession with a great deal started early.

I’ve learned that it’s often worth paying for premium services when your time is at stake. Not only your current time, but time that a premium service could possibly save in the future.

Opportunity cost is a real thing: it’s important to consider what you can’t do or time that could be possibly spent on fixing a future problem with the service or product.

Here are a couple of failures from recent memory:

• Low Cost HSAs. I have a high deductible health insurance plan coupled with a health savings account. I picked one from a big name bank, with average ratings, and the best fee structure. Wrong choice: the time spent on phone, faxes (no ability to communicate over email??), etc have incurred most cost in terms of time than I ever saved in fees.
• Local Banks. My local bank has a great fee structure and a convenient location nearby. However, they are lagging behind in keeping up with tech advancements. Because of their remote deposit limitations, I’ve lost lots of time driving to and from the bank. I should have signed up with Simple or BoA.
• Budget Home Router. Anytime I spend fiddling with router settings is time lost on better, more interesting problems. I used to attempt to save money on routers: I now buy the most expensive router I can get.
• Price Shopping. Amazon has great shipping, customer service, review system, etc. It isn’t always the cheapest. However, it’s not worth my time to shop around for a better price. Amazon is nearly always within 10-20% of the best price – and most of the time it is the best price out there. It’s not worth my time to price shop.
• Low Cost Phone Service. One dropped business call and the $10 you saved that month on your cell phone bill most likely isn’t worth the perceived sloppiness on your end.