[KenWittlief]

One other thing - learning how to do things yourself is one of the most valuable skills you can develop. Car repair, home repair and maintance, landscaping...

the reason is not obvious: taxes!

let say you want to fix your truck, and it would cost $2,000 for the work.

Ok, you take it to someone. To pay that $2k bill, you have to earn about $2,500 or more, depending on your tax bracket, to get $2k in take home pay.

So you pay the mechanic, now thats income for him, and he has to pay income tax on that money too (the labor part) and business taxes or self employment taxes, so by the time its all said and done, he will have about $1,500 in his pocket (if the cost was all labor, not for parts)

and in the end, your truck has about $1,500 worth the actual work done on it, for which you had to earn $2,500

where'd that other $1,000 go? taxes.

so by doing the work yourself, divide out how much you would have paid someone else by how long it takes you to do the work - and its really like you have earned that money - paying yourself

but when you do work for yourself, you pay no tax - so even if you are not good at fixing your car, even if it takes you twice as long as it would take someone else, you still come out way ahead.

and you learn a lot in the process.