Cash-rich, time-poor: why the wealthy are always in a hurry

Will making more money save you time? Or will it make you feel more rushed than ever? I’ve been pondering this question because a friend challenged me to figure out whether income poverty and time poverty go hand in hand.

There are cash-poor, timepoor people, who juggle multiple shifts with child care and spend precious hours on long commutes. There are cash-poor, time-rich people — pensioners or job seekers wondering how to fill the day. But, on average, are richer people more or less busy than those with less money?

On one point, the evidence is clear: whether or not people on high incomes are busy, they think they are. In a forthcoming book, Spending Time, economist Daniel Hamermesh looks at “time stress,” which is measured not by looking at a time-use diary but instead by surveying people to ask if they often feel “rushed” or “pressed for time.”

New parents, especially new mothers, are more likely to complain of time-stress. So are people who work longer hours — no surprise there. But what about income? Prof. Hamermesh finds that “people who were always or often stressed had the highest earnings... earnings were lowest among the never-stressed.” Money goes hand-in-hand with the sense that there aren’t enough hours in the day.

This isn’t just for the obvious reason that high-income people spend more time doing paid work, although on average they do. (They also sleep less and watch less television.) Of people who work the same hours, having a higher income per hour is correlated with feeling pushed for time. Even people who don’t do any paid work at all feel more rushed if they have more money.

On the face of it, this makes little sense: surely, for any given workload, money is a timesaver rather than a time-sink? Logically, yes. Psychologically, no. It seems that people with more money find more things to do with their time, and so feel more time pressure.

For example, someone with money to spare may book nights at the theatre, reserve tables at fancy restaurants and sign up