Used to think coworking spaces were a waste of money, heard someone in Chiang Mai explain their monthly budget changed my mind

I was grabbing coffee at this place near the old city and overheard a guy talking to his friend. He said he pays $150 a month for a desk, which sounds like a lot when you can just work from a cafe for the price of a $3 latte. But then he broke it down. He said between the unreliable wifi at his Airbnb, buying 4 or 5 coffees a day to justify sitting there, and the noise, he was losing like 3 hours of productive time every day. He figured his hourly rate was around $25, so that was $75 a day in lost time. $150 a month suddenly looked like a bargain. I had always just seen the upfront cost, never thought about what I was losing by not having a proper setup. Has anyone else run the numbers on their work setup and been surprised?

2 comments

2 Comments

mia44213d ago

People really don't factor in the hidden costs of working from cafes. The constant need to buy something to stay, the anxiety of your laptop battery dying, the weird looks if you sit too long without ordering again. That $3 latte turns into $15 real quick when you're there for 5 hours and feel obligated to keep ordering. The guy's math makes total sense when you add up all those little drains on your time and money. Once you start treating your work setup like an investment in your actual output instead of just an expense, the numbers look totally different.

xena_murphy13d ago

Totally agree with @mia442, I used to think cafe working was cool until I actually added up all the hidden costs. That latte tax is real and it completely changes the math on whether it's worth it.