This post is part of my Freaky Financial Fridays series, where I argue a case from an opposing view, generally in contradiction to my own philosophy or conventional financial advice.

Comparison shopping sounds like a great idea. Research the best product or service to meet your need, exhaustively look for the best deal, and only make a purchase when you’re sure that you couldn’t possibly save any more money. The problem is that such a method is often a waste of time and thus a waste of money.

Undervaluing your time is selling yourself short. Your time is probably worth a lot more than your employer pays you on an hourly basis. To estimate what your time is worth, you can use this calculator.

Once you know how valuable your time is, you quickly see why comparison shopping isn’t worth it. A quick check on a comparison shopping websites might be worthwhile, but any more effort than that and you’ll probably be spending more money in terms of your time, than you can hope to save.

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Today, I will make my first post in a new series called Freaky Financial Fridays. For these posts, I intend to argue the opposing view to my personal opinion or a piece of generally accepted financial advice. My goal is not to show how ludicrous the opposing view is, but rather to try to make genuine arguments in favor of that view. Personal situation greatly influences which course of action is best, so it’s likely that some people will find this information applicable. Even if you do not, looking at things from another angle may help to strengthen your own opinion. I intend to write a post for this series a few times a month. If nothing else, this series should prove to be entertaining.