20 Second Advisor: Dog Grooming and Market Efficiency

Just last week, I decided to get my dog groomed. Dog grooming is new to me….something that I am not familiar with. My first task was to do a google search, call several groomers in town, comparison shop, and then decide which one to go to. Side note: one of the groomers is super convenient to me (walking distance).
Long story short, I ended up wasting about an hour of my time calling around and comparison shopping….and I ended up right back where I started….at the dog groomer right down the street from me.
Moral of the story: I believe markets are efficient in the world of investing. So why shouldn’t I believe that pricing is fairly efficient in my day to day living as well? A gallon of milk should be roughly the same price from one store to the next. Similarly, all of the dog groomers were within $10 of each other. My 1 hour of time is worth more than $10.
Next time you find yourself trying to save a buck, don’t underestimate the value of your time and remind yourself that we live in a world where markets are usually pretty efficient.