You’ve probably heard a million times that “time is money.” Whether you embrace that saying as a mantra that keeps you working on your successful side hustle or instead consider it an unnecessary insult against your all-too-rare free time, you’ve gotta admit that there’s an element of truth to it. When you’re at the office, your hours quite literally translate into a dollar value, and when you’re off the clock, you can pay other people to help you with tasks you’d rather not handle or otherwise shell out cash money for fun activities or events. While the time/money equivalency is an oft-quoted one, you’ve probably thought less about how these two concepts figure into the quality of a romantic partnership. Harvard Business School (HBS) has done the legwork on this question, and what they’ve learned is going to raise the stakes on that budget you’ve been working up.

According to a working paper released from HBS earlier this year, spending money on time-saving luxuries is, in fact, beneficial to.....