The Four Resources Framework: A Model of Personal Resource Allocation, Conversion and Decision-Making (Version 1.3)

This paper introduces the Four Resources Framework, a conceptual model for analysing personal decisions as allocations and conversions among four broad resource classes: the self, money, reputation, and time. The framework treats decision quality not as the maximisation of any single resource but as the selection of an acceptable resource mix under constraints, uncertainty, and changing future consequences. Version 1.3 adds an explicit operational protocol (Section 16.1–16.3) for measuring the context-dependent shadow value λk(c) and the uncertainty term U(c) introduced in Section 4, and revises the integration with the Personal Reinforcement Interval (PRI, Kristal 2026) accordingly. Status: theoretical working paper, not yet independently validated — a structured hypothesis and practical decision aid, not an established scientific theory.