Should I use my gross or net income?

Always use your net (post-tax) income. You can't buy things with money the government takes, so using your gross hourly rate creates a falsely optimistic time cost.

Does this mean I shouldn't buy anything nice?

Not at all. If a $2,000 mattress costs you 100 hours of labor, but gives you 10 years of incredible sleep, it's a phenomenal ROI. It's meant to stop mindless spending, not joyful spending.

How do I calculate this if I'm salaried?

Take your annual take-home pay and divide it by the number of hours you work a year. For a standard 40-hour work week with 2 weeks of vacation, you work roughly 2,000 hours a year.

What if it's an investment, like a laptop for work?

The calculator is best used for consumption, not investment. If a tool helps you increase your hourly rate later, the initial 'Time Cost' pays a dividend back over time.

Is my time literally money?

Yes and no. You can always earn more money, but you can never earn more time. That's why trading your money to buy back time (like paying for a direct flight instead of a layover) is often the optimal mathematically sound choice.

Time is Money

Convert purchase costs into hours of your life.

📜 The Origins

Everything you buy costs more than just dollars; it costs the time you spent earning those dollars. This tool helps you decide if that new gadget is worth 3 days of your life.

🚀 Master the Tool

Input your hourly wage and the price of an item. We'll show you the 'Time Cost' of the purchase, giving you a fresh perspective on spending.

Time is Money

Calculate the true cost of purchases in "Life Hours".

Your Hourly Wage ($)

Item Cost ($)

This item costs you

3.0 hours

180 Minutes

0.4 Work Days

"Is it really worth 3.0 hours of your life sitting in a chair?"

Stop Thinking in Dollars

When you look at a $1,000 phone, you process it as a numerical currency value. But if you make $20 an hour, that phone actually costs 50 hours of your life.

That's over an entire work week of waking up early, commuting, sitting in meetings, and dealing with your boss—just to buy a piece of glass and silicon.

The True Cost

The "Time is Money" framework completely re-wires your brain's impulse control by converting arbitrary currency back into the only truly finite resource you have: your time.

How the Math Works

The core calculation is fundamentally straightforward division: *Cost / Hourly Wage = Time Cost*.

However, to provide a hyper-accurate picture, the calculator can also adjust for post-tax income. Simply dividing by your gross wage is a fallacy because the government takes a percentage. If you make $20/hr but take home $15/hr after taxes, the script divides the item's cost by your *true net wage* to output the exact days, hours, and minutes of human labor required to acquire the item.