Milo Quell

Free Tool

True Cost Calculator

Every price tag hides two other numbers: the hours of your life it takes to earn, and what that money could become if you invested it instead. Here they are.

$
$
%
yrs

This purchase costs you

1.4 work weeks

of your life, at $22/hour take-home

Or, invested for 20 years at 7%

$4,644

3.9× what you'd spend today

Every purchase has two prices: the money, and the future money it could have become. Neither means don't buy it — just buy it knowing the real number.

Price is not the same as cost

The number on the tag is the price. The cost is what you actually give up to pay it. That's two things: the slice of your working life spent earning the money after tax, and the future version of that money — because a dollar invested doesn't stay a dollar, it compounds.

Reframing a purchase in hours worked is a trick borrowed from the book Your Money or Your Life: money is really life energy, traded in hours you don't get back. A subscription that costs half a work day every month feels different from one that costs “$120 a year,” even though they're identical.

This isn't about never spending

Plenty of things are worth the hours and worth the opportunity cost. The calculator isn't here to make you feel guilty — it's here to make the trade visible, so the yes is deliberate and the no is easy.

Frequently asked

What is the true cost of a purchase?

The true cost of a purchase is more than its price tag. It includes the hours of your life you worked to earn that money after tax, and the opportunity cost — what that same money could have grown into if you had invested it instead. Seeing both makes spending decisions feel far more concrete.

How do you calculate the cost of something in hours worked?

Divide the price by your take-home pay per hour. If you earn $30 an hour after tax and something costs $150, it costs you five hours of your life. This calculator estimates take-home pay from your salary or wage, then converts any price into hours, days, or weeks of work.

What is opportunity cost in spending?

Opportunity cost is the value of the best thing you gave up to make a choice. In spending, it is what your money could have become if invested rather than spent. A $1,000 purchase today, invested at 7% for 20 years, would be worth nearly $3,900 — so the real cost of buying now is closer to that future figure.

Does this mean I should never buy anything?

No. The point is not guilt, it is awareness. Some purchases are absolutely worth the hours and the opportunity cost. The goal is to buy deliberately — knowing the real number — rather than on autopilot, so your money goes to the things you actually value most.

Keep reading

The reason a card purchase feels cheaper than cash is the same reason we underweight the true cost of things.

Why credit cards feel like play money →
Milo Quell — amused

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