Is It Worth Buying Calculator

About this calculator

This calculator applies an idea popularized by 'Your Money or Your Life' (Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez): instead of judging a purchase by its price tag alone, convert that price into the actual hours of your life-energy it costs, based on your real hourly wage — your income divided by the hours you actually work to earn it, including commuting and other work-related time the book argues should count too.

A $60 pair of shoes means something very different to someone earning $15/hour (4 hours of work) than to someone earning $100/hour (36 minutes), and seeing the number in hours rather than dollars tends to trigger a more honest gut reaction about whether something is really worth it than the price alone does.

People practicing mindful spending, budgeting, or pursuing financial independence (the FIRE movement draws heavily on this exact framework) use this kind of hours-of-work reframing as a quick pre-purchase reality check, entering the price and their income to see the true time cost before they buy.