About this receipt
The Price of Time swaps the unit on every price tag. Money is how we compare things to each other; time is how we feel them. So instead of dollars, rupees or euros, everything here is priced in the working hours you traded to get the money.
A coffee becomes minutes. A phone becomes days. A car becomes months. A subscription you forgot about becomes a number of working days every single year, and the grid at the bottom of the receipt colours them in.
The paper rate and the real rate
The simple calculation divides your gross pay by the hours you are paid for. It is the number most people have in their heads, and it is flattering.
The book Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez argued for a more honest figure: count only the money you keep after tax and the costs of having the job, and count every hour the job takes, including the commute and the unpaid evenings. Open Make it honest and the page does that sum for you, then lets you price everything with either rate.
The real rate is only as good as your guesses, and it leaves out things that are hard to put a number on, such as benefits or a pension. It is a way of seeing your time, not a payslip.
How to use it
- Enter your pay, choose the currency and the period it is paid in, and check the hours.
- Optionally, open Make it honest and switch to the real rate.
- Type any price into the register to see its cost in time, and when you would have it paid off if you started work on a Monday morning.
- Ring items up on the receipt. Mark subscriptions and bills as weekly, monthly or yearly to see what they take from a whole year.
- Save the receipt as an image if you want to keep it or show someone.
Questions
What is The Price of Time?
A free calculator that prices things in the hours of work they cost you instead of money. Enter what you earn, in any currency and for any pay period, and every price becomes minutes, hours, days or months of your working life. Build a receipt of real purchases and subscriptions and see how much of your working year it takes.
How is my hourly rate worked out?
On paper, it is your pay converted to a year, divided by the hours you work in a year (hours per week times weeks worked). The honest version goes further: it takes off your tax rate and work costs such as commuting, and adds commute time and unpaid extra hours, because those are also hours you give to the job. Both rates are shown side by side.
What is the real hourly rate?
It is an idea popularised by the personal finance book Your Money or Your Life: count the money you actually keep and every hour the job really takes. For most people the real hourly rate is noticeably lower than the paper one, which makes everything cost more of your time. The figures you enter are your own estimates, so the result is a rough guide.
Are the example prices accurate?
No, they are rough United States examples to get you started, not live prices. Every item can be edited or removed, and you can add your own with a price and how often you pay it. If you choose a currency other than US dollars the receipt starts empty, because converted American prices would be misleading.
How do subscriptions work on the receipt?
Mark an item as weekly, monthly or yearly and the receipt shows both the time for one payment and the time it takes from a whole year of work. The year grid at the bottom colours in the working days your receipt uses, with repeating costs and one-off purchases in different colours.
Is my salary stored or sent anywhere?
Nothing you type is sent anywhere. All of the maths happens in your browser. Your numbers are only kept between visits if you tick Remember on this device, which saves them in your browser's local storage, and unticking it deletes them.
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