LifeCost

Convert any price to hours of your life

Productivity

Personal Finance

Budgeting

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Happy to share the story behind this one! The inspiration was pretty personal. I was about to buy something online and paused on the price. Not because I couldn't afford it, but because the dollar amount genuinely meant nothing to me emotionally. I started mentally calculating how many hours I'd actually worked to earn that money, and suddenly the decision felt completely different. I wanted a tool that did that instantly, so I built one. The problem I was trying to solve is that money feels abstract. We tap cards, click "buy now," and the transaction is done before our brain registers what just happened. The real cost of anything isn't the dollar amount, it's the hours of your life you traded to earn it. Most people have never calculated their true after-tax hourly rate, let alone applied it to a purchase before making it. LifeCost makes that instant. As for how it evolved, it started as a simple calculator. Price in, hours out. But the more I used it, the more I realised the number alone wasn't enough. Seeing "52 hours" is more meaningful than "$1,099" but it still doesn't tell you how to feel about 52 hours relative to your income and lifestyle. That's where Lifestyle Mode came from — the same 52 hours feels very different to someone living frugally versus someone with high disposable income. Then the contextual insights came from noticing that "is this worth it?" is a completely different question for a phone upgrade versus a gym membership versus a luxury watch. The tool grew to meet the actual decision, not just the math behind it. Would love to hear what result surprises you most when you try it!