How Many Work Hours Does a Product Cost?
Convert the price of any product into hours of your work, based on your income. A different way to look at your spending, in Canadian dollars.
Your Details
160h ≈ 40 hours × 4 weeks. Adjust to your actual work schedule.
The Real Cost
Work Hours Needed
42h
≈ 6 days of work (8h workday)
💬 In Simple Words
Every hour you work is worth $21.88. To buy something that costs $900, you need to work 42 hours — the equivalent of 6 days of your time.
Estimate based on your net income and hours worked. Does not account for overtime, commissions, or variable income.
Examples: How Many Hours Do Common Products Cost?
With a net income of $3,500 and 160 hours a month (hourly value of $21.88), here's how some common products look in work hours. Prices are illustrative only — adjust them to your own context:
| Product | Price (illustrative) | Work Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Smartphone | $900 | 42h |
| Gaming console | $600 | 28h |
| Laptop | $1,200 | 55h |
| Domestic flight ticket | $350 | 16h |
Where Does This Idea Come From?
The concept of converting expenses into life time comes from the book Your Money or Your Life (Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez), which proposes seeing every purchase not in dollars, but in the hours of your life it cost to earn that money.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How is the number of work hours something costs calculated?
- Your net monthly income is divided by the hours you work per month to get your hourly value. Then, the price of the product is divided by that hourly value to find out how many hours of your work that purchase represents.
- Why think of purchases in 'hours of work' instead of dollars?
- Converting the price to work hours makes the real cost of a purchase more tangible — it's not the same to think '$900' as to think 'nearly a full week of work'. This way of looking at spending is part of the 'Your Money or Your Life' concept, popular in personal finance.
- Should I use my gross or net income for this calculation?
- Use your net income (what you actually take home after federal and provincial tax, CPP, and EI deductions) so the calculation reflects your real purchasing power.