How It Works - TimeCost

Calculator

Time to afford

The core conversion. How long you'd need to work to pay for something.

total hours = cost ÷ hourly rate
minutes = round(total hours × 60)
display = minutes ÷ 60 h minutes mod 60 m

A £300 item at £15/hr = 20h 0m

Workday equivalent

Puts the result in context - how many 8-hour days is that?

workdays = total hours ÷ 8

20 hours = about 2.5 workdays

Hourly rate from wages

Converts any pay frequency into an hourly rate. Weekly hours default to 40 if unset.

hours/year = weekly hours × 52

Wage type	Hourly rate
Hourly	as entered
Weekly	amount ÷ weekly hours
Bi-weekly	amount ÷ (weekly hours × 2)
Monthly	amount ÷ (hours/year ÷ 12)
Annual	amount ÷ hours/year

Wealth comparison

Billionaire time-to-afford

Compares how long a billionaire would "work" for the same item, using their annual wealth growth spread across a standard working year (2,080 hours = 40 hrs/wk × 52 wks).

hourly growth = annual growth ÷ 2,080
their time = item cost (USD) ÷ hourly growth

If annual growth is $150B, hourly growth ≈ $72.1M. A $1,000 item takes about 0.05 milliseconds.

"Could buy X of yours"

How many of your work-hours fit into the billionaire's work-hours for the same item.

your hours = cost ÷ your hourly rate
their hours = cost ÷ their hourly growth
ratio = your hours ÷ their hours

Budget

Discretionary income

What you actually have left after expenses - and what each free hour is worth.

monthly hours = weekly hours × 4.33
discretionary = monthly income − monthly expenses
hourly value = discretionary ÷ monthly hours

£3,000 income − £2,200 expenses = £800 discretionary. At 173 hrs/month, each hour is worth £4.62.

Savings progress

remaining = goal − current savings
progress % = (current savings ÷ goal) × 100

Freelance

Effective hourly rate

Your blended rate across all clients - what you actually earned per hour worked.

total earned = ∑(hours × rate) for each job
total hours = ∑ hours for each job
effective rate = total earned ÷ total hours

10h at £20/hr + 5h at £40/hr = £400 ÷ 15h = £26.67/hr effective

Dinaro

Earning dinaro

Children earn dinaro by completing chores, at the family's hourly rate.

dinaro earned = chore hours × family rate per hour

0.5 hours at 4 dinaro/hr = 2 dinaro

Savings bonus (interest)

A daily bonus applied when the child's balance meets the family threshold. Compounded once per calendar day.

if balance ≥ threshold:
bonus = balance × (interest rate ÷ 100)

100 dinaro balance at 5% daily = 5 dinaro bonus

Parent tax

A daily percentage deduction simulating bills or subscriptions - teaching that money has upkeep.

tax = balance × (tax rate ÷ 100)

Recurring expenses

Fixed daily costs that simulate subscriptions or utilities.

cost = expense hours × family rate per hour

Couples

Invisible work value

Converts logged household work into a monetary value using the partnership's hourly rate.

hours = minutes ÷ 60
value = hours × hourly rate

Partner split

Shows each partner's share of total household work for the selected period.

total = partner A minutes + partner B minutes
A % = round(A minutes ÷ total × 100)
B % = 100 − A %

Constants

Constant	Value	Used in
Working hours/year	2,080	Wage conversions, wealth comparison
Weeks/month (approx.)	4.33	Budget monthly hours
Default work week	40 hours	Wage conversions when unset
Default workday	8 hours	Workday equivalent
Dinaro default rate	4 dinaro/hr	Chore earnings