What does this really cost?
Money is stored freedom. So the true price of a thing isn't its price tag — it's the savings needed to pay for it forever, and the months of work those savings cost you. Put a number in and see it in the only currency that matters: your time.
The Freedom Price Tag
A habit, a subscription, a bill — something you’ll pay for good.
Sets the pace — how fast you build the pot.
The real price
2 years, 4 months
of working life
To fund €80/month for good, you need €28,800 invested. At your pace, that’s how much longeryou’d keep working to build it.
Worth it? Sometimes, absolutely. The point isn’t to stop — it’s to know what you’re trading.
A reframe, not a budgeting rule. Spend freely on what genuinely makes your life better — being a miser is just being broke on purpose. The forever price counts your savings invested at a steady real return; the one-off price is plain saving time. Not advice.
The link carries these exact numbers — nothing about you is stored.
Common questions
- When it says “€128 in 20 years”, will I really have €128?
- In today’s money, yes — and that’s the point. The return is counted after inflation, so €128 means the spending power €128 has right now, twenty years out. You’d have more euros than that on paper; they’d buy about what €128 buys today.
- A €40 mug is “1 day of working life”? How?
- It’s how long you’d work to save that €40 at your pace. Put away €1,000 a month and €40 is under a day’s worth of saving. The tool prices things in your time instead of your money — that’s the whole idea.
- Why is €40 a month over a year of work, when €40 once is a single day?
- Because “every month” you pay it for the rest of your life. To cover €40 a month forever you need a big pot behind it — about €14,400 — and building that at your pace takes around a year and two months. A one-off is just the one €40.
- “1 year, 2 months of working life” — is that after I retire, or before?
- Before. It’s how much longer you’d keep working and saving to build the extra pot that habit needs — so a €40-a-month subscription pushes your retirement date out by about a year and two months. Drop it and you reach the finish line that much sooner.
- What’s the “working days a month” slider for?
- Only so the time reads in real days. Most people work about 21 days a month; slide it to match your own month and the “1 day”, “2 weeks” and so on adjust with it. It doesn’t change the money — just how the time is spelled out.
- Is this telling me to stop spending?
- The opposite. It’s a reframe, not a budget — spend freely on what genuinely makes your life better, once you can see the real price in time. Being a miser is just being broke on purpose.
Nothing here is financial or investment advice — it’s arithmetic and education. Every tool runs in your browser; nothing you type is sent anywhere or saved. Decisions about your money are yours, ideally with a licensed adviser. I’m happily not one.
Bring me a challenge.
The Exit Audit, then ninety minutes: a straight verdict, real alternatives with their pros and cons, and your first move. If you want someone to nod along, I’m the wrong person to pay.