Is This Worth It? The Calculator for Every Purchase You're Second-Guessing

Before every significant purchase, there's a moment of hesitation. Is this worth it?

The question is real but usually stays vague. Our worth-it calculator makes it specific.

Price in Hours of Work

Convert any price to hours of work at your after-tax hourly rate. A $400 purchase on a $50,000 salary ($24/hour after tax) costs 17 hours of your working life.

That framing doesn't make the purchase wrong. But it creates an honest comparison: is this thing worth 17 hours of my time?

The Cost-Per-Use Method

For durable goods — appliances, clothes, tools, electronics — the relevant metric is cost per use, not sticker price.

A $120 jacket you wear 150 times costs $0.80/wear. A $40 jacket you wear 8 times costs $5/wear. The expensive jacket is cheaper in the metric that actually matters.

Before buying anything you'll use repeatedly, estimate your realistic use frequency. Divide price by expected uses. Compare to alternatives.

When "Worth It" Math Fails

Pure cost-per-use reasoning misses the value of experience purchases. A vacation, a concert, a meal at a special restaurant — these have value that doesn't reduce to cost-per-hour or cost-per-use. Joy, memories, relationships aren't well-captured by the calculator.

Use the calculator for purchases where value is primarily functional. For experience purchases, the relevant question is whether you'll regret not doing it — which is a different calculation entirely.

[Use the worth-it calculator →](https://doesitaddup.com)

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