DECISION TOOL
Is This Worth It?
Every purchase has a sticker price and a true price. The true price is what that money would have been worth if you'd invested it instead. Enter any purchase and see the real math.
Not financial advice. Uses compound growth at your expected return rate.
The Purchase
What you normally invest each month
TRUE COST AT RETIREMENT
What this money would be worth if invested
MONTHS OF YOUR LIFE
months of take-home pay
RETIREMENT DELAY
months of savings skipped
WEALTH MULTIPLIER
every $1 spent = this by retirement
% OF ANNUAL INCOME
of your yearly take-home
OUR READ
Enter a purchase amount to see the tradeoff.
Opportunity Cost Over Time
What the purchase amount grows to if invested instead, year by year.
What Else Could This Buy?
The Math Behind the Tool
Every dollar you spend has an invisible second price: the future wealth you give up by not investing it. At 7% annual returns, money doubles roughly every 10 years. A $25,000 car purchase at age 35 doesn't just cost $25,000 — it costs the compounded future value of that money by retirement.
This doesn't mean never spend money. It means spending with eyes open. The goal isn't to feel guilty about purchases — it's to see the real price tag before you decide. Some things are genuinely worth their true cost. Most impulse buys aren't.
The retirement delay metric shows how many months of investing this purchase represents. If you normally invest $500/month, a $10,000 purchase equals 20 months of contributions — contributions you're choosing to spend instead of invest.