
Show HN: Pay with life – converts prices to time it takes you to earn the money - vertigolimbo
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pay-with-life/fmpbkddacnibdlnffgbjelegfcgnhdcm?hl=en-US
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vertigolimbo
Hi all,

Inspired to minimise my expenditures and be more aware of my spending habits I
wrote a small chrome extension.

"Pay with life" extension replaces any prices in the online stores with amount
of time it would take me to earn that money. As an example, if I earn 42m per
hour and pay no taxes, then a pair of new shoes that costs 42m on ebay would
cost 1 hour of my time. If I do, however, pay approx %30 in taxes, the 42m
shoes would cost me more than 1 hour.

This extension currently supports US dollars, GB pounds and euros. Please note
that some prices might still not be converted properly.

Play around with it and let me know your thoughts! I do look forward to all
the feedback ;)

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notheguyouthink
Curious way to look at it! Do you find it helps you in preventing spending?

For me a big mental change was switching to pre-paid goal/checking-accounts
for everything I need, and having big long term, aggressive goals. I do this
with Simple "bank" _(though I hope to find a more feature rich app to do it in
the future)_. This helps me consistently feel "broke as hell", which has
proved to be quite effective to saving. Furthermore, I plan all purchases
weeks in advance and budget for everything, food, luxury, bills, etc.

~~~
vertigolimbo
I must admit that I have never applied such an approach to saving my money but
it's something that I would definitely try. Thank you for sharing.

I haven't used this extension for a prolonged time yet so I cannot really say
if it would prevent spending.

I have made, however, the following observations: \- For me, being a
professional, most learning materials (books, courses, etc.) cost minutes of
my life but I get infinite(?) value. I am happy to buy these things without a
second thought now (before, I would enter analysis/paralysis mode deciding
whether I need it and wasting more time on indecision) \- My dream car is
approximately 10 years away of hard work (suddenly it seems to be more
achievable) \- If I was a low wage worker (or student/apprentice), even the
cheapest items would steal a lot of time from my life

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damir
IMO this is the _only_ way to look at expenses -- the time "expense" is missed
most of the time. One spends $20 on somethings, it's only 20, so what...

No it's not just $20 -- it's $20 PLUS the time you need to endure to earn that
$20. And this time is what really counts -- the seconds, minutes, hour(s) you
give away for that $20 whatever - the time you won't get back -- EVER!!!

For me, the only way to look at things is through time. Time is my most
precious asset and it took me way too many years to figure this out and to re-
set my mindset. It's where all the "passive income" stuff comes from -- from
having something to endure time for your account, so you don't have to.

IMO this should be must-have on every browser, every (web)store right next to
price: "$20 or approx. 2h of your life"

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vertigolimbo
That is exactly the same view I have about the stuff I buy. My concern is,
however, about younger people who might not fully comprehend that time is the
most valuable asset we, humans, have. I hope this idea could grow into
something bigger that would educate people about value of time vs value of
money.

I have better understanding of money/time relationship after reading "The
Millionaire Fastlane" by M.J. DeMarco which I highly recommend.

Thank you for your kind words. I remember some time ago there was an
innovative solution to inform consumers of empty calories in chocolate bars.
It was proposed to add a label on packaging about the time it would take a
person to exercise in order to burn those calories. My point is - the day when
these labels are back will be the day when an extension like this might be
considered to be included in browsers.

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Cozumel
Great extension, albeit a little depressing! Similar to 'In Time' too
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1637688/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1637688/)

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vertigolimbo
Thank you. I had some doubts putting it under "Fun" category in Chrome Web
Store.

I recommend you to take it for a test ride - install it and try it on Bugatti
cars, private jets, mansions or anything really. Essentially, see how much you
can sacrifice of your life to get your dream come true. I hope you find it
less depressing :)

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jbpetersen
Tried this on coinmarketcap.com and it broke horribly.

You've got some bugs to work out but this is a very fun and useful idea.

~~~
vertigolimbo
Thanks for spotting! Finding currency on a page has proven to be the most
challenging part of this work.

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lstyls
What if you earn a salary? Only half joking.

On a salary you're never not off the clock. It makes the time/money conversion
less clear. It's not like you can say: I would buy a new TV, but I'll take a
week off of work instead.

~~~
vertigolimbo
That's an interesting point, thank you for spotting this. I believe there are
many ways you can play around with this extension and draw your own
conclusions.

In your particular example, it made me realise that if we were to pay for
items with our time we would need some sort of anchor (something to compare
to). Perhaps, I would thing along the lines: "Oh, I would need to work 2 weeks
to get this Super UHD. Or, I could just work for 1 week and get this simpler
UHD. That would save one week of my life. Perhaps I could go on a short
holidays? Yeah... let's go for the simpler version".

