About this project
The LifeHours Real-Life Time Cost Calculator was created by Everyday Royalties Lab as a way to help you see the real trade you make when you spend money: hours of your actual life, not just numbers on a screen.
Everyday Royalties Lab is a small, independent project focused on building tools that turn abstract financial ideas into something you can actually feel and use. This site grew out of real questions about burnout, money, and what a “good” life costs in time.
The goal is not to convince you to live a specific lifestyle, but to give you a clear, compassionate lens you can bring to your own decisions—regardless of income level or background.
LifeHours is an educational tool. It helps you experiment with different assumptions about income, commute, preparation time, sleep, and stress so you can see how each one affects the real price of a decision in hours of your life.
It is not a financial advisor, a budgeting app, or a promise of specific outcomes. You remain the expert on your own situation. When you need personalised guidance, it’s important to talk with a qualified professional who can review your full context.
This project works best when you pair the numbers with reflection, conversation, and small experiments over time.
Rather than trying to analyse your entire life in one sitting, begin with one real choice you are already considering—like a subscription, a possible job change, or a big purchase. Run it through the calculator and notice what surprises you.
After seeing the life-hour cost, check in with your body, values and long-term vision. Sometimes the “expensive” option is still the right one because of what it makes possible. LifeHours is here to inform your decisions, not overrule them.
Nothing on this site is personalised financial, legal or investment advice. It is a thinking tool. You are encouraged to use it alongside professional guidance and the wisdom of trusted people in your life.
If you ever feel overwhelmed by what the numbers show you, it is more than okay to step away, come back later, or bring your questions to a qualified advisor, planner, therapist or community mentor. Your wellbeing matters more than any calculation.
This project did not start as a calculator. It began as a set of messy notes about burnout, conflicting goals and the feeling that time was disappearing faster than money could keep up.
The earliest version of LifeHours came from questions like, “If this promotion means ten more hours a week of pressure, what am I actually earning per hour of my life?” and “How much of my free time is going toward recovering from work instead of enjoying the rest of my life?”
Turning those questions into a repeatable framework made it easier to see patterns that were otherwise just a vague sense of exhaustion or unease.
Over time, the framework was refined into something that friends and peers could use for their own decisions. The LifeHours calculator you see here is the result of that slow evolution: a simple interface built on top of many conversations and experiments in the real world.
Behind the charts and sliders, LifeHours is built on a few simple principles that shape how the tool is designed and how suggestions are written.
The goal is not to produce the most technically perfect model of your life, but to provide a clear enough picture that you can make kinder, wiser choices with the time you have right now.
Many people arrive at tools like this carrying years of money shame or exhaustion. LifeHours is intentionally written in a way that respects that reality rather than scolding you for past decisions.
Instead of demanding a total life overhaul, the project encourages small, low-risk experiments. You can adjust one habit, watch the effect on your life hours, and then decide what to try next.
This site is intentionally simple right now so it loads quickly and stays easy to use. Over time, new guides, examples and ways to visualise your life hours may be added.
One direction for growth is sharing anonymised scenarios that show how different people use LifeHours: career changers, caregivers, students, and people navigating multiple jobs or side projects.
Any future features will prioritise reflection and understanding over constant optimisation. The aim is to keep LifeHours a calm, grounded place to think—not another dashboard demanding your attention every hour.