What Is The Lifetime Cost Of An Expense Today?

Calculates The Lifetime Cost Of A One-Time Expense

When you spend money instead of invest it you choose consumption today over a lifetime of interest income. The total amount of money you spend on consumption plus the forgone interest earnings adds up to the real cost of spending. Warning! This number is much higher than you might expect because of compound interest. Using this calculator encourages thrift and wise spending choices by looking at the lifetime cost of a one-time expense today.

Below are a few things to keep in mind:

  • Some people like to use 10% as an interest assumption based on studies about long-term stock market returns. Others choose 6% or 8% to approximate bond market returns.
  • If you invest your savings in paying off high interest debt such as credit cards, you could safely assume an even better return.
  • Be sure to include any sales taxes that might apply when entering expenditure amounts.
  • Some items you buy come with additional costs of ownership — such as repair and maintenance costs, operating costs (gas, electricity, etc.), insurance costs, storage costs, etc..
  • The calculations do not account for inflation.


Enter the dollar amount of an unnecessary, non-investment type expenditure you are contemplating:

Enter the annual interest rate (%) you feel you could earn if you were to invest the money rather than spend it:

Enter the number of years remaining in your lifetime ( or number of years until retirement, if applicable):

Forgone interest earnings:

Real cost of expenditure:


We have many more financial and retirement calculators for you to use – all for free. Click these links for our directory of financial calculators or retirement calculators.


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