When you spend money on non-essential, non-investment type products or services, you simultaneously

give up the right to earn interest on the money you spent ... for the rest of your life. The same is true when

you spend more than necessary on essential and investment-type products and services, i.e., you give up the

right to earn interest on the difference. In either case, the total of the money you spend unnecessarily, plus

the forgone interest earnings, represents the real cost of spending (usually an amount much higher than is

actually printed on the price-tag). Therefore, in order to make wise purchase decisions (expenditures that

return a benefit of equal or greater value than their real cost), you must be aware of -- and give full

consideration to -- the real cost of each purchase. This calculator will help you to do just that.

A few things to keep in mind:

The stock market has averaged a return of 10% over the long run.

If you invest your savings in paying off high interest debt, you could earn 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 you would allow

our investment to grow (number of years until

retirement, if applicable):