Money istime.

The idea

Dollars are a measuring stick for hours

You trade hours of work for dollars. Spend the dollars and the hours are gone. Save them and the hours are stored. The Money Is Time model measures savings in hours of work instead of dollars, so a result like “3,830 hours” means “about 3,830 hours of your own wage, saved up.”

It starts with the minimum wage in a city, because that is the pay many working people start from. You can also type your own wage.

Step by step

What the model does

1. Your paycheck. It takes your hourly wage, your hours per week, and the share left after payroll taxes (85% by default). That gives you the hours of take-home pay you earn each month.

2. Your share. You choose what percent of every check goes into Bitcoin. 10% of 147 take-home hours is about 14.7 hours a month.

3. Your assumption. You choose how fast Bitcoin grows each year. This is a setting you control, not a prediction. The presets run from 0% (flat) to 52% (the pace since 2016).

4. Your years. The model adds your hours every month, grows the pile at your chosen rate, and reports the total after the years you picked. It also runs the same savings as dollars losing value to inflation, so you can compare.

A worked example

Chicago, 10% of every check, 10 years

Chicago minimum wage is $17.05 an hour. Work 40 hours a week, keep 85% after payroll taxes, put 10% into Bitcoin, and assume 15% growth a year (the “Conservative” preset).

Hold the same money as cash losing 3.8% a year and you would have about 1,468 hours. Slide the growth rate to 0% and the model shows Bitcoin stored fewer hours than you put in. That is the point of testing both ends.

Keep in mind

What this model is not

• It is not a forecast. The growth rate is your assumption, and Bitcoin can fall as well as rise.
• It measures hours of wage, not purchasing power in the future. Wages and prices change.
• It ignores income taxes on gains, fees, and your other expenses.
• Minimum wages change and have local exceptions. Confirm yours with your city or state.
• Only save money you can leave alone through a downturn. This is education, not financial advice.

Common questions

Quick answers

Why start with the minimum wage? It is the floor for many workers, and it shows that even small shares add up. Type your own wage to see your numbers.

Where does the Bitcoin price come from? The tool tries live prices from Coinbase, Kraken, CoinGecko and Binance US, and falls back to a number you can type.

Why does the same percent give different dollars in different cities? Hours stored are the same share of your life everywhere. Dollars differ because wages differ.