What your job
actually pays you

The number on your payslip counts the hours they pay for. It ignores every hour the job actually takes.

Put your real numbers in. Watch what happens to your rate.

Step 1 — the basics

What you're paid, and how much you work

Your hourly pay Not hourly? Take your weekly pay and divide by your paid hours.

Paid hours per week

Days you work per week

Step 2 — the hours they don't count

The time the job takes anyway

Commute — each way, in minutes A plumber gets paid door to door. You don't.

Getting ready — minutes per work day The time that only exists because you're going in.

Winding down after — minutes per work day When you're home but no good to anyone yet.

The Sunday dread — hours per week Your number. However long the job sits on you before you've even clocked in.

Step 3 — optional

The money the job spends

Add the costs the job creates

Skip this and you'll still get your number on time alone. Add it, and it drops further — because a chunk of your pay never makes it home. WEEKLY FIGURES.

Getting to work — fuel, fares, parking

Bought lunches & coffees

Too-shattered-to-cook spending Takeaway you only bought because the job wrecked you.

Work wardrobe & the rest Uniforms, gear, anything you buy to keep the job.

Childcare that exists so you can go to work

Pop in your pay and your paid hours at least — the rest can stay empty.

They told you you're on

$30.00

On paper$30.00

What you're actually on$22.36

The cut nobody mentions$7.64 an hour

Some trades get paid the moment they leave the driveway. Same time. Someone just decided yours doesn't count.

Punch one — the hours you give away free

3,280 hours

Over the next five years, that's the time this job takes and never pays for — getting ready, travelling, winding down, dreading. More than six months of your waking life. Gone.

Punch two — every hour it really costs you

12,880 hours

Count all of it, and over five years the job takes around a year and a half of your life — at a real rate of $22.36 for work you were told paid $30.00.

This was never about quitting tomorrow. It's this: the day you take back is worth far more than the payslip made you think. Every day you hand over is bought at your real rate — not the one they quote you.

That's the next five years. Same commute. Same wind-down. Same Sunday. How do you feel about that?

Figured across 48 working weeks a year — we didn't even count your leave.

This is a rough illustration built to make a point about your time — not a precise budget, and not financial advice. The numbers are only as real as what you put in. If you're making actual money decisions, talk to someone qualified to give you them.

So — what would a four-day week actually give you back?

That's the next thing I'm building: the number in reverse. Drop a day, and see the hours and the money that come home. Get on the list and I'll send it the moment it's ready.

One idea a week about work, jobs, money and getting your time back. No noise. Leave whenever you like.

You're on the list.

Check your inbox for a note from me. Do one thing when it lands — hit reply and tell me your real rate, and how it sat with you. It comes straight to me, and I read every one.