It would be cool if you could temporarily change the settings in the app so that it displays your balance and spending as equivalent working hours (based on your take-home salary after tax).
I imagine it going something like this:
User inputs some basic info about their salary into the app - in a similar way to a generic online ‘take-home’ salary calculator.
The app works out the user’s hourly wage minus tax and any other deductions (such as student loan repayments, salary sacrifice, pension plan etc.)
At the tap of a button, say in the top right of the app, the user can toggle between normal currency display and an ‘hourly wage’ equivalent.
The app could also house a quick access converter for checking the ‘hourly’ cost of items on the fly.
Friend: "How come you didn’t buy that obscure kitchenware like you planned?"
Monzo User: “I decided it wasn’t worth 15.82 hours of my time”
I remember we had a discussion before within the company about building a real-time counter in the app to do exactly this - you’d input your monthly salary and it would increase in real time. I think it was just a fun idea we talked about, I’m not sure if we ever actually planned on building it but it was fun to think about.
It’s a great idea. Bank holds salary and releases it by the second in drips. Bank benefits from net interest margin on billions of pounds of deposits and users benefit from being able to micromanage finances and use a cool gamified feature.
I’m probably one of the few people who think that would be awesome. I’ll get my coat.
I agree, but I don’t think this would necessarily need to be completely accurate.
I would see it as more of a quick, rough reference to see whether a purchase seemed to be worth the time taken to earn it.
I believe I’d find this to be a useful feature, in this world where money is becoming increasingly abstract. I’d be much less likely to spend £300 if the price tag also said “1 week’s wages”. It seems to make it more real.
However…! I’m not sure I can see this as a feature in Monzo. I’m conflicted.
+1 from me.
I like the idea. Assuming you paid your salary into the monzo account, it should not be too difficult for the App to figure out automatically the calculations, without any user input.
I think it could be a cool idea although for it to be “useful” it would have to be accurate.
I’m sure that for the majority of people it can be made pretty accurate with some simple questions and knowledge of the salary but once you get to the higher rate tax bracket peoples income starts to get a lot more complicated:
They have car allowances, bonuses (which can change each month) and then other sources of income (investments/dividends) that have all been “worked” for but that it’s impossible to turn into an hourly wage accurately let alone have the app do it without user intervention.
So I personally think it’s a cool idea, but for many of us it’ll be nothing more than a gimmick (and I hope I’ll never be wondering “why did this get prioritised over Apple Pay” ).
).
