Keep Above
Own it or hire it
A trailer, a carpet cleaner, a party marquee — some things you can buy once, or hire every time. This calculator counts both ways over the same years and the same uses a year: owning's price, upkeep and eventual sale against hiring's per-use fee and extras. Each lands on a cost per year and per use, with the break-even stated as a fact and no winner declared.
Not counted while this is $0
After 5 years
Delivery, membership, deposits — not counted while $0
Put in what buying one would cost, and what one hire would cost. Nothing here is read from your accounts, and nothing is saved.
| Owning | Hiring | |
|---|---|---|
| Paid up front | — | — |
| Value lost | — | — |
| Hire fees | — | — |
| Other costs | — | — |
| Total over 5 years | — | — |
| Cost a year | — | — |
| Cost a use | — | — |
This is one of the tools built into Keep Above
Keep Above is a budgeting app where you enter your bills and income and it works out the balance you need to keep — so you can see what's safe to spend. No bank connection, no ads on your data.
About this calculator
How is each way counted?
Owning totals the price plus upkeep over the years, minus what it would sell for at the end. Hiring totals the per-use fee times your uses a year times the years, plus any yearly extras. Both cover the same years and the same uses, so the per-year and per-use figures compare directly.
What is the crossing point?
The uses a year at which the two totals would match, over the years you set — a position in the arithmetic, nothing more. When one side's structure makes a match impossible (owning nets to nothing, or hiring's fixed extras alone pass owning's total), the page says so instead of printing a number.