Opportunity cost is a concept in economics that refers to the value of the next best alternative that is forgone when making a choice — i.e., the cost of the best alternative that is not chosen.

Learn about imputed costs, often known as opportunity or implicit costs, which represent the forgone benefits when choosing one action over another with your assets.

Any business tries to use its resources efficiently. No one has unlimited resources, so it's critical that you make smart choices about using what you do have. Those decisions are influenced by what ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Tim Maurer covers how personal finance is more personal than finance. May 05, 2024, 07:00am EDT Sunk cost, opportunity cost, and ...

When we choose to spend $10 more than usual for a bottle of wine, we'll have $10 less to spend on an appetizer, a dessert, or ten songs on iTunes. That's known as the "opportunity cost" of that choice ...

Learn how outlay costs impact business decisions, differentiate between outlay and opportunity costs, and understand cash vs.

The worst outcome of a startup project isn’t failure. If failure is quick and cheap, the value of the gained insight might outweigh the cost of the failure. The worst outcome is to join the so-called ...

You may not recognize it, but opportunity cost affects your business every single day. Opportunity cost is essentially what you give up (the benefits of the next best alternative) when you make a ...

This year, as Congress debates the future of No Child Left Behind, American families and taxpayers need to consider an important question: What are we giving up to pay for it? In economics, ...

Everything we do and every choice we make has an opportunity cost. In a world of scarce time and resources each choice necessarily means rejecting many other possible opportunities. One of the best ...