Personal Finance Calculators

Your savings rate and time decide when you reach financial independence. This projects when your portfolio crosses 25 times your annual spending, your FI target, and shows how much sooner you'd get there by cutting monthly spending. Money you stop spending is money you start investing, so a cut moves the target closer and raises what you contribute toward it. Enter household income before taxes. Federal, FICA and state taxes are estimated for you.

Where you live is the biggest line item in most budgets. Equivalent spending in a new city is your current spending times the ratio of the two cost-of-living indices. Income stays the same (think remote work), and the one-time moving cost comes out of your starting portfolio. Each dot is a real US metro, placed by how many years it would take you to reach FI there.

The usual script bets that the meaningful experiences can wait until the end. A sabbatical flips that: take time off now and pay for it with a slightly later FI date. During the break you contribute nothing and draw the net cost from your portfolio. Afterward you go back to your current income. The striped band is the time off.

A $15 charge feels harmless, but its real price is the wealth those dollars would have built if you'd invested them. Each monthly payment is treated as if it went into your portfolio at your expected real return, compounded monthly. The amount due is the portfolio you'd have if you had never subscribed.

Fees come out of your whole balance every year, so they compound against you. Both lines start from your current portfolio and add the same monthly contribution. The only difference is the annual fee taken out of your return. The shaded gap is the wealth that goes to the fund company.

College costs are entered in today's dollars and grow 2% a year above inflation until your child turns 18. The monthly amount is what you'd need to set aside from now, invested at your expected return, to cover your share in full.

Every extra dollar either earns the debt's interest rate by paying it down, or your expected return by being invested. In the first path the extra goes to the debt until it's gone, then into investments. In the second it's invested from day one while the debt keeps piling up interest. Minimum payments are the same in both, so they're left out.

Refinancing trades an upfront closing cost for a lower monthly payment. The chart shows your cumulative monthly savings against the closing costs. Where the line crosses is your break-even. Both loans are compared over the same remaining term.

Owning builds equity but costs a mortgage plus about 2% of the price a year in taxes, insurance and upkeep, and 6% to sell. Renting keeps the down payment and closing costs invested, along with any monthly difference. Whichever leaves you with more at the end of your horizon wins.

Children are expensive, but the cost arrives slowly over 18 years while your portfolio keeps compounding. This cuts your yearly savings by the cost of a child (plus childcare in the early years) and measures how far that moves your FI date.

When one parent stops working, the household loses that paycheck after taxes but stops paying for childcare and work costs. The difference is the true yearly cost of staying home, usually far smaller than the salary suggests.

Three to six months is a rule of thumb. The right cushion depends on how fast your income could stop and how long it would take to replace it. Each factor adds months of core spending, meaning the bills you'd still pay if your income disappeared.