Money math that answers for your situation, not the average person’s.
Most money advice is written once for the average reader and updated quarterly. These tools compute a different answer for every person who opens them, and the numbers you type never leave your device.
Five questions worth getting right
How long would your money last?
Runway, and the buffer size your income actually calls for.
Avalanche or snowball — and what does the easier one cost?
Avalanche (highest rate first) is always cheaper.
Where should idle cash sit?
Compared after tax, which is the only comparison that decides anything.
Are you actually on track?
Measured against what you plan to spend, inflated to the year you retire — not a vague multiple of today’s salary.
What can you actually afford?
Two rules bind a mortgage: housing cost alone, and housing plus every other debt payment.
Why the answers differ from a comparison table
After tax, not headline
A 3.98% Treasury beats a 4.15% savings account for most people who pay state income tax, because Treasury interest is exempt from it. Tables ranked by advertised APY put those in the wrong order.
Your buffer, not a generic range
“Three to six months” ignores the thing an emergency fund insures against. A contractor and a tenured salary earner need different numbers, so we compute both.
The constraint that is actually binding
Affordability is capped either by your income or by your other debt. Knowing which tells you whether paying off the car changes what you can buy. Usually nobody says.
The cost of the easier path
Snowball beats avalanche on motivation and loses on arithmetic. We price the gap in dollars so it is a decision you make, not one you drift into.
Worth reading first
Your emergency fund is probably the wrong size
Three to six months is the most repeated number in personal finance. It is also advice that ignores the only variable that matters.
The 4.15% account that loses to a 3.98% one
Comparison tables rank savings products by advertised rate. For most people who pay state income tax, that ranking is wrong.
What is actually capping what you can afford
Two rules limit a mortgage. Lenders apply both and tell you the result. Which one is binding changes what you should do next — and it is the part nobody says out loud.