Sixty-eight calculators for your articles.
Quote any figure with the year attached, link to any page, or drop a window into the piece. Every tool carries its sources, its review date, and a citation ready to paste. Yours to use, no account needed. Each ends by telling the reader to talk with a professional. No account needed.
Put these on your siteTry it: Social Security Taxation Calculator (opens in a new window)
Where a link goes
- Inside the article, at the sentence the figure supports.
- A sidebar or resources box.
- The newsletter.
Paste it into an article, a resources page, or an email. The calculator stays here, kept current. Every tool below has its link ready; choose once whether copied links open the minimalist window or the full page.
All 68 tools
Saving while you work
How Much Can I Save This Year?
Adds up how much you can put into retirement and health savings accounts this year, at your age.
Roth or Traditional 401(k)?
Compares a Roth and a traditional 401(k) contribution at the same cost to your paycheck, at the tax rates you expect now and in retirement.
Backdoor Roth Pro-Rata Calculator
Works out how much of a Roth conversion is taxable when you also have other pre-tax IRAs.
Roth Five-Year Rule Calculator
Checks which of the Roth IRA five-year clocks have run and what a withdrawal would cost you today.
Estimated Tax Safe Harbor
Tells you how much tax you must pay in during the year to avoid the underpayment penalty, and how to close any gap.
How Much Life Insurance Do You Need?
Sizes the life insurance a family would need from its parts: the income to replace, the debts, the final expenses, the education fund, and what is already in place.
Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) Calculator
Shows what the shares you bought through your company's stock purchase plan are worth after tax, sold now or after the qualifying date.
Your house and your mortgage
Sell or Keep the House?
Compares staying in your house with selling it and renting, year by year, at the costs and returns you expect.
Pay Off the Mortgage or Invest?
Sends the same extra dollars each month down two paths, to the mortgage or into an investment, and shows where each stands when the mortgage would have ended.
Refinance Break-Even: When the New Loan Pays for Itself
Shows the month a new mortgage has paid for its closing costs, counted two ways, and whether you come out ahead for as long as you plan to keep the home.
15-Year or 30-Year Mortgage?
Runs a 15-year and a 30-year mortgage side by side, with the same cash spent on both and the difference invested, and shows where each stands at year 15 and year 30.
Should You Buy Points? The Break-Even on a Rate Buydown
Shows the month a rate buydown has paid for itself, what it earns if you keep the loan as long as you expect, and whether a seller credit toward points beats the same dollars off the price.
Home Sale Exclusion for a Surviving Spouse
Shows how much profit a surviving spouse can sell the house for without tax, and how the answer changes after two years.
Home Sale Exclusion After Renting It Out
Shows how much of the profit on your home is still tax-free when the home was rented out before you lived in it.
Illinois Senior Property Tax Exemptions
Shows which Illinois property tax exemptions you qualify for and what each saves at your local tax rate.
Illinois Real Estate Transfer Tax Calculator
Shows the state, county, and municipal transfer taxes on an Illinois home sale, and which side pays each, for any Illinois town.
Is Your Home Underinsured? The 80 Percent Rule
Checks your dwelling coverage against the cost to rebuild and shows what the policy would pay on a loss when the coverage falls short.
Cost of Living Estimator by ZIP Code
Estimates what a ZIP code costs a household each month or year, in dollars, and the pre-tax income it takes; with your income, what is left and how it compares to the median; optionally against a second ZIP.
How Much Umbrella Coverage Do You Need?
Sizes an umbrella liability policy from what a lawsuit could reach: your net worth outside retirement accounts plus a share of your future income, less what your auto and home policies already cover.
Raise the Deductible? The Break-Even
Weighs the premium a higher deductible saves each year against the extra you would pay on each claim, and finds the claim rate at which the two match.
Claiming Social Security
Social Security Spousal Benefit Calculator
Shows how much Social Security a spouse can collect on the other spouse's work record, at each claiming age.
Survivor Benefit Timing Calculator
Helps a widow or widower choose which Social Security benefit to take first, and when to switch.
Taxes in retirement
Widow's Penalty Calculator
Shows how much more federal tax a surviving spouse pays on the same household income after the joint return ends.
Roth Conversion Room Calculator
Shows how much you can move from a traditional IRA to a Roth this year before the tax rate steps up or Medicare premiums rise.
The Retirement Numbers
Puts this year's retirement figures in one place, each with the government release that set it.
Your Retirement Timeline
Turns your birth month into the dates of every age-based retirement rule that applies to you.
Will My Money Last?
Projects whether your savings will last, year by year, at the spending and assumptions you choose.
Pension or Lump Sum?
Compares taking a pension as monthly checks for life with taking the lump sum offered instead.
Real Marginal Rate Calculator
Shows what one more withdrawal really costs in tax, once Social Security and Medicare react to it.
Roth Conversion Ladder Planner
Plans a Roth conversion in yearly slices, each sized to the top of a tax bracket, and shows how long it takes and what it costs.
RMD Calculator
Computes the withdrawal the law requires from your retirement account this year and projects the next ten years.
First RMD Timing Calculator
Compares taking your first required withdrawal in its own year with delaying it to April 1 and taking two the following year.
72(t) Payments Calculator
Computes the yearly withdrawal you can take from a retirement account before 59½ without the early-withdrawal penalty.
Capital Gains Harvesting Room
Shows how much investment gain you can take this year at a zero percent tax rate, and what a larger gain costs.
Capital Gains and Your Tax Rate
Shows the tax rate on your next dollar of gain and on your next dollar of ordinary income, and which one pushes the other.
QCD or Cash Gift?
Compares giving to charity by writing a check with giving straight from an IRA, and shows which saves more.
Charitable Bunching Calculator
Compares giving to charity a little every year with giving several years' worth at once, to see which saves more tax.
Illinois Retirement Income Tax
Computes the Illinois income tax on a retirement income, showing what Illinois leaves alone and what it taxes.
IRMAA Calculator
Finds the Medicare premium tier your income lands in and what it costs for the year.
IRMAA Appeal Checker
Checks whether you can ask Medicare to base your premium on this year's income instead of a return from two years ago.
Medicare, insurance, and long-term care
Medicare Enrollment Window
Dates your Medicare sign-up window to your birth month and shows what a late sign-up costs for life.
Long-Term Care Cost Projection
Projects what a period of long-term care could cost by the time you need it, and what set aside today would cover it.
Illinois Medicaid Long-Term Care Figures
Lists this year's Illinois Medicaid figures for nursing-home care and works out the penalty for gifts made in the last five years.
Illinois Private-Pay Runway Calculator
Estimates how many months of nursing-home costs a household can pay before Illinois Medicaid could take over.
Illinois Spousal Income Allowance
Shows how a couple's monthly income is divided once one spouse is on Illinois Medicaid in a nursing home, and what the spouse at home keeps.
Divorce
Dividing Retirement Accounts in Divorce
Shows what each spouse's share of the retirement and investment accounts is worth after tax, at each spouse's own tax rate.
The House or the IRA? After-Tax Value in a Divorce
Compares what the house and the retirement account are each worth after tax, when a divorce trades one against the other.
Illinois Maintenance Guideline Calculator
Shows the monthly maintenance the Illinois guideline formula produces from two incomes and the length of the marriage, and how long it would last.
Maintenance Buyout: Lump Sum or Monthly Payments?
Compares monthly maintenance payments with a one-time lump sum, at the rate of return you choose.
Estate and inheritance
Illinois Estate Tax Calculator
Estimates the estate tax Illinois and the federal government would charge on what you leave behind.
Portability Election Calculator
Shows what filing an estate tax return at the first spouse's death, to carry over their unused exclusion, is worth to the survivor.
Gift Tax Return Checker
Tells you whether a gift needs a gift tax return, and how much of it counts against your lifetime exclusion.
Step-Up in Basis Calculator
Shows the new tax cost of an asset after a death, and how much profit is never taxed because of it.
Inherited IRA Rules
Tells you which withdrawal rule applies to a retirement account you inherited, and by what year it must be empty.
Trust Income Tax Brackets
Shows how much federal income tax a trust pays on income it keeps, and how that compares with a person paying tax on the same money.
Distribute or Retain? Trust Income Calculator
Compares the tax if a trust keeps this year's income with the tax if it pays the income out to the beneficiary.
Inheritance in Trust or Outright: The Tax Drag
Shows the yearly tax cost of leaving an inheritance in a trust that keeps its income, compared with leaving it outright to the heir.
Net Unrealized Appreciation Calculator
Compares the tax on taking company stock out of a 401(k) with a special election against rolling it into an IRA.
Selling a business
QSBS Exclusion Calculator
Shows how much profit from selling stock in a small company can be excluded from tax, and what the rest costs.
Installment Sale of a Business
Shows the tax each year when a business is sold for a down payment and a note, and how much tax that pushes past the year of sale.
Asset Sale or Stock Sale? The Double Tax on a C Corporation
Compares what you keep from selling your C corporation's assets against selling its stock, and shows the price that would make the two equal.
Purchase Price Allocation: What the Seller Keeps
Splits the price of your business among its assets the way the tax form does, and shows the tax on each part and what you keep.
Or take the whole set as one post
One post with the calculators above. Paste it into a new post as it is, or rewrite the introduction in your voice.
A ready-made post for your blog, with 3 of the calculators above.
Make the introduction your own. Adapt the post as you like; we keep the calculators up to date.
Filled in, the first sentence of the post is yours: “At your firm, these calculators show the arithmetic behind the questions we hear most.”
- 1Open Posts, then Add New, and give the post a title.
- 2Add a Custom HTML block (type /html). In the classic editor, use the Code tab.
- 3Paste, preview, publish. Do this as an administrator.
On a phone? Email this page to yourselfText it to yourself
Download as a file: · ·
3 of 68 tools are included. Change which ones
Saving while you work
Your house and your mortgage
Claiming Social Security
Taxes in retirement
Medicare, insurance, and long-term care
Divorce
Estate and inheritance
Selling a business
Why firms put these on their sites
- It ends with you
- Every tool closes by telling the reader to talk with a professional who knows their whole situation. The reader is on your site, so the next step is your door.
- Something to do, not just read
- A visitor who runs their own numbers stays longer than one who reads, and the number they get is the question they bring to you. Every figure traces to a statute, regulation, or agency release, and when the law moves, it changes here.
- In plain words
- Every tool opens with a plain-English line on what it does and where it stops, so visitors use it without help and know its limits.
Built by Joshua Mangoubi, CFA, MBA. Joshua is a financial adviser who likes building things that help people think clearly about money. We hope these are useful to you and your clients. The tools are educational estimates from primary sources, not advice. Corrections are welcome through the contact page.
Terms. Cite any page, quote any figure with the year attached, or use the links above with the attribution left as it is; add nofollow or any other attribute to the links if you like. No reciprocal link, ever. All 19 professional shelves.