Tools · all three pillars
Seventeen calculators, one map, three reference tables and three glossaries. Every number a calculator starts with is a published figure with a date on it, and every page says what it leaves out.
A calculator here is a page, not just a box that spits out a number. Each one tells you where its starting figures come from and when they were published, walks through a made-up example so you can see the shape of the math, and says plainly what it doesn’t count. The reference tables hold the numbers the calculators run on, quoted from whoever published them. The glossaries explain the words the guides use. None of it tells you what to do; all of it is built so you can work out what you’d do.
Money: what your accounts, your debts and your house cost and earn
- CalculatorBudget calculator: where your take-home pay goes each month
Where your take-home pay goes each month, in dollars and as a share, beside what the average household spends.
- CalculatorEmergency fund calculator: how many months your cash would cover
How many months your cash would cover if your paycheck stopped, and how long it takes to reach the number you pick.
- CalculatorCompound interest calculator: what a balance and a monthly habit become
What a starting balance and a monthly habit grow to, and how much of the end is growth.
- CalculatorRetirement savings calculator: what your account could hold at the age you pick
What your retirement account could hold at the age you pick, and what that buys in today's dollars.
- CalculatorNet worth calculator: what you own minus what you owe
What you own minus what you owe, beside the Fed's survey for your age.
- CalculatorCredit card payoff calculator: how long, and what the interest costs
How many months one card takes to pay off at a fixed payment, and what the interest costs.
- CalculatorDebt payoff calculator: several debts, two orders, side by side
Several debts paid off two ways — smallest balance first and highest rate first — side by side.
- CalculatorDebt-to-income calculator: your monthly payments as a share of your pay
Your monthly debt payments as a share of your pay, beside the ratios the loan programs publish.
- CalculatorRoth vs. Traditional calculator: which account leaves more after tax
Which account leaves more after tax, and the retirement tax rate at which they tie.
- CalculatorEmployer match calculator: what skipping the match costs by retirement
What skipping your employer's match costs by retirement.
- CalculatorMortgage payment calculator: the whole monthly bill on a home
The whole monthly bill on a home — loan, tax, insurance, mortgage insurance, dues — on a fifteen- and a thirty-year loan.
- CalculatorMortgage payoff calculator: what an extra payment buys in years and interest
When your mortgage is paid off, what the interest totals, and what an extra payment takes off both.
- CalculatorHome price from a monthly payment: what a payment buys, and what share of your pay it is
The home price a monthly payment buys, and that payment as a share of your pay.
- CalculatorCollege savings calculator: what college is likely to cost, and what saving monthly covers
What college is likely to cost when your child gets there, and what saving monthly covers.
- CalculatorCost of living by state: what a salary in one state buys in another
What a salary in one state buys in another, on the government's price index.
- ReferenceThe Money Numbers That Change Every January
2026 contribution limits, brackets, the standard deduction, HSA limits, Social Security figures and the federal reference rates — each with its source and date.
- GlossaryMoney Glossary
Thirteen terms used across the Money guide — AGI, MAGI, marginal rate, amortization, expense ratio and the rest — each with a worked number and what it is confused with.
Coffee: how much coffee, and what the cup costs
- CalculatorBrew ratio calculator: how much coffee for the water you have
How many grams of coffee for the water you have — drip, espresso, French press or cold brew.
- CalculatorCost-per-cup calculator: what a cup at home costs against the café
What a cup at home costs against your café order, per cup and per year.
- ReferenceBrew Ratios by Method: The Reference Table
Ratio, grind, dose, water, time and temperature for twelve methods, as the makers, the SCA and three roasters publish them — including where they disagree.
- GlossaryCoffee Glossary
Ten terms used across the Coffee guide — brew ratio, extraction yield, TDS, bloom, burr set, cupping score, C-price — each with a number and what it is confused with.
Liberty: the terms, the record and the map, by state
- MapConcealed Carry Reciprocity Map: Which States Honor Which Permits
Pick the state that issued a permit and see where it is honored; click any state for its licence regime on the statute's face, its permitless-carry rule, and its official page.
- ReferenceState-by-State Firearm Law Reference
For the states covered so far: the statutory term, the constitutional provision, preemption and the licence statute’s classification on its face — dated, quoted, and closing with what is still unsettled.
- GlossaryLiberty Glossary
Eight legal terms used across the Liberty guide — preemption, incorporation, strict scrutiny, prohibited person, NFA item — each with an example from the record and what it is confused with, plus the convention this guide writes live law by.
How these tools are built
Every calculator is one small script with no outside code. Its starting figures are copied from the same data files that build the reference tables, and each figure carries a note naming the document it came from, the date it was published, and any way it’s commonly misread. When a figure changes, the data file changes first and the calculator follows.
A starting figure is the plainest published version of the number: the Federal Reserve’s average card rate, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ average coffee price, the Treasury yield, Freddie Mac’s weekly mortgage average. They’re where the box begins, not where it ends. Your card’s rate, your bag of coffee and your plan’s match formula are the numbers that matter, and each page says which piece of paper they’re on.
The examples on each page are made up, and each page says so in its last line. A $5,000 balance, a $60,000 salary and a twelve-ounce mug are picked to be easy to follow, not to describe anyone. Every figure with a date on it gets re-read when its publisher puts out the next one; the reference tables carry the read date on every row.