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Figures and metrics to help you plan your financial future.
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The economy runs on a handful of forces — bond yields, the Fed's rate decisions, inflation — and they all end up in your wallet eventually. These plain-English explainers walk through the mechanics: no jargon, no predictions, no product pitches. Just how things work, so the numbers in our calculators make more sense.
Three questions — your age, household status, and gross income — and see how your pay compares to official U.S. medians for households like yours. Private by design: your numbers never leave your device.
See where I stand →Two questions — your age and your retirement savings — and see how you compare to savers your age, using Federal Reserve data. Then run the numbers on improving it. Private by design: your numbers never leave your device.
Check my benchmark →Treasury yields are the economy's base price of borrowing. Learn how they flow into your mortgage rate, savings account yield, auto loan rate — and why your 401(k) bond fund falls when yields rise.
Read the guide →When the Fed moves rates, your credit card APR and HELOC payment follow through the prime rate — usually within a billing cycle or two. Here's the exact pass-through chain, and why savings yields lag behind.
Read the guide →Inflation quietly shrinks what each dollar buys — even when your balance never drops. Understand purchasing power and real returns, why idle cash loses value, and how TIPS and I-bonds are designed.
Read the guide →How 0% balance transfer offers actually work: the transfer fee, the promo window, the go-to rate — and the worked math showing when a transfer saves you $1,400+ in interest.
Read the guide →Which payoff method actually wins? A $9,000 worked example puts real numbers on the tradeoff: $369 in interest versus a first payoff in month 7 instead of month 13.
Read the guide →Running several promo rates at once is a scheduling problem: fund the earliest expiration first, never mix purchases onto a transfer card, and spot the collisions before they cascade.
Read the guide →The guaranteed-return framework: avoiding a 22% borrowing cost creates an unusually high hurdle for an investment alternative. Where the crossover sits, the 401(k) match exception, and the risk adjustment most advice skips.
Read the guide →Refinancing federal loans is a one-way door: a lower rate minus an irreplaceable safety net. Real numbers on the $35,000 decision, PSLF math, and the aggressive-payoff third option.
Read the guide →Break-even math is one division problem: costs ÷ monthly savings = months to payback. A $450,000 worked example, the term-reset trap, and what "no closing cost" refis really cost.
Read the guide →Draw period vs. repayment period, variable-rate mechanics, and the CLTV math that decides your max line. When borrowing against your home makes sense — and when it doesn't.
Read the guide →Your card charges a daily rate — APR ÷ 365 — on your average balance: $3.29 a day per $5,000 at 24% APR. Plus the grace-period trap that starts charging interest on new purchases from the swipe date.
Read the guide →Deferred vs. waived interest: pay off 92% of a $6,000 purchase and still owe $2,069 in retroactive interest. The go-to rate math and the balance ÷ promo-months autopay rule.
Read the guide →A $50K lump-sum recast cuts your payment $336/month for a ~$250 fee — or skip the recast and save $186,090 in interest. The full tradeoff, plus recast vs. refinance.
Read the guide →What $200/month extra really saves on a $400k loan, monthly vs. lump vs. biweekly compared, and the invest-instead tradeoff with honest numbers.
Read the guide →The full tradeoff: $768/month and ~$341k in interest on a $400k loan, why 15-year rates run lower, and the invest-the-difference case with its behavioral catch.
Read the guide →Paying only the minimum on $5,000 at 22% APR takes 80+ years and $43,419 in interest. The month-by-month math — and why a fixed $200/month clears it in 34 months.
Read the guide →We ran the average $6,600 balance at 22% APR through minimum payments in every state. In 20 states the minimum eats 10.5% of a minimum-wage paycheck — with the full sortable dataset.
Read the study →Every assumption, formula, and data source behind the 50-state minimum-payment trap ranking — published so anyone can check or reproduce the results.
Read the methodology →A 3% fee on $6,000 at 22% APR saves $1,089 — but if you can pay the debt off in 3 months, the "0% deal" costs more than doing nothing. The worked math on when the fee wins and when it wipes out.
Read the guide →A $400/month pre-tax contribution doesn't cost your paycheck $400 — in the 22% bracket it costs about $312. The pre-tax mechanics, the FICA surprise, and the Roth contrast.
Read the guide →Lump sum at a fixed rate versus a credit line at a variable rate. On $50,000, the fixed loan is $606.64/month — while a 3-point rate rise adds $125/month to a HELOC's interest-only payment.
Read the guide →$10,000 at 24% APR, three ways out: brute-force payoff ($6,644 in interest), a 0% balance transfer ($1,392), or a 12% consolidation loan ($1,957). Total-cost comparison with honest caveats.
Read the guide →The 28/36 rule gives a $100K earner $2,333/month for housing — roughly a $349,000 home at 6.75% with 20% down. The full algebra, and how $900/month of other debt cuts $38,000 off the price.
Read the guide →Forget the mortgage-payment-to-rent comparison. The 5% rule prices the unrecoverable costs of ownership — taxes, maintenance, cost of capital — and transaction costs decide short horizons.
Read the guide →What APY actually means, why online banks pay 4%+ while big banks pay 0.38%, and how $25,000 earns $1,050 a year instead of $95 — with the same FDIC insurance.
Read the guide →The whole debate collapses into tax-rate arbitrage: the commutative math proof, when each account wins, and the exceptions — match bucket, backdoor Roth, RMDs, conversion ladders.
Read the guide →The 4% rule explained honestly: where it came from, its real caveats, sequence-of-returns risk, what rate fits a 40-year retirement, and the FIRE variants that don't require going all the way.
Read the guide →Overtime isn't taxed at a higher rate — but your paycheck makes it look that way. A $40/hr worked example: 10 overtime hours gross $600, you keep $422.10 at a 22% marginal rate. Why withholding over-withholds.
Read the guide →$50K through $150K salaries, worked out line by line with 2026 federal brackets, the $16,100 standard deduction, and FICA. Monthly, biweekly, and effective-rate columns included.
Read the guide →Paying $4,000 for a 0.25% rate cut saves $66.12/month and breaks even at 60.5 months. The five-year net is −$33; the ten-year net is +$3,934. Sell before month 61 and the point loses money.
Read the guide →On a $400K home with 10% down, PMI at 0.5% costs $150/month — $14,700 before it can drop at 80% LTV (month 98), or $16,800 if you wait for automatic termination at 78%.
Read the guide →Minimum payments on $10,000 at 22% APR take 115 years and cost $98,419 in interest. Paying $300/month: 52 months and $5,596 interest. Paying $500/month: 26 months and $2,571 interest.
Read the guide →With $2,000 cash and $5,000 in 22% card debt: keeping a $1,000 emergency fund costs $488 in extra interest versus throwing everything at the debt — and the fund still wins. The order of operations.
Read the guide →On a $400K mortgage at 6.75%, paying $1,297.20 every two weeks clears the loan in 23.9 years and saves $126,619 in interest. It's the extra 13th payment doing the work — not magic.
Read the guide →Six salaries, one table: $80K supports ~$273,000, $150K supports ~$541,000 — all under the 28% rule with 20% down at 6.75%/30-year. Plus how the 36% back-end rule shrinks your number.
Read the guide →A 5% raise on $100K is $5,000 gross — but take-home rises only $3,517.50. Why raises shrink (marginal tax + FICA), the full table at $60K–$150K, and what you actually keep.
Read the guide →Minimum payments on $20,000 at 22% APR take ~125 years and cost $171,204 in interest. Paying $1,000/month clears it in 26 months. Full tables for $20K and $30K balances.
Read the guide →A 3% fee on $7,000 is $210 — but skipping 18 months of 24% APR saves $1,699 in interest, for $1,489 net. Break-even tables at $3K–$10K across 12–21 month promos, plus when transfers fail.
Read the guide →Refinancing $400K from 7% to 6% saves $263/month — $3,156 a year, $94,683 in lifetime interest. Savings tables at $300K–$500K, plus closing-cost breakeven math.
Read the guide →The 2025–2028 tip deduction lets tipped workers deduct up to $25,000 a year. A server with $12K in tips saves $1,440; a bartender with $22K saves $3,990. Who qualifies, worked examples, and the catches.
Read the guide →Every guide pairs with free calculators that run the actual numbers:
Last updated: September 28, 2026