Free · Private · 34 tools
Understand your money, not just your numbers.
Visual Finances is a free collection of interactive financial calculators paired with plain-English articles that explain the math behind them. Everything runs entirely in your browser — your numbers never leave your device.
Index
Popular calculators
These tools cover the financial decisions most people face: building wealth over time, buying a home, paying off debt, planning for retirement, and understanding what you actually pay in taxes.
- 01 Compound Interest See how a starting balance and monthly contributions grow over time.
- 02 Mortgage Full monthly payment — taxes, insurance, HOA, PMI — plus closing costs and the interest split.
- 03 Retirement / FIRE Project your path to financial independence and see when income covers expenses.
- 04 Debt Payoff Compare snowball vs. avalanche strategies across all your debts.
- 05 401k vs Roth See which wins on an after-tax basis based on your current and future tax rates.
- 06 Effective Tax Rate See exactly how much of a raise actually gets taxed — and why your effective rate is always below your marginal bracket.
No incentives
Why Visual Finances?
Most financial calculators online exist to generate leads for financial products. Visual Finances has no such incentive — no affiliate commissions, no product recommendations, no accounts to create. The only revenue is display advertising, which pays whether you invest in an index fund or a savings account or nothing at all.
Each calculator is designed to build intuition, not just output a number. Seeing your 30-year mortgage interest shrink in real time as you drag the extra-payment slider teaches something that no static "pay an extra $100/month to save $X" article can. The visualizations are built specifically for each calculator — a compound interest chart looks different from a debt payoff waterfall for a reason.
All content is written for educational purposes and reviewed against primary sources including the IRS, Social Security Administration, and peer-reviewed financial literature. Nothing here is financial advice — for decisions that affect real money, consult a licensed professional who knows your situation.
Coverage
What the calculators cover
- Saving & investing
- Compound interest growth, savings goal timelines, inflation impact, cost-of-waiting comparisons, dollar-cost averaging vs. lump-sum investing, I-bond returns, and net worth snapshots.
- Retirement & financial independence
- Retirement projection with FIRE milestone, safe withdrawal rate stress-testing, 401k vs. Roth comparison, HSA triple-tax math, mega backdoor Roth planning, Roth conversion ladders, FI number calculator, and Social Security break-even analysis.
- Borrowing & debt
- Mortgage amortization with extra payments, mortgage payoff vs. investing comparison, debt payoff with snowball and avalanche strategies, and student loan payoff timelines.
- Income & compensation
- Paycheck breakdown, effective vs. marginal tax rate, inflation-adjusted salary comparison, real hourly wage (after commute and work expenses), RSU vs. salary value, ESPP ROI, and AMT exposure.
- Spending & major purchases
- Rent vs. buy break-even analysis, home affordability by income, true cost of car ownership, car lease vs. buy comparison, and the cost of raising a child by age range.