First Job Paycheck Planner
Model how salary, pay frequency, withholding, retirement contributions, and deductions affect estimated take-home pay.
Open prototypeEducational money tools for early adulthood
Tools that teach your first real money decisions.
Financial Intelligence Lab helps young adults learn from assumptions, outputs, plain-language formulas, and limitations through working MVP prototype tools.
Educational onlyBuilt to explain concepts, not prescribe decisions.
Local calculationsNo user inputs are stored or sent.
No ads or affiliate rankingsNo product placement or referral language.
Working MVP prototypes
Educational calculator library
Each prototype is designed to show inputs, outputs, a main takeaway, what drives the result, a plain-English formula, assumptions, limitations, and a feedback path.
Emergency Fund Planner
Turn monthly essential expense assumptions into illustrative one-month, three-month, six-month, and custom coverage scenarios.
Open prototypeSavings Goal Timeline Calculator
Model a savings goal as amount remaining, monthly progress, and estimated timeline using simplified assumptions.
Open prototypeFirst Apartment Cost Planner
Model recurring monthly costs and one-time upfront costs connected to a first-apartment or moving scenario.
Open prototypeCar Ownership Cost Planner
Model monthly and annual car-related costs beyond a car payment.
Open prototypeStudent Loan Impact Calculator
Model how balance, interest rate, repayment term, and an optional extra payment assumption affect repayment structure.
Open prototypePurchasing Power & Real Return Calculator
Compare future nominal value with inflation-adjusted purchasing power under simplified assumptions.
Open prototypeCost of Waiting Calculator
Compare a start-now scenario with a wait scenario to learn how time changes a simplified compounding model.
Open prototypeIncome & Expense Change Calculator
Compare current and new income-and-expense scenarios to see how monthly margin changes.
Open prototypeSubscription Creep Calculator
Add monthly subscription categories and see how the same recurring total repeats across 12 and 60 months.
Open prototypeWho this is for
Built for early adult financial questions
College students approaching graduation
For comparing first-job assumptions, student loan repayment structure, and the monthly realities of a new stage.
Recent graduates
For learning how take-home pay, required payments, emergency expenses, and recurring costs fit together.
First-job young professionals
For understanding taxes, deductions, inflation, compounding, subscriptions, and income-expense changes in plain language.
Learning process
Designed to teach interpretation
The tools are not built to give instructions. They are built to show what a result means, what drives it, and what would change it under different user-entered assumptions.
Model a scenario
Start with a simplified, visible set of assumptions.
Read the result
See the output, the main takeaway, and what is driving the number.
Review assumptions
Learn what is included, what is omitted, and why the result can change.
Trust and boundaries
Designed as education, not advice
Education-only boundary
The site explains concepts and tradeoffs. It does not tell users what to do.
Visible assumptions
Every live tool shows the assumptions that shape each modeled result.
Methodology review
The Sources page identifies public-source categories and source-support status for each tool.
Feedback and error reporting
Users can flag confusing language, unclear assumptions, outdated information, or possible accuracy concerns.
Feedback invitation
Help make the tools clearer
Share feedback on clarity, usefulness, confusing language, assumptions, or possible accuracy concerns. Please do not submit sensitive financial information.
Give feedback