Educational tools

Tools

Each tool is an educational prototype. The tools are designed to show inputs, outputs, assumptions, limitations, and what drives the result. They are not financial advice or individual recommendations.

Tool quality standard

What each prototype is meant to show

Financial Intelligence Lab tools are built to include inputs, outputs, a main takeaway, what drives the result, a scenario comparison or category breakdown, a formula in plain English, what the tool teaches, assumptions, limitations, and a feedback prompt.

MVP Prototype

First job money

First Job Paycheck Planner

Helps users understand why a salary offer is different from take-home pay.

Example inputs: Annual salary, pay frequency, estimated withholding, retirement contribution, benefits deduction, and other deductions.
Educational outputs: Gross pay per paycheck, modeled deductions, estimated take-home pay, monthly take-home estimate, percent kept, and paycheck gap interpretation.
Current status: MVP Prototype.

Open prototype

MVP Prototype

Emergency savings

Emergency Fund Planner

Helps users understand how monthly essential expenses translate into illustrative coverage targets.

Example inputs: Housing, food, transportation, insurance, debt payments, utilities, other essentials, and a custom months assumption.
Educational outputs: Monthly essentials, one-month, three-month, six-month, and custom coverage targets, largest expense driver, and coverage comparison.
Current status: MVP Prototype.

Open prototype

MVP Prototype

Goals and timelines

Savings Goal Timeline Calculator

Helps users understand how a savings goal can be modeled as amount remaining, monthly progress, and estimated timeline.

Example inputs: Goal amount, current amount saved, monthly amount added, optional monthly growth/interest assumption.
Educational outputs: Amount remaining, goal progress, estimated months to goal, estimated years/months, total user-added amount, modeled growth/interest, and final modeled balance.
Current status: MVP Prototype.

Open prototype

MVP Prototype

Housing and moving costs

First Apartment Cost Planner

Helps users model recurring monthly costs and one-time upfront costs connected to a first-apartment or moving scenario.

Example inputs: Monthly take-home pay, rent, utilities, internet/phone, transportation, food/groceries, insurance/health, debt/required payments, subscriptions, other monthly costs, deposits, moving costs, setup costs, and optional current savings comparison.
Educational outputs: Recurring monthly cost, monthly margin, housing/living cost, housing/living share of take-home pay, annualized recurring cost, upfront move-in cost, upfront cost as months of take-home pay, current savings comparison, and largest cost categories.
Current status: MVP Prototype.

Open prototype

MVP Prototype

Transportation costs

Car Ownership Cost Planner

Helps users model monthly and annual car-related costs beyond a car payment.

Example inputs: Monthly take-home pay, car payment, insurance, gas or charging, parking and tolls, maintenance reserve, repair reserve, registration or taxes, and other transportation costs.
Educational outputs: Total monthly car cost, annualized car cost, car cost share of take-home pay, payment vs non-payment cost, maintenance and repair reserve, commute/fuel-related cost, and largest cost category.
Current status: MVP Prototype.

Open prototype

MVP Prototype

Debt and loans

Student Loan Impact Calculator

Helps users understand how balance, interest rate, repayment term, and payment assumptions can affect modeled repayment cost.

Example inputs: Loan balance, interest rate, repayment length, and optional extra monthly payment.
Educational outputs: Estimated monthly payment, total paid, total interest, payoff timeline, and neutral extra-payment scenario comparison.
Current status: MVP Prototype.

Open prototype

MVP Prototype

Inflation and real value

Purchasing Power & Real Return Calculator

Helps users understand how inflation can change the real value of money and how nominal return differs from real return.

Example inputs: Starting amount, years, inflation rate, and nominal return assumption.
Educational outputs: Future nominal value, inflation-adjusted value, purchasing power change, real return estimate, inflation-only cost equivalent, and scenario comparison.
Current status: MVP Prototype.

Open prototype

MVP Prototype

Compounding and time

Cost of Waiting Calculator

Helps users understand how time affects compounding outcomes in a simplified comparison.

Example inputs: Start age, years waited, compare-until age, monthly amount, and example annual return.
Educational outputs: Start-now ending value, wait-scenario ending value, difference between the two, extra amount added, and extra modeled growth difference.
Current status: MVP Prototype.

Open prototype

MVP Prototype

Income and expenses

Income & Expense Change Calculator

Helps users compare a current monthly income-and-expense scenario with a new monthly scenario to see how monthly margin changes.

Example inputs: Current and new monthly take-home pay, current and new expense categories for housing/living, transportation, food/groceries, insurance/health, debt/required payments, subscriptions/memberships, and other recurring expenses.
Educational outputs: Current total expenses, new total expenses, income change, expense change, current margin, new margin, margin change, percent absorbed when income increases, and largest expense category change.
Current status: MVP Prototype.

Open prototype

MVP Prototype

Recurring costs

Subscription Creep Calculator

Helps users understand how recurring monthly subscriptions add up over time.

Example inputs: Monthly amounts for streaming video, music/audio, gaming, apps/software, gym/fitness, cloud/storage, news/learning, and other subscriptions.
Educational outputs: Monthly total, annual total, five-year total, largest category, category share, active category count, and category breakdown.
Current status: MVP Prototype.

Open prototype

Future engagement

Replayable learning games

These are future/stretch ideas and are not part of the current MVP tool library.

First Paycheck Challenge

A future game idea for practicing paycheck assumptions.

Money Myth Quiz

A future quiz idea for plain-language financial concepts.

Inflation Survival Game

A future game idea for learning purchasing power concepts.