Saving & Goals
Life Insurance for a Stay-at-Home Parent: Size It Honestly
Skip the $185k mom-salary headline. Price the services a family would actually buy, about $64,000 a year at sourced rates, and insure that number.
Saving & Goals
Saving & Goals
The One-Income Test Every Couple Should Run Once a Year
Most emergency-fund math assumes all income stops at once. For couples, the real risk is one paycheck stopping. Here is the 5-minute test.
Saving & Goals
Save Half Your Raise: The Rule That Beats Lifestyle Creep
A $5,000 raise is about $292 a month after the marginal tax haircut. Splitting it 50/30/20 builds six figures by retirement without feeling poorer.
Saving & Goals
Wedding or Down Payment: What 40,000 Dollars Really Buys
A 40,000 dollar wedding invested at 7 percent is about 304,000 dollars in 30 years. How to weigh the day against the house, with honest math.
Saving & Goals
CD or High-Yield Savings? When Locking Your Rate Actually Wins
A CD beats a high-yield savings account only when you can leave the money alone and rates are falling. The lock decision, the penalty math, and the ladder.
Saving & Goals
How Much Should You Save for College? The 529 Math by Starting Age
The 529 monthly target by starting age: $643 at birth vs $2,312 at 14 for the same school. Coverage goals, tuition inflation, and the Roth escape hatch.
Saving & Goals
Save or Invest? A Five-Year Rule That Settles Most of It
Money you need within about five years belongs in savings; money with a longer runway belongs invested. The horizon rule, the math, and the exceptions.
Saving & Goals
Layoff Runway: How Long Your Money Actually Lasts
How to compute your runway after a layoff from savings, severance, and unemployment benefits, the date pressure that creates, and what actually extends it.
Saving & Goals
How Much Should You Have in an Emergency Fund?
How to size an emergency fund in months of essential expenses, where to keep it, and how to build one even while paying down debt, with a worked example.
Saving & Goals
Inflation, Explained: What a Dollar Really Buys Over Time
How inflation quietly erodes the value of money, how the CPI measures it, and what decades of price increases do to a dollar, with real BLS numbers.
Related calculators
Inflation Calculator (CPI) Convert a dollar amount between years using official BLS CPI-U data, or project its future buying power at an assumed inflation rate. High-Yield Savings (APY) Project a high-yield savings balance from a quoted APY, a starting balance, and monthly deposits, and see why compounding frequency does not change the yield. Emergency Fund Find how large your emergency fund should be from your essential monthly expenses, see how many months your current savings cover, and the gap left to close. Layoff Runway See how many months your savings last after a layoff from essential spending, severance weeks, unemployment benefits, and side income, plus what extends it. HSA Project an HSA balance with the 2026 limits ($4,400 self-only, $8,750 family): tax savings now, tax-free growth, and the balance at any horizon. 529 College Savings Project a 529 balance against the future cost of college: tuition inflation, coverage percent, the shortfall, and the monthly contribution that would fund it. CD See what a certificate of deposit earns: enter the deposit, APY, and term to get the ending balance, total interest, and month-by-month growth. Savings Project a savings balance from a starting amount, monthly deposits, and your account's APY: the ending balance, deposits, and interest earned, year by year. Life Insurance Needs Size life insurance with the DIME method: debts, income replacement, mortgage, and education, minus the coverage and savings you already have. 50/30/20 Budget Split your monthly take-home pay by the 50/30/20 rule (needs, wants, saving and debt payoff) and compare your actual spending against each target. Opportunity Cost See what a big purchase costs in future dollars: the same money invested at your return, in today's dollars too, and against a home down payment. Couples Money Checkup The one-income-loss test for two-income households: months of runway if either paycheck stops, your household savings rate, and an honest verdict band. Pay Raise Splitter Split a raise among lifestyle, investing, and debt, after the marginal tax haircut, and see what each leg builds over 10, 20, and 30 years. Stay-at-Home Parent Cost Price what it would actually cost to replace a stay-at-home parent's work: childcare, housekeeping, meals, driving, and coordination at sourced market rates.