Calculators

One page per named rule. Each states what it assumes, runs entirely in your browser, and ends by naming the lever that actually moves your number — including when that lever is not a product we could sell you.

• The Coffee Line The balance at which your savings interest pays for one coffee a month. Below it, the account is storage, not growth.
• The Hurdle Rule Your card's APR is the bar. Check whether what you did with the money last year actually cleared it.
• The Permission Clock How many years the standard advice makes you wait before it permits you to invest — and what the wait costs.

All three come from “The Money Advice That Keeps You Poor” on The Escape Fund. They read their constants from the same file the episode's charts are built from, so a number cannot say one thing on screen and another thing here.