Money Tools
Calculators and simulators for the big money decisions: where to live, which job to take, whether to buy, whether college pays, and whether to get married. Real tax law and real data, plus a few jokes. Not financial advice.
Where to live
- Tax Map Every tax in every US state and county, adjusted for cost of living. Find out where your paycheck goes furthest.
- Global Tax Map Thinking about moving abroad? Compare 70+ countries against staying put, including the US tax that follows you anyway.
- Rent vs. Buy Every cost of owning, down to the new roof, against renting and investing the difference. See the year buying breaks even, if it ever does.
- Car vs. No Car New, used, leased or electric against rides, transit and the odd rental, down to the cost per mile. Find the miles a year where owning beats hailing.
- Where Should I Die? The federal estate tax starts at $15 million. Twelve states and DC start as low as $1 million, and five tax your heirs instead. See what gets through, state by state.
Work and equity
- Should I Take the Job? Put up to three offers side by side after taxes, cost of living, and commute. Startup equity gets the haircut it deserves.
- ISO vs. NSO vs. RSU The same grant and the same exit, taxed three different ways. Includes a guided tour of the AMT trap.
- Paper Money Play a founder or early employee through SAFEs, priced rounds, a down round, and an exit, and see what your equity is really worth.
- HSA or PPO? Open enrollment, solved. Premiums after tax, deductibles, the employer's HSA money and the HSA tax break, across every level of medical spending, with the exact point where each plan wins.
Life
- Marriage Penalty Calculator Will saying "I do" raise your taxes? See the penalty or bonus in every state, and how your income split flips it.
- Is College Worth It? Tuition and four years of lost paychecks against a career of higher pay, for 73 majors. See the age a degree pays for itself, if it does.
- Saving for College Fifty years of tuition against inflation, what public, private and Ivy+ will cost when your kid enrolls, and the monthly 529 savings that covers it.
- Can We Afford a Kid? Daycare against the second paycheck after taxes, the salary where staying home breaks even, and what five years out of work really costs.
Worked examples
- What a down round does to an early employee’s options 150,000 options through a SAFE, a bridge note, three priced rounds and a sale, from $1.4M on paper to what a sale actually pays.
- Public RSUs in Manhattan or a seed startup in Austin? Two engineering offers after federal, state and city tax and cost of living, and the odds the startup equity needs to win.
- Renting vs. buying a typical home in Seattle A $760K house against a $3,490 rental for a couple earning $250K, over 30 years, and what it would take for buying to win.