Good News!
If you follow the blog regularly, you know that posts have been a little scarce lately. There are two reasons for that: first is because the blog was getting a facelift (which is hopefully now completed [sorry Chrome users, you might want to use IE or Firefox to view the blog]), second is because I have been devoting considerable time and effort to creating a few new tools for you to use in your quest for financial empowerment.
Rent vs. Buy
Probably the most useful (and by far the most difficult to create!) is the “rent vs buy scenario analyzer”. As past posts have indicated, this is a difficult question to answer broadly for everyone. Well, if you struggle to make this very-important decision, then go to the
downloads page and download the “rent vs buy scenario analyzer”. I have tried to construct this calculator is such a way that it can incorporate nearly all of the variables that enter into a buy vs rent scenario analysis, without complicating it beyond the point of useability. So go ahead and give it a try. All the instructions are included in the spreadsheet.
Debt Snowball
Finally, my debt snowball calculator is complete! I am actually very proud of this particular spreadsheet. I spent MANY hours honing and polishing and perfecting it. You can choose from one of several methods for determining which debt to pay off first. Just enter your debts, then select the method that works the best for you. It will tell you how many months each debt will take to pay off, the total time it will take to get out of debt, and what your savings account will look like if you continue to invest what you used to pay towards your debts. Instructions included.
Retirement Accounts
The next new tool is designed to help you determine if it would be more profitable to invest in a Roth-type of retirement account, or in a non-Roth account. Enter your monthly deposit, current tax rate, and other info and it will estimate your total balance at retirement age. Don’t worry, I even did the research to help you find the tax rates for you! As always, all the instructions for this spreadsheet are included in the spreadsheet.
Free Cars
I updated the spreadsheet for the “free car” savings plan Mostly just polish and additional information to make it more user-friendly to improve it’s ease of use. Check it out.