Pretend your financial life starts right now

When using our service, it's optimal to pretend your income/expenses started today and your assets/debts/investments were aquired today at their current values. Trying to start predictions from the past can get exceedingly complicated.

Our service does not automatically apply debts/expenses to asset/investment entries.

Ex. You will buy a car. Our service doesn't know if you will buy the car outright, be gifted the car, or will finance the car. Therefore,

• If you buy the car outright, make a one-time expense entry in addition to the asset entry for the car.
• If you are gifted the car, only add it as an asset. Our service already assumes it was free.
• If you finance the car, make a debt entry in addition to the asset entry for the car.

Our service does not measure specifics, so the entries don't need to be linked in any way. To simulate a one-time expense, look in the expense section.

Negative net worth isn't necessarily bad (for short periods of time)

The majority of recently graduated individuals will likely have a negative net worth while paying off student/car/house loans. During this time, it is important to keep a positive net income to stay afloat with your expenses/debts.

Website Tips:

• You can drag entries with your mouse to re-order them
• Individual sectors in dashboard is used to view each respective entry value at the specified year
• Capital gains isn't applied unless you choose it in 'options' on the dashboard and the investment/asset has a divestment date
• Helpful side tools: Annuity Calculator | Debt Amortization Calculator

Entered assets can be either liquid or non-liquid

Aka you can enter your current funds, cars, houses, etc. as assets.

Currently owned assets should be "bought" today

As mentioned in the General Instructions, it's optimal to pretend you bought your current assets today.

Investments are technically assets, but we separate them

Investments such as stocks act differently than other assets like cars. Thus, we separate them to account for those differences.

Financed/Mortgaged assets are both assets and debts. Enter a debt entry for them as well

(Ex. You are financing a $15,000 car. Enter the car as a $15,000 asset and as a $15,000 debt.)

Up-front paid assets are both assets and expenses. Enter an expense entry for them as well

(Ex. You will buy a $5,000 car in 5 years. Add that as a future asset and as a future one-time expense.)

Downpayments can be represented as so:

(Ex. You put $10,000 down on a $15,000 car. Enter the car as a $15,000 asset, a $10,000 one-time expense, and as a $5,000 debt.)

Assets are magically paid for

If you don't enter an expense or debt entry for them, our service will assume they were a gift.

Asset rates are compounded annually

Houses, cars, etc. will compound appreciate or depreciate annually per the specified rate.

Enter your income after taxes

We only take your post-tax income to mitigate the affect taxes have on our projections.

Current sources should "start" the day you enter them

As mentioned above, it's optimal to pretend your financial life started at this moment. All past incomes should be ignored.

Income raises are compounded annually

This is to simulate how raises are generally calculated. Since inflation innately compounds, so does income. Be careful not to overestimate your raise.

Income deductions

If you are depositing into a 401k (or some equivalent) make an investment entry for that.

Social Security

This can be represented as income which starts when you retire. It is already taken from your current income as tax, so there is no need to represent it as an expense.

Annuities/Pensions

These can be represented as an expense until you retire, and an income that starts at the date of retirement. If these are already taken out of your income (like social security), you don't need to make the expense entry.

Current investments should "start" the day you enter them

As mentioned above, it's optimal to pretend your financial life started at this moment. All past investments should be ignored (since they'd be assets now).

401k or equivalent retirement plans are considered investments

Generally these work the exact same as market index funds but with tax benefits.

Commits to investments are considered expenses

If you look at the expenses pie chart, you might see [Import] in front of an expense name. This means it might have been imported from a commit to an investment.

How to simulate an employer 401k match

Make both an investment (value = 0 and commit = employer match amount) and income record (value = employer match amount) for it. Since all commits are 'expenses' you need to make the income record to offset the expense (since it's technically free money).

Increasing commitments to current Investments.

This can be done by creating another investment entry that starts on the increase date. (value = 0, rate = initial investment %, commit = increase amount). This mathematically mirrors increasing a commit (without actually doing it).

Our system does not deal well with taxes

To make our service universal, we cannot commit to any particular tax laws. Thus, we only allow a flat capital gains tax to selected records in 'Options' on the dashboard.

Remember to pay capital gains taxes on your investments

Here is the current long-term federal capital gains tax rates. Your state also may have their own capital gains rates as well.

Simulate a one-time expense

Enter the expense as starting and ending on the same date.

Simulate a 'step up' in an expense

Make another expense with a similar name for the increased amount.

Expense raises are compounded annually

This is to simulate how raises are generally calculated. Since inflation innately compounds, so do expenses.

Bills are considered expenses

Estimate your average expense per term on each bill.

Maintenance on assets is an expense

Estimate your average maintenance per term on each asset.

Donations to charity are considered an expense

Outgoing sources of currency including charity are expenses.

Commits to debts are considered expenses

If you look at the expense pie chart, you might see [Import] in front of an expense name. This means it might have been imported from a commit to a debt.

Financed/Mortgaged assets are both debts and assets. Enter an asset entry for them as well

(Ex. You are financing a $15,000 car. Enter the car as a $15,000 asset, then add a $15,000 debt with the financed interest rate.)

Increasing the commit amount to a debt is currently not possible

At the current time, it cannot be done or mirrored in a way I can think of. Perhaps this can be added in the future.

What if your debt situation is shown to be unresolvable?

We encourage you to seek financial help from a professional immediately.

What compound period should you choose?

It depends on the debt. Student loans typically compound daily while credit cards tend to compound monthly. Look up what the term on your debt is.