Our Best Personal Finance Calculators For Helping You Reach Your Financial Goals

Financial decisions are important for your future. Any monetary change, investment or purchase you make can potentially affect your financial standing for the foreseeable future, so give careful consideration before making final decisions. Luckily, there are calculators devoted to many common financial scenarios that can help you through the decision process. These include loan calculators, savings calculators, and net worth calculators, among others.

Each calculator functions under the same premise: enter in the requested financial data, change certain parameters that relate to you and then receive a forecasted number. These calculators assist users by performing financial functions commonly needed in business and commerce, so you don’t have to do the math yourself. We’ve also included some articles to supplement calculator use and provide frameworks for understanding different aspects of your financial picture.

To help you get started, we compiled a list of the most useful financial resources and calculators on Rocket HQ^SM.

Personal Finance Calculators

The first type of financial calculators is personal finance calculators. One of the most important ways that you can manage your finances is to be aware of how your decisions impact your longer-term finances. Here are a few financial calculators and resources that can help with that:

• Net Income Calculator: This can help you calculate the difference between your gross pay and net income.
• Net Worth Calculator: A net worth calculator helps you know how to calculate your total net worth and your liquid net worth, and why it's important.
• Liquid Net Worth: What It Is And Why It Matters: Liquid net worth is specifically the value of assets that can be converted to cash quickly, minus your liabilities.
• Personal Budget: What Is It And Why Do I Need One?: This article takes you through how to make a monthly budget for yourself.
• Creating A Budget That Works: Having a budget is one of the best things you can do to have a solid financial future.
• Emergency Fund: What It Is And How To Build One: An emergency fund is an important first step in planning your financial future.

Savings And Retirement Calculators

Rocket HQ offers several savings and retirement calculators (including a budget calculator) where you can enter in your income, age and other factors to forecast retirement options. These calculators can answer questions like:

• What do you need to save?
• How fast will your savings grow?
• How much will you need?
• Can you retire early?

With the assistance of these calculators, you can see how your current retirement fund is doing and how much more you should invest. There are also a few worksheet-type articles linked below to help you work through your unique financial situation:

• Savings Calculator: This calculator shows how changes to your savings strategy can affect your long-term financial future.
• Retirement Calculator: Small changes to your retirement savings (especially when you're young) can have a big impact.
• Compound Interest Calculator: This shows the power of compound interest and encourages you to start saving early.
• The 50/30/20 Budget: The 50/30/20 budget is a technique that helps you allocate how much of your budget goes to needs, wants and savings.
• How To Save Money With A High Interest Savings Account: A high-interest savings account is an important part of allocating where your money goes.
• What Is A Traditional IRA?: A traditional IRA and a Roth IRA are two common ways to save for retirement.
• What Is A 401(k)?: A 401(k) plan is another way to save for retirement.
• What’s The Difference Between An IRA And A 401(k)?: Both of these types of accounts help you save for retirement, but they differ in some key areas.
• 6 Surprising Costs To Prepare For When Planning Retirement: This can help you avoid some pitfalls of retirement savings.

Debt-To-Income (DTI) Ratio Calculators

Your debt-to-income ratio is an important calculation that can affect many financial aspects of your life, like qualifying for a mortgage. If you have too much debt compared to your income, that can make it difficult to have enough money to live comfortably. You might also find it challenging to not get in even more debt.

If you currently have significant credit card debt and are in the process of making long term financial plans, then you might want to use a debt calculator. When using a debt calculator or debt consolidation calculator, you enter your credit card balances and interest rates. Then, either put in the amount you’re able to pay each month and the payment calculator will tell you how long that will take, or you can enter how many months in which you want to be debt-free and the calculator will give you a minimum monthly payment.

• Debt-To-Income (DTI) Calculator: Steps for how to calculate your debt-to-income (DTI) ratio.
• How To Pay Off Debt Fast: Strategies to help you get out of debt quickly.
• What Is Debt Consolidation?: A debt consolidation can work if you have significant
• Making The Debt Snowball Method Work For You: The debt snowball is one technique to pay off your debt.

Personal Loan Calculators

One option to help manage your budget and debt might be a personal loan. A personal loan is a loan that can help you take care of debt consolidation or other short-term expenses. Personal loans can be a valuable way to pay medical bills, debts or other expenses instead of putting them on a credit card. When you are looking for a personal loan, you'll want to make sure to compare the interest rate and other terms to find the best loan payment for you.

• What Is A Personal Loan?: This can help give you more information about what personal loans are and when they're a good idea.
• Long-Term Personal Loans: While most personal loans are for shorter terms, sometimes a longer-term personal loan makes the most sense.
• Annual Percentage Rate (APR) Calculator: An APR calculator shows you how the APR is calculated.
• What Is APR, And Why Does It Matter?: If you're not sure what APR is, this is a good resource to understand its importance.

The Bottom Line: Start Calculating Your Future Today

Understanding your finances is an important step in improving your overall financial health. When you don't understand, measure and manage your finances, it's hard to make any progress toward your goals. Using this suite of resources and financial calculators can help you on your journey. If you are budgeting for a down payment on a new home, you can calculate how much home you can afford. But no matter what you're saving up for, these financial calculators can help you take the next step.