WEBSITES:
http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools CNN-Money Calculators
http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/costofliving/costofliving.html
http://realestate.yahoo.com/calculators Yahoo Real Estate Calculators
http://www.bloomberg.com/invest/calculators/ Bloomberg Calculators
http://finance.yahoo.com/calculator/index Yahoo Finance Calculators
http://www.fidelity.com/MyPlan Retirement Calculator from Fidelity

Several years ago I was considering refinancing my home as interest rates had dropped to below the rate I was paying on my mortgage. Using a pocket calculator and a finance book, it took some time and effort to determine whether or not refinancing was a good deal and would save me money in the long run. Now that I am approaching retirement age, I would like to have some indication of what I can expect to receive at retirement, considering several different scenarios. Fortunately, thanks to the internet and a variety of financial websites that offer free online calculators, it is quite east to find the answer to otherwise complex financial questions.

The cable network CNN has teamed up with Money Magazine to offer a broad selection of calculators online at http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools. The CNN-Money website offers a simple to follow menu that divides the financial calculators into four categories, Real Estate, Retirement, Planning, and Investing. The Real Estate section has several easy to use calculators and other resources that will estimate mortgage payments, calculate if renovations will pay off, a housing affordability utility, and a mortgage refinancing calculator (this is what I needed several years ago). I have personally used some of the Retirement calculators to analyze my current retirement situation, and to review my retirement options.

Among the retirement calculators available from CNN – Money are an early retirement planner, a utility to show the growth of your “nest egg”, calculating a lifetime income, and how much savings and investment will be needed for a comfortable retirement. In the Planning section are several calculators, one of which I have used in my classes to show the students the differences in the cost of living between different cities. One issue we are facing locally is “youth flight” where many of our brightest recent graduates want to leave the area; shocking reality can be displayed by comparing costs in their current home city to the city that they are considering. Using the CNN-Money “Compare the Cost of Living” calculator at http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/costofliving/costofliving.html can display some shocking differences. One of my students is considering relocating and looking for a job in Manhattan and was oblivious to the differences in costs and salaries. She could easily get a local job in Beaumont, Texas, with a starting salary of $30,000. According to the CNN-Money calculator, she would have to earn over $67,000 in New York City to have an equal buying power that the $30,000 would purchase locally. Groceries in NYC will cost about two-thirds more than here, and housing will cost over three and a half times more than here! Other comparisons displayed by the calculator include transportation, utilities, and health care, all of which are much more expensive in NYC than here. This calculator should be used by anyone considering relocating. Other Planning calculators cover such topics as calculating college costs (another eye opener), currency converter, savings calculator, debt reduction planner, student loan calculator, and several other planning resources.

Many of us like to play our hand at investing, and the CNN-Money Investing calculators can provide some valuable insights. Topics covered include asset allocation, employee stock option calculator, and several others.

The popular portal Yahoo! offers a large selection of financial calculators. The real estate calculators are online at http://realestate.yahoo.com/calculators. Yahoo! Real Estate Calculators offers about two dozen calculators, the top five most popular (according to Yahoo!) are the comprehensive mortgage calculator, “How much house can I afford?”, “Should I rent or buy?”, a mortgage refinance calculator (just what I needed), and “How do closing costs impact my interest rate?” The Yahoo! real estate calculators would be very appropriate for anyone considering purchasing or owning a home, or renting a residence. If information is power, then users of these calculators will be very powerful indeed.

Yahoo! Finance Calculators offers what is arguably the most comprehensive selection of financial calculators online, with over 100 available, and can be found online at http://finance.yahoo.com/calculator/index . The five most popular, according to Yahoo! are the comprehensive mortgage calculator, “How much am I spending?”, “How will payroll adjustments affect my paycheck?”, “How much will college cost?”, and “How much will I need to save for retirement?” The calculators can be selected off a menu divided into a variety of topics, including Banking and Budgeting, Career and Work, College and Education, Family and Home, Insurance, Loans, Real Estate, Retirement, and Taxes. With over 100 to choose from, there will very likely be some calculators of interest to all. One of the most interesting calculators for me was the “Social Security Retirement Income Estimator”; it showed that despite decades of work for my wife and me, our combined Social Security benefit will only cover about a third of our necessary retirement income. I am glad that I have another retirement plan, but the calculator also clearly shows that no one should count on Social Security as their sole source of retirement income.

Another cable channel and financial resource, Bloomberg, also offers a comprehensive list of financial calculators online at http://www.bloomberg.com/invest/calculators/. Bloomberg offers nearly 50 free financial calculators covering such topics as Auto, Currency, Investment, Mortgage, Retirement, and Savings and Loan. The Auto section includes, Auto Loan Early Payoff, Rebates vs. Low Interest Financing, Home Equity vs. Auto Loan, and Lease vs. Buy. These few calculators exemplify the consumerist approach of the dozens of other calculators at Bloomberg, many of which are not included on the other websites.

There are probably thousands of other financial calculators online, but one that I use occasionally in my classes is the interactive retirement calculator from Fidelity at http://www.fidelity.com/MyPlan. This animated retirement calculator includes both audio and visual instructions, and only asks a handful of simple questions to visually display possible retirement outcomes, and includes calculations for social security, inflation, different rates of return, and other variables. The graphic display shows the estimated value of retirement investments if the market does poorly, and the market does average. By using sliders on the right side of the display, the user can change variables, and watch how those changes will impact potential retirement outcomes. The key variables that can be adjusted by slider are time (retirement age), money (monthly investments for retirement), and investment style (short term safe investments to very aggressive and high risk investments). Changing any one of the variables by sliding the indicator will change the graphic, clearly demonstrating the value of different choices. I have found this MyPlan one of the best retirement calculators on the web in that it both takes into account a wide variety of variables, but also displays the potential results in the clearest fashion. This would be a great calculator just to play with, and see what may happen at retirement.

Free online calculators may be an excellent tool to help make difficult financial choices easier, and give insight into our contemporary and future financial situation and condition. Try some of them; they will likely provide some valuable information.

Click here to return to top