Like me, you’ve probably amassed a sizeable collection of financial calculators to help you plan your investments, savings, and retirement.
And if – again like me – you suffer in silence from scatterbrain syndrome, then those handy little resources will be splattered around your browser like a Jackson Pollock study in bookmarks.
In an attempt to bring order to the chaos and neatly array a set of investing resources for the Monevator community, I’ve created this handy calculators and tools resource page.
Have I missed out your favourite? Is it truly worthy? Tell us about it in the comments section and I’ll add it to the list.
My main selection criteria:
- Free – Critically important! Though you may have to sign-up with an email.
- Ease-of-use – Not many financial calculators benefit from Apple quality design aesthetics, but the closer we can get to that ideal the better.
- Range – I’ve trawled for tools that cover the gamut of investing concerns, from yield curves to life expectancy.
- UK orientated – Where possible I’ve plumped for UK calculators, because Monevator is primarily a UK site. However the US is the home of the financial calculator, and I’ve sprinkled in a few Stateside tools where a UK alternative isn’t available.
- Passive orientated – I advocate passive investing and my choices support that investing strategy.
Accuracy is the other important thing to be mindful of when using a financial calculator, tool, or similar resource.
It’s impossible for me to vouch for the fidelity of any dataset, so using these calculators is your responsibility. Many come courtesy of household names like the Bank of England, Morningstar, and Vanguard, but still… Make sure you check their assumptions, and use any outcomes as a guide only, not a dead cert.
Enough of the qualifiers, on with the tools…
The one-stop shop
Financial calculators 1 – An excellent set of saving, investing, and retirement calculators covering a broad range of scenarios. From Candid Money.
Financial calculators 2 – Same again. Superb tools from Dinky Town.
Financial calculators 3 – The answer to every conceivable financial maths problem you might have. Courtesy of Calculator Soup.
Financial calculators 4 – Courtesy of the UK giant that is ThisIsMoney.
Financial calculators 5 – Too much choice? Sorry, but the UK’s Money Advice Service is so good you could send your grandma there.
Saving
Budget planner – Money Saving Expert’s brilliant poke into the hidden corners of personal expenditure.
The Demotivator – The stark cost of buying tat, as measured in lost income and days of your life.
UK inflation calculator – Who better to ask than the Bank of England?
Future inflation calculator – Watch inflation eat your savings.
Personal inflation calculator – How vulnerable are you to the money muncher?
Investing – cost and product comparison
Trustnet tool box – Good for charting, fund comparison, and portfolio tracking, plus there’s a (patchy) portfolio scanner / X-ray device.
Fund cost comparison calculator – quick – Pit the initial charges and OCFs of two funds against each other.
Fund cost comparison calculator – detailed – Smoke out every last expense that assails you with the True & Fair Campaign’s cost calc.
Effect of expenses on your investment – The classic calculation you get from any financial service provider, but in easy-to-digest graph form.
Investing – fund research
Fund screener – Find the fund of your dreams by type, TER, manager…
Fund quick rank – Amusingly named easy-to-use variant of a fund screener.
Fund comparison – Spot the difference game for up to five funds. Compare returns, asset allocation, sector breakdown, yadda yadda.
Fund comparison for trackers – Useful index fund comparison tables. This is Hargreaves Lansdown, so doesn’t necessarily offer a whole-of-the-market view. Also see TD Direct’s version (set the drop down on the right to tracker funds).
Investing – ETF research
ETF table – Superb ETF finder. Customise until your heart’s content.
justETF website – Becoming the first port of call for the UK’s ETF fans.
ETF screener – Information overload begone.
ETF comparison – Beauty contest for your ETF shortlist. Sign-up required then go to Fund Comparison.
ETF quick rank – Like the screener but quicker.
London Stock Exchange ETF prices – Track prices, NAVs, volumes, and estimate liquidity.
Investing – investment trust research
Investment Trust screener – Same again, but for ITs.
Investment Trusts for retirement income – As selected by Monevator’s very own grizzled veteran, Greybeard.
Investment Trust stats – Useful for comparing ITs.
Investing – financial goals
Investment goal calculator – How much in pounds or time you’ll need to invest to reach your targets (click on assumptions to set the level of growth).
Compound interest calculator – Monevator’s calculator of dreams, see how the money grows.
Who wants to be millionaire calculator – The Investor does, and he designed this calculator so he can work out how long it will take him.
Investing – asset allocation
Asset allocation historical returns – Discover how various asset allocations have affected UK returns (give it a few seconds to load the graph). Also click on the grid icon for a more useful display.
Historical rate of return by asset class – 80 years worth of returns data neatly marshaled into interactive graphs. This is US-orientated but should also prove useful to other developed world investors. Also take a look at Fintelapps’ saving, mortgage and net worth calculators.
Best performers – Check out which asset classes and sub-classes are hot! For all you performance chasers momentum capturers out there.
Asset correlation matrix – Quick and easy snapshot of the invisible strings tying major asset classes together.
Bonds vs Equities – Vanguard Target Retirement funds (US) reveal Vanguard’s take on appropriate bond allocations based upon age. (Click on the colour bar that’s closest to your age and scroll down to see the asset allocations.
Lazy portfolio backtesting tool – Epic spreadsheet comparing US historical returns for various portfolios. Even has its own Boglehead discussion thread.
Asset allocation calculator – Fun to play with and a friendly introduction to asset allocation ideas. However these tools should be treated as a vague guide only.
Asset allocation calculator 2 – Similar idea to the above, but more comprehensive. Use it as a starting point for research rather than an endgame.
Investing – risk tolerance
The panic calculator – How much losing your head during a bear market would have cost you.
Investment recovery calculator – How long will it take your portfolio to recover from a crash? A good way to think about risk tolerance.
Risk tolerance questionnaire 1 – About as deep as a Cosmo quiz, but it at least it gives you a place to start – don’t take it too seriously.
Risk tolerance questionnaire 2 – The widely respected Finametrica test as used by good financial advisors. It’s free in exchange for your email address.
Investing – broker research
UK broker comparison table – Monevator’s very own market-leading table to help you choose the right broker / platform / fund supermarket.
International broker comparison table – UK brokers that enable you to invest in foreign equities and ETFs as researched by the unstoppable International Investor.
Investing – portfolio tracking
Portfolio tracker – deep – The sanity preserving alternative to plotting every trade on a spreadsheet (marvelous detail if you click this link, btw).
Portfolio tracker – pretty – Not as deep as the one above but lovely to look at. Choose if you’re shallow (joke).
Portfolio tracker – Bogleheads – It’s a Google Docs spreadsheet. Only you can know if that makes you happy or sad. Comes with a Boglehead support line. Okay, thread.
Portfolio tracker – Stocks – A spreadsheet that’ll be eerily reminiscent of the ‘All work no play’ moment in The Shining for some. Needs converting from US focus.
Annualised return calculator – quick – A fast and loose reveal of the ugly truth about your returns. The excellent Money Chimp presides.
Annualised return calculator – not-so-quick – Wants a bit more effort for more accurate results. Can’t say fairer than that.
Annualised return calculator – detailed – Ooh, get you with your high maintenance Diva demands. It’s a spreadsheet calc with all the joy of sexy detail that implies. Hit the Rate of Return Calculator link to download the spreadsheet.
Investing – market valuations
Global stock market valuations – At-a-glance world map of PE, CAPE, PB and more valuations of world stock markets. Updated annually.
UK long-term PE – PE 10 for the FTSE All-Share.
UK PE ratios – Covers the major FTSE indices. Handy for valuing the market.
PE ratios by country – Scroll down to Download Data. From the drop-downs select ‘Equities’, then ‘Ratios – Yield and P/E by Country’, then your date, and Alakazam!
The Shiller PE Ratio – PE 10 for the S&P 500.
Investing – market returns
Global investment returns – Go here. Download the latest Credit Suisse Global Investment Returns Yearbook. Check out historical returns for the UK, US, the world and many other major countries in between.
FTSE market data – A deep, deep data mine for the UK and the rest of the world covering equities, bonds, commodities, currencies. All hail the FT.
US equity returns – Excellent US historical performance tool. Enables you to compare real returns along with P/E valuations.
Investing – expected market returns
Global market forecast – Brave because they’re going to be wrong. 10-year forecast by asset class, country and portfolio. Includes volatility and correlation predictions. Amazing but use with extreme caution.
Global stock market forecast – Similar to above but 15-year forecast for equities only. Forecasts by country based on CAPE valuations. Same health warnings apply.
US and world market forecast – Same idea again but 30-year forecast. Scroll down for table. Take with a sack of salt, but can help with planning.
Investing – other
US financial calculators – You lucky Americans. You have the best selection of free investing tools in the world, as diligently collected by the Bogleheads.
Bonds
Interest rate changes – What they’ll do to your bonds.
Yield calculator – Work out the yield-to-maturity and running yield for conventional fixed-coupon bonds.
Bond price calculator – Um, work out the price of your bond.
UK Government bond yields – Check out the gilt yield curve, plus interest rates on all your fave benchmark bonds.
Bank of England yield curve estimates – The venerable central bank sticks its finger in the air on interest rates and inflation.
Bond prices and yields – For individual UK gilts. From the incomparable Fixed Income Investor.
Gilt HQ – An excellent resource from the UK’s Debt Management Office.
Retirement – income calculators
Retirement income calculator – How many pennies you’ll have to rub together when you retire.
The best retirement income calculators – As highly recommended by expert US retirement blogger, Darrow Kirkpatrick.
Contribution increase calculator – How much more you could spend in retirement for a small increase in your pension contributions.
State Pension forecast – You never know, it may still exist when you retire.
Retirement spending calculator – A fun way to think about how much income you’ll need in retirement.
Annuity rate comparison – From the excellent Money Advice Service.
Retirement income dashboard – From Professor of Retirement, Wade Pfau. US-based.
Retirement – withdrawal rates
Retirement Monte Carlo sim 1 – You can retire? Great. How long will your funds last?
Retirement Monte Carlo sim 2 – Same again, in case you didn’t like the first answer.
Retirement withdrawal calculator – How much you’ll be able to large it in your dotage, depending on withdrawal rate.
Dynamic withdrawal rate calculator – Adjust your withdrawal rate according to investment performance to avoid running out of money. Superb!
The probability of ruin calculator – With a name like that how can you refuse? From the great Moshe Milevsky.
Income drawdown calculator – Don’t spend it all at once!
Retirement – life expectancy
Life expectancy calculator – quick – It reckons I’ve got until age 87. If I’m average. I’ve got to be above-average at something, right? UK-centric.
Life expectancy calculator – not-so-quick – I like this more. It says I’ll plough on until 92. US-based. Wish I lived in the US. Is it too late to emigrate?
Life expectancy calculator – detailed – Holy Coffin Nails! This gives me 84.32 years. It’s all flashing by so fast. At least I’ve got the 0.32. They’ll never take that away from me. US-based. Cancel the green card.
Longevity calculator – The average life expectancy for you and a significant other. Handy for working out how long your pension funds will need to last. US-based.
Early retirement
Early retirement calculator – Calculate the savings rate you need to check out in less than 10 years.
Unpaid overtime calculator – See how much you’re being stiffed by ‘The Man’.
Tax
UK income tax calculator – quick – Simpler, if the other one makes you sleepy.
UK income tax calculator – detailed – Wail, gnash, moan, but at least we’re not Greece. Listentotaxman is also very good.
Tax code calculator – Sigh.
Capital gains tax calculator – Snore.
Property
Mortgage rate calculator – Comprehensive suite of mortgage number-crunchers.
Mortgage calculators – From stamp duty through negative equity to interest rate movements. Scroll down to find ’em.
Mortgage repayment calculator – How much you’ll save by overpaying, courtesy of Monevator.
Buying or renting: US – Which is best? A nifty New York Times calculator that’s convertible to the UK.
Buying or renting: UK – A very simple UK effort. Probably too simple.
And finally…
The global rich list – Where do you stand in the world’s Top Seven Billion? Irresistible.
If you discover any broken links then please holler in the comments. Hopefully we can grow this list over time into an indispensable community resource, so do let us know about your own favourite financial calculators and tools.
Take it steady,
The Accumulator
