In a TED talk I watched recently, Conrad Wolfram of Wolfram Research, mentioned the fact that most of us don’t enjoy math much, because in school we were forced to do it all manually instead of letting computers do the hard ‘calculations’. Math was probably close to, if not the worst subject I endured. I always wondered, “why struggle and sweat over a page full of math ‘problems’ when you can complete the assignment in one tenth the time using a calculator?”. But, I digress. Listed below are what I consider the best financial calculators I use whenever a question with a possible mathematical solution comes to mind. Whether it’s calculating a home mortgage or figuring out how much Uncle Sam will be tapping me on the shoulder for this year, there’s a calculator for every question. Feel free to bookmark this page, you never know when you’ll need quick access to one of these calculators yourself!
The 10 Best Financial Calculators
1. Home Mortgage Calculator
I know there are a lot of bank-run home mortgage calculators out there. But, would you trust a car salesman to tell you how much you could afford to pay for a car? For this reason, I consider Michael Bluejay’s inventions to be the best financial calculators on the web. As wacky as this guy seems, his math and general financial sense is dead-on accurate. Go ahead, take the calculator out for a test drive! And while you’re at it, try not to get lost in the rest of Michael’s ‘interesting’ website. 🙂
2. Electricity Use Calculator
If you were perusing the website where the first calculator can be found, you may have already run across this nifty Electricity Use Calculator. Personally I find the included commentary pretty amusing and far more interesting than most boring looking web-based calculators. Use it to figure out how much ‘juice’ your electrical ‘stuff’ uses. Our biggest electric guzzler? Central AC, of course!
3. Budget Calculator
About.com’s Budget Calculator includes the most frequently used categories found in most household budgets. Everything from college savings and retirement savings to an emergency fund and a vacation stash of cash are included. This is a great introduction to budgeting if you don’t have one already.
4. The Calculate Anything Calculator
This one web page has more calculators than you’ll ever use or even understand! They have two columns of drop down menus of calculators. In other words, oodles of number crunching beautifully computerized functions and algorithms to meet any requirement. If calculations are your thing, this is the site to go to.
5. The Mother of All Calculators
Yes, I’m talking about Wolfram Research’s Wolfram Alpha Calculator. These folks have found a mathematical equation to deal with almost every conceivable problem in our world today. I’m not sure if they’ve figured out a solution to world poverty, but I’m sure it’s on the list somewhere. If you want to try the calculator but are at a loss for what to calculate, have no fear. As soon as you click in the Googlified (not a word) search box, several suggested searches fade into view.
6. Freedom from Debt Calculator
CNN’s When Will I Be Free from Debt? Calculator helps people find out how soon or how long (depending on how cheery your outlook is) you will be free of debt. This might be a depressing calculator to use for some of us. However, better to face the facts and start climbing out of the pit, than put off the inevitable or worse yet, declare bankruptcy.
7. Compound Interest Calculator by Money Chimp
I remember using this calculator back when I was earning 5 and 6 percent on a long term CD (Certificate of Deposit) through my local bank. Those heady days of high returns are long gone, but this calculator is still useful as are the other financial calculators on the site.
8. IRS Withholding Calculator
Nothing’s sure but death and taxes, goes the old maxim. As everyone knows, Uncle Sam (if you’re in the US) gets first dibs on your hard earned greenbacks. Just how much will he take? This calculator from the Internal Revenue Service will help you find out.
9. Retirement Calculator
Unlike most generations before us, Gen Y doesn’t really plan to retire. Some of us will probably end up expatriating or getting involved in ‘alternative’ types of volunteering, mission work or some other non-traditional life activities. Why? For one thing, most of us don’t have much faith that Social Security will still be around for us when we retire. And secondly, as the world becomes flatter, there will be an economic averaging trend as Western countries battle their debt load and developing countries learn to use the research and technology from wealthier countries to give them an economic boost. It’s more complex than that, but in case you want to plan that far in the future, the Financial Mentor’s Retirement Calculator does a pretty good job.
10. HP 12 C Financial Calculator
If you’re an on-the-road salesman/estimator, or financial 101 student or maybe even an accountant (my hat is off to you already), this is THE tool of the trade. This calculator from Hewlett Packard is small enough to fit in a shirt pocket, yet complex enough to crunch numbers effortlessly with over 120 built-in functions including a register-based cash-flow analysis. This calculator is a perennial favorite among MBA students.
What Calculators do YOU use regularly? Share them in the comments below.