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 damn handy 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? Then please 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.
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 – fund research
Trustnet tool box – Good for charting, fund comparison, and portfolio tracking, plus there’s a (patchy) portfolio scanner / X-ray device.
ETF table – Superb ETF finder. Customise until your heart’s content.
Fund screener 1 – Find the fund of your dreams by type, TER, manager…
Fund screener 2 – Enables you to specifically search for tracker funds.
ETF screener – Same again, but for ETFs.
Investment Trust screener – Same again, but for ITs.
Fund quick rank – Amusingly named easy-to-use variant of a fund screener.
ETF quick rank – Same again but for ETFs.
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).
Fund cost comparison calculator – simple – Pit the initial charges and OCFs of two funds against each other.
Fund cost comparison calculator – sophisticated – Smoke out every last expense that assails you with the True & Fair Campaign’s cost calc.
