What The Ledger is
The Ledger is a small, free set of financial calculators. There are six of them, covering debt payoff, savings growth, take-home pay, and mortgage affordability. They're free to use, require no account, and work instantly in your browser.
The site exists because most financial calculators online answer half a question. They'll show a monthly payment but not the total cost. They'll project savings growth but skip inflation entirely. They'll tell you the maximum mortgage you qualify for without mentioning that qualifying and affording are different things.
How the calculations work
Every calculator runs entirely in your browser using plain JavaScript. Nothing is sent to a server. If you disconnect from the internet after the page loads, the tools still work.
Where possible, the calculators simulate month by month rather than applying a single closed-form formula. That's slower but more honest — it correctly handles things like extra payments, shrinking credit card minimums, and debts being cleared in sequence, all of which simple formulas get wrong.
Where the tax figures come from
The take-home pay calculator uses 2026 federal income tax brackets and standard deductions from IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32, and Social Security and Medicare rates and wage limits from the Social Security Administration's 2026 figures. These are stated on the calculator page itself so you can verify them.
Where numbers are estimates
Interest rates, investment returns, property tax rates, and insurance costs are inputs you provide, not figures we look up. The calculators are only as accurate as what you enter, and each page lists the assumptions it makes.
What these tools deliberately don't do
- They don't give advice. They calculate. Whether paying off a loan early is right for you depends on things a calculator can't see.
- They don't cover everything. Each page lists its exclusions — PMI and closing costs on the mortgage tool, tax credits on the take-home tool, inflation on the savings tool.
- They don't ask for your details. No email, no account, no lead capture, no selling your information to lenders.
An honest caveat
This is an independent site, not a licensed financial service. The calculations have been checked, but software has bugs and tax rules change. For anything with real money at stake — a mortgage application, a tax filing, a retirement decision — treat the output here as a starting point for a conversation with a qualified professional, not as a final answer.
If you spot an error in a calculation, it's worth reporting. Getting the numbers right matters more than looking authoritative.
How the site is funded
The Ledger displays advertising. That's what keeps the tools free and unlocked. Advertisers have no influence over the calculations, the assumptions, or what the pages say — including when a page says something an advertiser might prefer it didn't.
Contact
Questions, corrections, or a calculator you'd like to see? Email contact@theledgertools.com.
Corrections are genuinely welcome. If a number here is wrong, it's worth knowing about — see the privacy policy for how data requests are handled.